Formula4feet - anyone feed as general balancer ?

NeverSayNever

NeverSayNever

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My horse actually has really good feet however Ive just ordered some of this (i used it with a previous horse) to use as a general balancer and wondered if anyone else does?

Ive been using forageplus winter balancer which my horse is looking great on. I started it after my mare's coat was looking really awful. After about 10 months on it she looks a million times better coming into spring this year than she did last year. This time last year her coat had gone a coarse, dull sandy colour (she is black) and there was no sign of summer coat until about June! Whereas this year her summer coat is already coming through and she is lovely and shiny.

However F4F is not only almost half the price, it contains the same and way more than the fplus does when I compared the ingredients. PLus it has the added benefit of being pellets so I think they will be received more appreciatively in the bucket than a powder.

So yeah, just wondered if anyone else uses Formula4feet as a balancer and how you rate it?
 
Formula for feet definitely doesn't contain the same levels of ingredients as Forage Plus. It does have a lot of extras, which aren't always necessary, but has half the amount of magnesium, and a really squiffy looking zinc:copper ratio... 2537.8mg:101.6mg. It also has more calcium than phosphorus, which is usually contraindicated by a forage analysis.

I'd want way more copper than that, and don't really see the need for all that zinc, the 1200mg from the FP is quite a lot already!

P.S. - I also don't see much actual price difference, considering how much of each you have to feed per day. If anything, the forage plus is cheaper, I think?
 
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Been using Formula 4 Feet for a couple of months and I'm quite impressed. Having tried Pro hoof and Equimins with poor results, went back to Bailey's Lo Cal, which has always been good, but then tried F4F and its made quite a difference to hoof and coat quality as well as general well being. Will probably put both of mine on it if it doesn't prove too expensive.

Haven't tried the forageplus though.
 
thanks twostroke - im confused now looking at the comparison? Admittedly it may be brain fuzz on my part?

forageplus


400 mg copper (bioplex),
1200mg zinc (bioplex)



Formula4feet

copper 535
zinc 1069
 
Maybe the formula's changed?? The figures I had were 2537.8mg and 101.6mg. Are you getting yours from the tub, or is it listed somewhere on the website?

If your figures are right then that will make a big difference to my opinion :D.
 
Oh, that's even worse. It doesn't provide those levels in each dose; the website states mg/kg.

You feed 37.5g per 100kg of bodyweight, so for a 500kg horse it would provide 100g of copper and 200g of zinc. Way, way below the levels provided by Forage Plus.

That's a shame :(, I got excited for a moment!
 
What's the difference in protein between the two? I've just been reading that low levels of protein in the diet can cause symptoms like your mare showed before you put her on forage plus.
And generally, more is not necessarily better, as too much of minerals or vitamins or anything can cause more problems than it solves. I'm looking into supplements for my pony. :)
 
And the F4F contains iron, which is generally in oversupply, and will in turn affect the uptake of copper.

I'm sticking with Forageplus, it's made an amazing difference to my horse's feet (frogs specifically).
 
F4F contains 22.1% protein, of which 2.54g of a daily dose for a 500kg horse is lysine, and 678.3mg is methionine. The rest is made up of other amino acids.

FP winter balancer contains 17.35% protein, of which 10g per day is lysine and 3,000mg is methionine.

Lysine being the primary limiting essential amino acid in horses.

ETA: I agree that broadly speaking higher levels of minerals does not necessarily mean better... BUT in this case (especially Mg, Cu and Zn) Forage Plus know their stuff ;).
 
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