Feeding Magnesium

EllieandGeorge

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Have been doing some research and has found that my boy has a lot of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency. I have been looking at supplements and want a pure magnesium supplement not something with added 'calmer'. I've looked at the equine america supplements but found they're very expensive, I've heard that buying the mag ox supplements off ebay is just the same, is it? Also, how much would a 14hh welsh d need? Think he's roughly 350kg.
 

cptrayes

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Your local farm supplies shop will sell calcined magnesite (calmag) for £10 - £20 for 25 KILOS! That will last a Section D 1,000 days, over 2 years.
 

claribella

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I would suggest natural horse supplies. I use the stronger bag that they do and it has calmed my girl down. They are extremely helpful and not too expensive for the quality that you are getting.
 

cptrayes

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Don't be fooled by "purity" claims and big brand names. Any food grade Magnesium oxide is absolutely fine and there are many sellers, some on eBay. But just to repeat, the cheapest way to get magnesium into a horse is to buy the cattle-supplies mineral calcined magnesite from an agricultural supplier. Most horses eat it very happily, a tiny minority won't, but at £10 to £20 for 25 kilos, it is far and away the cheapest safe and effective magnesium supplement on the market.

Barefooters feed 20 - 50 grammes of magnesium oxide a day depending on the size of the horse and the time of the year, more for spring grass which is generally deficient in it, which is why horses go doolally on spring grass and why magnesium works as a calmer.
 

saffytessa

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I have fed magnitude, then bought heavy magox from ebay and have now gone back to feeding magnitude even though the other stuff is cheaper.

The ebay magox turned my feeds luminous yellow and had a strange smell to it when mixed in a damp feed. The girls ate it eventually, were fine for a while and then went off it again.

Since going back to magnitude they lick the buckets clean. I don't agree that a tub will last a horse six months though. A tub lasts my two horses about 6 weeks.

It says on the front of the tub that a scoop contains 2700mg of magnesium. This is not enough for most horses. By body weight my horses should get 3 or 3.5 scoops per day. As they have other feed they get 2 scoops each per day. I can tell when T is not getting enough as she gets reactive and bolshy. I then give 3 scoops for a while.

I found online how to work out how much magnesium your horse needs.
It says 15mg/kg body weight so at 350kg this is 5250mg of magnesium so this is just short of 2 scoops of magnitude per day though you may get away with feeding less. Not sure about other suppliers though sorry.
 

HuntingPink

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also try feedmark - they do a magnesium one

I bought that one and wasn't amused. Technically it's MagOx but it's actually what we would call CalMg so way over priced for what they're selling.

CalMag is grittier and not something that I would use in the long term as it can cause irritation.

I buy my MagOx from Taycrest but you can get smaller quantities from Barefoot Basics who are on eBay and have an online shop.

I wouldn't buy any branded Magnesium as they're way over priced. They also advise feeding too little usually so that you look like you're getting good value for money. A recommended dose which is safe and useful is about 10mg of MagOx which gives 5 mg Magnesium. As a comparison I would pay half the amount that I would spend on Magnitude by buying from Barefoot Basics! Same stuff and probably from the same supplier!
 
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