Feed advice please- unmolassed, conditioning and high spec vits diet

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seabiscuit

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I need to put one of my horses onto a new diet and I'm kind of at loss where to start!

The diet needs to be completly molasses-free and also needs to be very high specification in vitamins/minerals & also needs to be very conditioning.

The horse in question cannot have molasses, but is in poor condition with poorly growing feet and poor coat and desperatetly needs a high spec vit/min balancer to get the feet growing and something that will put condition back on quickly.

Not keen on Alfalfa as it seems to go straight to her head.

Also cannot afford anything too posh or substantial.

Have got her on Top Spec feed balancer but just realised that also has molasses in it as well.
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Does anyone know how much molasses it has in it?

Dont want to fork out for farriers formula or formula4feet unless absolutely necessary.

I know, quite difficult!.

All I've got as a starting point so far is unmolassed sugar beet and linseed oil.
 
My Selle F mare has Hi-fi light and Lo-cal balancer. Sugar goes to her head so can't do mollasses. She has ad-lib hay and good grazing in the day. (she is a pretty good does tho)

Oh and the Lo-cal has a similar thing to farriers formula in it anyway

Could you add the sugar beet to this to make it more conditioning?
 
Haylage, Speedibeet, boiled linseed (not just the oil), as much soya oil as you can stuff in plus a good hoof supplement (I hear good things about Horse First).
 
Thanks is Lo-cal good for feet tho? I always felt that it was a bit 'second-rate' in the way it provides for feet conditioning? Or am I wrong?

Yes, will definately use the sugar beet with whatever else I feed, I'm just worried that it wont be enough with just something like HiFi
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Lo- cal is a feed balancer and is primarily for laminitis ponies but in larger amounts is good for stressy sugar intolerant individuals! Says something on the bag about feet and someone on here said they tried FF but Lo-cal was better for feet and overall. I don't use it for the feet conditioning, just as a blance without any "sparks"
 
Have you thought about trying the Top Spec Comprehensive powdered supplement rather than the Balancer. Check with Top Spec, but I suspect the powdered supplement is likely to be molasses-free.

Do you know if it is just mollasses that is the problem - or just any form of sugar?

Graze-On dried grass chaff is mollasses-free and reasonably conditioning - will have some natural sugar content from the grass though.

 
Thank you all! All sounds good, will look into those ! :-)

TGM- yes it is only molasses that she is not allowed to have. She has to go on a detox diet as the liver/kidney/metabolism is not functioning properly. Natural sugars in the grass and hay are fine!
 
Allen and Page do some mollasses free feeds I know ride and relax is mollasses free and I think calm and condition might be too - I would give them a call.

Most chaff are either mollassed or contain some sort of alfalfa.
 
If it is any help, I have found that as long as I steer clear of AlfaA products then alfalfa is fine - Alfa A does the same to my horse as yours!

In my extensive research of non-molassed feeds I have come across only a v few non-molassed chaffs, but I have settled on Mollichaff High Fibre Alfalfa.

I would be amazed if Topspec has more than a trace of molasses in as the starch/sugar levels in it are exceedingly low - I will try and remember to check on my bag tonight - does it not say on the bag? How did you find out it had it in? I did not think it had it in either....
 
Topspec balancer, Graze on, Speedibeet and oil I think would be your best bet? And as much hayledge/hay as possible....speak to Allen and Page though, they are lovely and very very helpful. Something like Ride and relax, and fast fibre may work well?!
 
We have used this supplement with success for detoxing
http://www.ronfieldsnutrition.co.uk/horsesremount1.htm
also for unmolassed chaff the new one from Top spec both the top chop lite and the top chop alfa are molasses free and very palateable we have just changed over to them and horses love them.
Otherwise are the equibrium feeds molasses free we have got the condition one on the winergy trial for Flower and she has eaten it straight up morning and evening
 
For conditioning you could try any or a combination of the following, which are all molasses free-

Grass nuts
Unmollassed sugar beet
Linseed
Badminton Triple Top up
Coolstance copra meal
Dengie alfalfa nuts

Make sure you consider the water content in soaked feeds. E.g for every 1kg of sugar beet, there will be 5kg of water, which wont put weight on!

Then for vits/mins NAF General purpose re-fill is a good spec relatively cheaply. But if you go for a high oil diet then selenavite e may be better because there will be a greater requirement for vitamin e.

Ad lib hay/haylage will help with weight gain and also provide biotin for feet. Alfalfa and sugar beet will give a good source of calcium for the feet. Brewers yeast would also be a good supplement to help wth fibre digestion and give B vitamins for foot growth.

Linseed will help improve the coat.

If the foot problem isnt nutritional then nothing in the diet will improve it anyway! and remember it takes at least 9 months for a new foot.

Balancers may give a high spec of vitamins and minerals but they are not a conditioning feed.
 
This all sounds great thank you all for the advice!!
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Spotted-Cat- I checked the ingredients list on the topspec balancer yesterday and it definately listed molasses, but it was near the end of the ingredients list so this must, well hopefully,mean that it is a minute amount. Does it actually state somewhere on the bag that the starch levels are v.low?

KatB/SO1/Posie- had a look at a bag of calm and condition this eve and yes it has no molasses!! :-)I had forgotten about Allen and Page feeds. Graze on sounds brill- will pop that in as well..

Lec- I've definately got to try the top up on all of them
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Groomsbridge- wow that remount sounds like *really* good stuff, especially where on the testimonals part it says that it cleared up cracked heels in a matter of weeks..she's been suffereing from this as well plus mud fever even tho there's no mud
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Will check out the Equilibrium feeds as well!

teddy-t- thank you, that is ace info!!
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Another vote for A&P Calm and condition - fab stuff for weight gain and horses usually love it!
What you may find is that the nuts/pellets are bound together by molasses so staying clear of these may help
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Kate x
 
[ QUOTE ]
This all sounds great thank you all for the advice!!
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Spotted-Cat- I checked the ingredients list on the topspec balancer yesterday and it definately listed molasses, but it was near the end of the ingredients list so this must, well hopefully,mean that it is a minute amount. Does it actually state somewhere on the bag that the starch levels are v.low?

KatB/SO1/Posie- had a look at a bag of calm and condition this eve and yes it has no molasses!! :-)I had forgotten about Allen and Page feeds. Graze on sounds brill- will pop that in as well..

Lec- I've definately got to try the top up on all of them
smile.gif


Groomsbridge- wow that remount sounds like *really* good stuff, especially where on the testimonals part it says that it cleared up cracked heels in a matter of weeks..she's been suffereing from this as well plus mud fever even tho there's no mud
confused.gif
Will check out the Equilibrium feeds as well!

teddy-t- thank you, that is ace info!!
cool.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Have a look at the balancers spreadsheet here (it's the top one): http://www.freewebs.com/higgyleiko/

Copra meal is (IIRC) v similar to equijewel/outshine etc. I have found equijewel good for weight gain in the past, but Badminton triple top up has to be worth a punt.
 
allan and page do a sugar intolerence mix and also a laminitis mix. One o them has slightly higher energy levels than the other. xx

Baileys outshine is also very good or weight gain and not as messy as the oil is all made into dry little balls.

good luck with your girl xx
 
I switched feeds a few months back to a low sugar diet to help with feet (is barefoot). Am currently feeding hifi lite, speedibeet and oil - would say am feeding between 1.5 and 2kg of hifi per day. Previously he would drop a bit of condition this time of year but he is absolutely gleaming.
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I would speak to Allen & Page, they were really helpful when I spoke to the about a horse with simialr issues and do make several feeds that would be suitable for your mare.
 
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