Equimins advance pellets feeding tips pls

[PurBee]

So after all the glowing reviews here about equimins, i got the advance pellets 4.5kg tub and open it to get a strong whiff of fish!
Ohhhh they smell so dodgy - unsure if the horses are going to go for these...


literally as the note with the tub says, feed a pinch at first - i manage to get them to eat 5 pellets from my hand.
Then i use speedibeet, mag ox powder - which theyre used to and eat fine - and add about 8 pellets to a bowl of speedibeet.....they throw it about the place, making all sorts of faces at me.
So tonight, i add to the speedibeet carrots finely chopped and apple - with 8 pellets - and theyre throwing their bowls around again, food all over the place! All i got for my troubles was bitten to death by midges trying to hand feed them it and encourage them....argh...

These generally eat anything i give them....all other mineral balancers...the mare eats anything....but these pellets they really despise.

They really do stink horribly...im 70 quid down getting them delivered and really peeved i cant get them into them.wondering why equimins dont use a masking flavour to hide the putrid b vitamins scent.

Any suggestions?
im going as far as wondering if i squish pellets into a banana to hide them as they gobble bananas if i have a spare over-ripe one! But i dont want to feed them a banana each day really...

 

[be positive]

Mine are on it and I find will only eat it with linseed in their token feed, the fussy one has the hoof mender which probably tastes just as bad but he will now eat with a very small 1/4 mug linseed to disguise it, the other less fussy would only eat the ad comp with about the same if I forgot the linseed the feed was left.

 

[ester]

personally I think they smell of banana anyway. There was one time F was leaving the pellets so switched to powder. He has always been a bit tricky to feed despite being a native but agrobs seemed to save that for us.

 

[Leo Walker]

I feed mine powder but she has eaten the pellets and shes the fussiest creature alive!

 

[PurBee]

I could try adding linseed, see if that tempts them more.

i might buy some intense natural flavouring liquid bottle that i can soak them in before feeding if nothing else works - just to get through the tub.

Is the powder less smelly than the pellets LW?

Opening the tub really did remind me of my old man’s fishing bag, a mixture of stale fish and musty maggot containers!
Wondering if ive got a bad/old batch? I ordered them direct from equimins so should be fresh stock..?

 

[ponyparty]

Equimins pellets smell pleasant to me, not in the slightest fishy or bad. More like banana or vanilla or something sweet. I’d give them a call and talk to them about it, their customer service is excellent in my experience

 

[DirectorFury]

Mine ate a handful of the pellets alone once. And only once ?.

She’ll only eat them if I add a mug of Saracen Re-leve and a tablespoon of the cheapest, most molassed, sugarbeet. It’s not ideal but the benefits of the Equimins hopefully aren’t being cancelled out by the junk food.

 

[JennBags]

The powder is very strong smelling but my 2 haven't even batted an eyelid, they've been stuffing their feed down as normal since I introduced it.

 

[springer-tb]

I can't believe anyone thinks the pellets smell nice, it's an awful stench and they taste disgusting as well. Mine will generally happily eat a few at a time from my hand but on the days he won't I use grated carrot and sugar free polos to disguise them and this works.

 

[Bellaboo18]

I think they stink! Luckily you don't need to feed much and the one that I give them to eats anything.

 

[PSD]

The powder is very strong smelling but my 2 haven't even batted an eyelid, they've been stuffing their feed down as normal since I introduced it.

mines the same, never batted an eyelid at the powder. I’m glad I opted for it as I would have been gutted if she refused the pellets

 

[PurBee]

Hopefully tonight theyll be tempted - hilarious to see them both throwing food out their bowl, nodding frantically up and down while chewing, then standing in bowl of food to get closer to me as theyd prefer a scratch - never before have they reacted like this with supps!

 

[Chippers1]

I also think they stink! The smell made me gag ?. I have the world's fussiest horse and the only way I've got him to eat them is if I feed them by hand when I catch him. Some days he eats all of them, some only half and some days he won't eat them but it's better than nothing all the time!
If Buzz will eat them then any other horse should, he's horrendous to feed as he turns his nose up at so much!

 

[Wheresthehoofpick]

After advice on here I have also tried to introduce them v v slowly to a non fussy eater. He spits them at me one by one.....

So my daughters cob is loving her new posh grub.

 

[Chippers1]

I tried feeding them with grass nuts and that worked too until they moved to their summer field and there was lots of grass! You could try them?

 

[vam]

I tried the Equimins pellets and powder and pro hoof and i couldn't get mine to eat the pellets at all or a full dose of either power. She is 17 hands MW so it was the max dosage recommended.
Tried grass nuts, grass chaff, molasses, different chaff, speedi beet, mint all sorts, brewers yeast helped a bit. I started from scratch with a pinch a couple of times and only managed about half the amount recommend but in the end i gave up as i was feeding to much to try and hide it and she was putting on weight.
I now feed pro mineral, she was having linseed anyway (it still didn't hide it) with brewers yeast, extra mag ox, vit E and salt in a half a scope of straw chaff and 2 handful of soaked speedi beet, eats it up no issues and spends time after licking the bowl (think this might be more the salt). I would much rather just feed one to cover everything but even with her being a greedy guts, just could't get it down her.

 

[NinjaPony]

I feed the powder, never had a problem with it but then I do have two very greedy natives. I also introduced it quite gradually into their chaff. I think pellets are much harder to disguise!

 

[Leo Walker]

I'd try the powder. The powder doesnt have the same smell, just a bit of a coppery undertone.

 

[PurBee]

Well horses are just plain weird! Last night they wandered up from the fields and i thought id try an impromptu feeding of a half dose between the 2 of them. They gobbled them up wanting more!! ??

So, as the saying goes ‘always leave them wanting more’....i did and we shall see if the enthusiasm for the pellets remains later on today!

how weird...!

 

[Rosemary28]

P will eat literally anything, but the only way to get him to eat all of his Equimins pellets is to leave them in his stable overnight, he picks at them on and off, they go eventually. The upside is that his greedy friend doesn't try to steal them from him!

 

[Polos Mum]

Mine arrived recently with a table on the front saying introduce over 7-10 days to 'avoid rejection' and a separate leaflet inside with the same advice - I guess they have had a lot of the same feedback.
Funny as the dose is tiny so 1/10th is literally 5 pellets. Fussy horse will eat them with a handful of soaked grass nuts

 

[wildandwoolly]

One of mine will happily eat his Equimins pellets mixed into speedi-beet and the other one will either leave them or tip the lot on the floor. That's despite being introduced to them very, very slowly. However, I have discovered that Mr Fussy will eat them if fed with a small handful of high fibre cubes instead of the speed-beet. Might be worth a try ... Good luck.

 

[Tala08]

Well horses are just plain weird! Last night they wandered up from the fields and i thought id try an impromptu feeding of a half dose between the 2 of them. They gobbled them up wanting more!! ??

So, as the saying goes ‘always leave them wanting more’....i did and we shall see if the enthusiasm for the pellets remains later on today!

how weird...!

Fingers crossed they keep eating it!

I think the pellets smell far more than the powder does. If you're thinking of switching to the powder for your next order, I suggest contacting Equimins directly. They very kindly sent me a free sample so at least you can see what you think (and probably more importantly, what horses think!!) before ordering.

 

[Myloubylou]

Not had problem with either of mine eating the pellets.

 

[Gloi]

Mine just eats them in a handful of alfalfa

 

[PurBee]

UPDATE:

The pellets were always hit and miss to feed of this brand of minerals.
However - i’ve got the powder version of this brand now, and mixed into beet pulp, they are gobbling it up no problems, and i was cheeky and started with 3 quarter dose rather than a tiny amount, and they love it, so the powder is a HIT!

 

[chaps89]

This thread being bumped up is quite timely.
I fed my old mare the powder, I won’t say she loved it but she ate it.
Little oldie has been licking the soil and his coat is a bit scurfy so I figured he could maybe use some extra vits and mins.

Looked at balancers like spillers and baileys etc but even the light versions for good doers were about 12% sugar and starch combined. At a 300g serving a day, for an already fat pony I wasn’t so keen.

So I ordered a sample of the pelleted equimins to see if he’d eat it neat so I don’t have to buy a chaff.

It arrived and it stinks ? I wouldn’t say it’s fishy but it’s really awful.
I didn’t hold out much hope of him eating it but so far, all of 2 days, he’s gobbled them down. Going to try him on them again tomorrow and if it’s still proving acceptable I might buy a tub.

My logic is that if he goes off it, even if I end up buying a bag of sticky molassed chaff, the teeny tiny handful he would get to disguise the pellets is still going to be less sugar or starch than if he had a full dose of a traditional balancer. Feel free to correct me if that logic is flawed!

 

[Auslander]

Alf is the most suspicious horse ever with new stuff, so it took me a while to get him to eat the pellets, but we persevered, and now he eats them no problem. I thin they smell yeasty, rather than fishy - but agree that the smell isn't nice!

 

[PapaverFollis]

They always smelled like dead mouse to me.

 

[PurBee]

This thread being bumped up is quite timely.
I fed my old mare the powder, I won’t say she loved it but she ate it.
Little oldie has been licking the soil and his coat is a bit scurfy so I figured he could maybe use some extra vits and mins.

Looked at balancers like spillers and baileys etc but even the light versions for good doers were about 12% sugar and starch combined. At a 300g serving a day, for an already fat pony I wasn’t so keen.

So I ordered a sample of the pelleted equimins to see if he’d eat it neat so I don’t have to buy a chaff.

It arrived and it stinks ? I wouldn’t say it’s fishy but it’s really awful.
I didn’t hold out much hope of him eating it but so far, all of 2 days, he’s gobbled them down. Going to try him on them again tomorrow and if it’s still proving acceptable I might buy a tub.

My logic is that if he goes off it, even if I end up buying a bag of sticky molassed chaff, the teeny tiny handful he would get to disguise the pellets is still going to be less sugar or starch than if he had a full dose of a traditional balancer. Feel free to correct me if that logic is flawed!

Sounds like a good plan...a handful of molassed stuff isnt as bad as a bucket full.
Some ponies do love them, yet mine, who mostly arent fussy feeders at all, just didnt take to them.

fishy, yeasy, mousey -smelling is about right! ? The powder doesnt smell so pungent, B vitamins can stink - so i wonder if their pelleting process is creating warmth and enhances the smell somewhat?