Feed Ingredients?!

L

Leg12

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:D THIS IS MY FIRST POST SO PLEASE BE NICE!!! :D

Not all feed companies seem to list the actual ingredients of their feeds online even on their own websites:confused:! They usually list percentages of ash, protein etc but not the substances that are providing those percentages.
Which makes trying to weigh up the pros and cons of different feed types from the comfort of your sofa, (not trudging to the miles away shop in the blinkin' rain!) so you can maybe order them online maybe save a fortune in petrol alone lol, rather difficult and irritating!

So out of curiosity does anybody know (or know where I can reliably find) the constituents of feeds which do not list their ingredients online (seem to be mainly mainly cubes and chaffs) such as:
-Pegasus Value Cubes
-Champion Easy Cubes
-Baileys Hilight Hi Fibre Horse & Pony Cubes
-Allen & Page Stud & Youngstock Cubes

Whilst we are disusing this crazyness...
>>>Is it worth paying all that extra wonga for the brand name stuff?
>>>Do you have to feed ridiculous amounts of the cheap stuff?
>>>Do you have to feed additional things if you do feed the cheap stuff, making it less cost effective?
>>> Is it enough to just be on a balencer+(obviously)forage?
>>>Can you overfeed alfalfa? Everything seems to have it in! I like the sound of the pellets but then what to feed with (obviously forage aswell)?!

>>>HELP loool! :confused::eek::(

Thanks in advance for any answers :p:D:D:D

:D THIS IS MY FIRST POST SO PLEASE BE NICE!!! :D
 
I have a Good Doer- Highland pony.
He gets fed:
Straight bran to keep his bowels going nicely and it has no sugars or added "crap" so to speak! Comes in about £7 a bag- lasts ages!
He gets a handful of Suregrow- contains mainly the same vitamins/minerals as top spec, but is alot cheaper! Comes in about £16 and a bag lasts me forever!
He also a wee spoon of garlic just to keep the flies off and make it taste lovely! About £6 for a wee bag of the stuff- lasts about 1-2 months ;)
He has just started Magnesium too- after a HHO recommendation ;)
Was like £20 for a 1kg, and should last about 3 months I'd reckon.

I don't think you can over feed alfalfa.. but some of the stuff is full of rubbish. Like feeding a kid blue smarties. It just depends on the horse, good doer's bad doers etc.
You will know yourself.
I mean Sugarbeet sends my boy insane!
I have to say- top spec is probably worth the money in my opinion. But the Suregrow is just perfect for me.

Honestly I have to say the £8 bags of pony cubes are laterally the same as the £18 bags of pony cubes. If you ask a local feedstore(with genuine people in it) they will recommend you lots of different things. Just keep researching, best thing to do! :D
 
Tbh what i look at is the percentages of the feeds ie. Protein ect and the best way to see if you will have to feed lots is by looking at the mega joules of energy per kilobgram of feed its labeled as something like mj/kg thats how you tell if you will have to feed lots.
 
What type of horse do you have, weight, workload, age etc?

I personally would base a horse's feeding regime around good quality hay/haylage and grass, and add to it with forage based products IF necessary. Oil and cereals add energy, but I would only add them in circumstances such as a competition horse or endurance horse. Your typical riding club/happy hacker does not need them. Most don't need a feed at all IMO just supplementary hay, but many do, mainly for the human's psychological benefit I think! ;)

Alfalfa is a good forage, but it should be balanced because it throws out the calcium to phosphorus ratio. If in a 'whole' product the manufacturer should have already done that; certainly what you are paying for in more expensive products is research and expertise going into making the perfect balance of nutrients. For example, there are 10 essential amino acids (proteins) that a horse NEEDS in his diet, he can't do without them. The cheap bag of feed won't even list nutrients, the middle range one will list %protein, but only the top range stuff will know which AAs are in there.

Feed companies would love you to feed as per their recommendations; in reality owners feed less or mix it with other stuff. Thats where a balancer comes in; its a concentrated dose of vits and minerals,as well as sometimes proteins (in the better ones) so you can feed that at 100% RDA and it'll hardly contain any horsey calories, so you just need to fill them up with fibre. Essentially they are like a one a day vitamin pill. HTH :)
 
Most feed companies have a helpline. If you e mail them they will happily send you the full nutritional composition of their feed and provide any advice regarding the needs of your horse. I know the ultimate goal is to sell product but if you are struggling to choose between a few different feed types then this can be really informative.
 
:) :) :) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REPLIES!!! :) :) :)

Well that has definatley given me some food for thought!
-pun (sorta) intended...lol...

I'm surprised sugar beat and oil can cause fizzyness or excitability?

Also curious to your opinions on a extremely confident (upper end of the scale) novice having a 4 year old IDXWB that is apparently completely non spooky and bombproof or a 9yr old 18.2hh Dutch WB thats a bit spooky and a bit traffic unsure but generally alright?

Ooooh and one last thing :P ! Does anybody know of anything for sale in the south west thats 15.3hh+ , gelding, under 10, up for showjumping/xc, ideally a bitta warmblood but not completes necessary.

Cheeers!!!
Regards :D

L xxx
 
I have gone off most traditional cubes and mixes as it is really difficult to know what is in them. For example, where is the protein derived from? It could be other animals for all we know. Therefore I buy only feeds which have very simple vegetarian ingredients. I have changed all mine over to Pure feeds. You can order direct from their website. Google the pure feed company. Or efeeds.co.uk.
 
Wagtail said:
I have gone off most traditional cubes and mixes as it is really difficult to know what is in them. For example, where is the protein derived from? It could be other animals for all we know. Therefore I buy only feeds which have very simple vegetarian ingredients. I have changed all mine over to Pure feeds. You can order direct from their website. Google the pure feed company. Or efeeds.co.uk.
Click to expand...


So have we!

All ours are fed on some variation of Speedibeet (not for the good-doers) grass-nuts, dried grass, bran. We now (after a range of problems) only give one ingredient supplements, e.g. cider vinegar. We don't feed alfalfa at all because one of our mares goes absolutely loopy on it, although we have used it successfully in the past.
 
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