Feed question

[quiteniceforacob]

Here we go again.

I usually feed nuts and add supplements but not sure if it’s more economical to feed an actual feed?

Looking to include
- vitamins and minerals
- joint supplement
- biotin

Is there a balancer that could be as good as vits and mins?

What are people doing?

 

[AppyLover1996]

I have two equines with very different needs :

Equine 1 : 18 year old, 14.1 Appaloosa x New Forest - Prone to gastric ulcers, stressy, can hot up on certain feed, can also drop weight due to stress, has PSSM Type 1, fussy to feed and comes from a difficult past. He gets fed Dengie Alfa A with Oil (to help with ulcer prevention), TopSpec UlsaKind cubes (again ulcer prevention), Blue Chip Original Balancer (for vits and mins), NAF Superflex Senior (for his joints), a glug of Aloe Vera juice (again for ulcer prevention) and I add a small handful of sliced apples/carrots/blueberries to encourage him to eat it all.

Equine 2 : 8 month old weanling Pure Appaloosa - exceptionally straight forward - currently fed Fast Fibre and Bailey's Outshine by breeder, but will be switched to Speedibeet, Bailey's Stud Balancer and potentially some micronsied linseed.

In terms of what you prefer to feed, I think it's a case of making sure that you have your forage analysed as an oversupplmentation of some vitamins and minerals can prove deadly - so I'd get your forage tested first beforehand. Pelleted balancers tend to be higher in protein (if I remember correctly) so that is a reason why some people feed them, from my experience mostly good doers who don't need much get a powdered vit and min supplement. There are specific pelleted balancers that cater for what you're after - for example Blue Chip do a concentrated joint balancer, TopSpec also do a joint balancer, Progressive Earth do a joint, hoof or general vit and min powdered balancer, Dengie horse feed do complete feeds such as Healthy Hooves (with and without molasses, but with complete feeds you often have to feed way more than you usually would which can result in equine weight issues!) - it really is a case of doing some research and googling - also you'll find that if you go down the route of complete feeds in a bag, they can have all sorts of hidden things in there so always best to double check, and they can work out more expensive