Disguising vitamins

Noble

Noble

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With help on here I have revamped my horses diet, he is now on grass nuts (soaked), pink mash, grass chaff and micronised linseed. Up until recently he had this with PE vit/mins and all has been well. Due to postage costs I have swapped to Equimins advance complete, having tried a sample first which he ate, you can probably guess from the title he now thinks I am trying to poison him. I did start at a very low amount and build up over 2 weeks but he hates it, any suggestions welcome. Thank you.
 
Are you using the pellets or the powder?

Mine is a real fusspot and has randomly been known to go off the pellets but was always ok with the powdered option (with agrobs, apparently nothing else quite compares!)
 
Thank you, it's the powder. He will normally eat anything and is never full! Luckily my other horse will eat it as I bought 10kg.
 
If you are feeding your own horse and not in a boarding-they-feed situation:

I mix everything with a bit if 50:50 water & concentrated apple juice. Concentrated Apple juice does not have any added sugar. It only takes about an eighth or quarter cup to get everything to stick together and the horses happily eat the mix:)
 
How weird, my fussy little mare is eating equimins powder just fine on an almost identical diet. I'd be adding some apple juice, or mint cordial to see if that disguised it. Apple juice does have sugar in it, but in the small mounts needed to mix feed its minimal.
 
Mine would eat the pellets but not the powder. However, she generally hates any sort of powder! I find mixing unpalatable things with grass chaff and hedgerow herb mix usually works. If you really mix it, you can leave the feed dry and just add water (mix again) when you need to feed.
 
No additives every really convinced F to eat home-mixed minerals properly (which I suspect were more like the PE offering), we tried a few!
Hence feeding him what he liked (within reason) despite higher ££ because that was better than him wasting it!

I'd wonder how the equivita/equinatural mix might work out cost effective?/worth trying?
 
Anything is worth trying Ester, thank you and I will look into equivita. Big thanks to everyone else, in the meantime I will try the apple juice. Wish me luck with the spring grass on the menu as well......X
 
there is one other (not forageplus) that gets recommended but I can never remember!
The equimins pretty much fitted my forage profile apart from the magnesium which thankfully he's always eaten regardless!
 
mariew said:
Huh? Apple juice has natural sugars, and a relatively large amount of it? Unless it is full of sweeteners.
Click to expand...

I know -- I think the key is they are "natural sugars" :)

The horse in my avatar has been in IR remission since 2015. I have been using the 50:50 water & concentrated Apple juice to mix his supplements since 2016 without issue. He gets insulin level, cortisol level, CBC and a chemistry panel done every Spring. His metabolic blood work has been well within normal range since 2016.

I should qualify my 50:50 water Apple juice mix by saying that may not be safe for every horse with metabolic issues:)

Also, I will stop using Apple juice and switch to plain water by May -- when watermelons are plentiful. My lameness vet told me to chop up watermelon rind and watermelon, and feed it to both horses to cool them down during our hot/steamy long summer season.

There have been human studies showing the citrulline (sp?) in watermelon rind and watermelon helps lower insulin in diabetic people.

I start out chopping up 1/2 cup twice daily per horse. By the time we reach the peak of miserable heat/humidity they are each receiving a full measuring cup twice daily. No diarrhea, no raised insulin the IR horse, it mixes into the supplements very well, and the horses lovelovelove it:)

I live in the SE U.S. Where it stays warm/humid many months. I will feed the watermelon until the stores stop carrying it --- generally sometime in November, then switch back to water:concentrated Apple juice:)
 
If I have an issue with this I give the horse two days with non the add it half a teaspoon at a time over a long period .
The other thing you might try is feeding black salt which has a very strong smell you only need a teaspoon .
 
I had the greatest success, after trying absolutely everything suggested above except peppermint, with Re-leve for a horse which needed calories, and Speedy Mash for one which didn't.
 
Some are pretty resistant to the addition of mint, and apple cider vinegar, and applejuice etc :D. Fussy buggers.
 
I'm having the exact same problem with the equimins powder, my mare will normally eat anything but thinks this is disgusting! I've tried varying amounts and currently I'm able to give her just a tiny amount which I'm going to very gradually build up, thinking of trying apple cider vinegar to help disguise it.
 
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