Does anyone know of any feeds about 15% startch

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sonjafoers

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Hi,

I have been experimenting with feed for my good doer cob x and am looking at starch levels. She has been fed a variety of feeds in the past & has done really well on some of them with higher starch but due to her workload reducing I need a lower starch feed.

I have tried her on Saracen Cooling Mix which is about 20% starch and that really gave her a good energy amount but unfortunately it made her very gassy.

They also do a FibreMix which is 14% starch but they didn't think it would give her enough energy for her workload as it's just a chaff and marketed as a convalescent diet.

I think somewhere between 15-20% starch would be great for her current workload and I'd have no concerns about hindgut problems on that amount.

Apart from Winergy Equilibrium Medium does anyone have any ideas please?

Thank you
 
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Not sure if 15% is high starch or not really.... but if you soak a mugful of pearl barley overnight, then cook it slowly, boiling it in water for a couple of hours, that makes a very substantial starchy addition to a feed! I used to give it to my pony (in the 70s) the day before a show as it seemed to make him suddenly appear to be in tip top condition.
 
horselover522 said:
I think you need to do more reading up about feeding.

Picking a feed on starch content alone is a completely bizarre thing to do.
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But who said the OP is just picking a feed purely on starch content?

For horses in light work, good doers or prone to lami then picking a feed with a low starch content is a very responsible thing to do.
 
Horses do not digest starches effectively.

You would advise a human athlete to eat a lot of sugar.

Energy comes from fitness now feeding. Low starch/High fibre suits a horses digestion much better so they will utelise the feed better
 
Starch levels are important to know because a lot of horses are sensitive to the high levels of starch in cereal based feeds (resulting in various problems like laminitis, tying-up, excitability etc), so if that is the case then looking for a feed that is low in starch is a wise idea.

However, energy (ie calories) do not come from starch alone - you can get energy from fibre, oil, protein etc., so a low starch feed is not necessarily a low energy one!

The Cooling Mix you have been using has a calorie count of 10.9 MJDE/kg so it might be a good idea to look for something with a similar MJDE/kg but lower starch levels. The Fibre Mix you were looking at has a calorie count of 10.3 MJDE/kg so not that different from the Cooling Mix in energy levelsl - it is not actually 'just a chaff' as it contains some cereals in the form of maize and barley, plus peas, soya etc plus added vit/mins.

For a lower starch level (and no barley or maize) you could try Spiller's Response Slow Release Cubes (or Mix). The cubes are 12% starch and 11 MJDE/kg.

However, if your cob is a good doer you may find that feeding the recommended amount of these feeds puts too much weight on, so you could look at feeding a balancer instead. These will give a good dose of vit/mins and protein in a small amount of feed and with not too many calories which could lead to weight gain.
 
I've always looked at feeding as pretty much as much hay as a horse will eat, and anything on top of that is extra - either for when it's very cold (as the horse will lose weight keeping warm) or when you are doing lots of work with him (an hour's hacking a couple of times per week isn't "work").
 
horselover522 said:
Energy comes from fitness now feeding. Low starch/High fibre suits a horses digestion much better so they will utelise the feed better
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energy comes from food, fact, horses can't magic it up just by being fit and as I don't know any green ones I don't think they can use the power of the sun :D.
 
horselover522 said:
I think you need to do more reading up about feeding.

Picking a feed on starch content alone is a completely bizarre thing to do.
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This sort of response is exactly what puts me off this forum.

I do A LOT of research, I have phoned 2 feed companies this morning alone and have clearly also spoken to Saracen as per my original post. What an arrogant, ignorant response.

To the others who replied, thank you. TGM your reply was particularly helpful and I think I will look again at the Saracen products.

I understand completely about DE levels but due to having a gassy issue with the Saracen Cooling Mix I have to be aware of hindgut activity and therefore starch levels too.
 
maggiesmum said:
I wouldn't consider 15% to be particularly low though.
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No it's not maggiesmum but we definately lose oomph when I go onto a really low starch diet, we lack a lot of sparkle on forage only plus a balancer and I've tried low starch diets such as Simple Systems, Pure Feeds etc & it's just throwing money away as my horse is like a wet weekend on them.

I've also looked at the DE v starch level and tried much higher energy mixes with low starch eg Saracen Releve and TopSpec Cool Condition Cubes but it's just the same result.

If I up starch levels ( and not necessarily DE ) I do get a nice amount of energy - hence the request for a 15% ish starch level which seems to work really well for her. Any more and we get a bit gassy and I am then concerned about all the issues that come with feeding excess starch/cereals.

So you see I don't think I need to read up more about feeds and I don't think my post was bizarre, I just need to pick some well informed, sensible brains :D

There's been some suggestions here I hadn't thought about so thank you, I'll be taking a look.
 
sonjafoers said:
I don't think my post was bizarre, I just need to pick some well informed, sensible brains
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I don't think your post was bizarre, but I don't think you worded it very clearly hence the confusion! If you had explained things like you just have done in your last post then I think people would have understood your situation better from the start!

Here are some feeds with approx. 15% starch - varying DEs though:

D&H Staypower Cubes - 15.5% starch
A&P Ride & Relax 15% - starch
Baileys Everyday High Fibre Cubes - 15% starch
 
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I used to feed my hunter a fibre diet with the addition of soaked whole oats, he went really well on them. He was like a wet weekend too on a fibre feed, he was such a big lummox that without a few oats he felt as though he could barely shift his own weight.

I liked the oats as I could adjust the energy level without changing anything else and they weren't expensive either. :)
 
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