Does weight of water in feed count?

U

unicorndreams

Well-Known Member
Joined
17 November 2006
Messages
188
Location
Chestefield, Derbys, UK
Visit site
OK - this may seem a really dumb question but despite owning horses for years, I've pretty much stuck to pellets/chaff slightly dampened so the soaked feeds are a recent addition to the diet. The feeding guidelines usually say 'dry weight' and then to soak in 3 times the volume of water. Taking Copra as an example I can reasonably expect to feed 1-1.5kg dry weight to help put condition on. By the time it's soaked up 3 times its weight in water and I've added Linseed, chaff and fibre pellets she'll be getting more than the recommended maximum of 2kg per feed based on 2 feeds a day (I can't manage to give her 3 feeds)
So have I got this wrong? Is it 'wet weight' not 'dry'? Or does the water content not count? She really can't eat that sort of volume and hence is losing weight rather than gaining it :-(
 
It's dry weight that counts, not wet weight.

If she's losing weight I would (assuming she's getting ad lib forage) drop the chaff in favour of oats; if she can't cope with such a big feed maybe drop the fibre pellets?
 
Everything should be calculated on a dry matter basis,remember even horse cubes are not dry(usualy about 6% moisture, ) Hay is in the region of 12% and haylage 30%. Your horse needs a given amount of dry matter ,mostly as coarse fibre , each day.
 
Thanks folks. That's pretty much what i thought. She does have ad lib haylage. I'd heard oats were a good option so might give them a try. She has to have chaff as she's prone to choke so I use alfalfa chaff. Fibre nuts are about all that she's eating as she's not impressed with stodgy sludge food! I think I'll have to go back to Bailey's no4 as she did fine on that. If it makes her footy then shoes will have to go back on as her body condition is more important right now.
 
Why don't you try topspec, it has made such a difference to my horse, I feed the balancer and the cool conditioning nuts with outshine as a top up but this is only as he was so poor.
The weight is going on and the muscle he is building is amazing and his coat just shines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top