Dobson & Horrell Leisure Mix

[0ldmare]

I've fed this for a few years, but this year I've noticed that the horse leaves all the pellets. He seems to manage to pick out the flakes, but leaves a little heap of the pellets. I'm amazed he can do it to be honest! I wondered if anyone else had found the same thing?

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

That's why many many people choose to feed a fully pelleted feed rather than a mix, so that the horse gets the whole feed, not just he bits he likes, which are likely to be the higher concentrates/calories, at the expense of the fibre.

 

[0ldmare]

I think if it was all pellets he wouldn't eat any of it! I really just wondered if they had changed the formula as he used to eat it all up, no problem.

I was told that, in general, a mix is higher quality than pellets and that the feed manufacturers put the mushed up bits in the pellets. Anyone know if that's true or just an old wives tale?

 

[LucyPriory]

Oldmare - quality varies by manufacturer - not safe to generalise. The trouble with any bagged product is the inclusion of ingredients which are not well tolerated by proportions of the horse population.

Museli style mixes tend to have molasses or the equivalent in them to keep the dust down. Pellets can have wheatfeed or other cheap ingredients - so it is very important to read the small print (usually found on the tiny white paper label stitched to the bag, which falls off much of the time).

The pellets which your horse is rejecting are usually used in mixes to carry the vits and minerals.

On a separation note - in the days of powder wormer I had a horse which could easily flick out all the powder from her feed.

 

[marmalade76]

I once knew a pony who did exactly the same!

There are usually a few different types of pellets in mixes, does he leave all the pellets or just one type? The pony I mentioned only left one type.

If he is leaving all the pellets, I would worry that he's not getting his vits and mins, as mentioned above, it's usually the pellets that contain them.