Do you need to add carrots / oil to their feeds?

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Gorgeous George

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Sorry it's me again with another feeding question
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Everyone at the yard i'm at adds carrots and/or apples and cod liver oil to their feeds, I can see that apples / carrots make a nice treat and I hae been adding a carrot to each feed. I wondered if too many carrots would have a detrimental effect on behaviour? Also why the cod liver oil, I assumed feeds had some oil in them, but is it beneficial to add oil and if so does it fizz horses up?
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I will go now before I think of more feed q's to ask!!
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You don't need to add oil of any kind & I wouldn't think George needs it.
Don't fall into the new horse owner trap of adding a bzillion supplements, oil & additives to George's bucket just because everyone else does it, half of them are probably completely unnecessary anyway! lol

Carrots & apples are just a nice crunchy treat in feeds.
Our two have half an apple each every morning & a couple of carrots in their feed at night, so a carrot or two a day won't do George any harm at all!
 
As JAK said adding carrots and apples as succulents in small doses won't hurt. I personally wouldn't use cod liver oil as horses are vegetarians and it obviously comes from fish ( thats my opinion ) Soya, veg or corn oil can be added if weight or coat condition are an issue. If your horse is looking good on what you are already feeding him don't bother
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I really don't want to fall into the trap of feeding all sorts of supplements which was why I asked I guess, so for now I will stick with the hi-fi lite and lo-cal balancer, carrots, grass and hay!!
 
I give Baron the odd carrot as a treat in the summer as they go off so quickly in the heat that I just get a bag from the supermarket, although I do add them every day in the winter when the grass is poor just to give him something fresh. My horse cannot eat apples so I dont feed them.

I add soya oil to his feed to keep the condition on him, I tried all sorts of conditioning feed and had no joy. Then added oil and it worked well so I have kept him on it. I would not add it if I didnt need to though.
 
According to Cairo - a feed without carrots just ain't a feed.
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Our chaps get any veggies scraps apart from onions and spuds and any left over bread in their feeds.

I don't feed oil, but I do give black sunflower seeds and instant linseed which are high in oil.

They normally have a handful of carrots in each am and pm feeds.

If you have a very fizzy or lami animal, then carrots should be avoided.
 
just a note on carrots, your horse will probably thank you for adding a few to his feed !!!

p.s hay contains more sugar than carrots.
 
[ QUOTE ]
just a note on carrots, your horse will probably thank you for adding a few to his feed !!!

p.s hay contains more sugar than carrots.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not when it's soaked it doesn't. I would love to let my good doers have carrots etc but it isn't worth the risk with them being so full of sugar. But for "normal" horses I agree it is a lovely treat!
 
you can have a fantastic shiney horse without oil!
A healthy horse will be shiney, oil or not. Most of our lot hate oil but they all look fantastic.
Moon gets carrots if she's been exceptionally good!
 
Carrots are fine, unless you're feeding huge amounts. They have got sugar in them so obviously you wouldn't want to feed heaps to a fatty for example. But 1 or 2 is certainly fine. When I get a bulk load of carrots, I feed about 4/5 carrots per meal with no problems. But I guess some horses *could* get hyper on the sugar content?

Oil provides slow release energy so doesn't heat them up. I feed soya oil to one of mine as he has sweet itch and generally has a crappy coat in the summer! It makes him nice and shiny, but I dont feed it to any of my others because they wont eat it!
 
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