Insane Feeding Amounts

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Is it just me or are more and more bags of feed recommending insane feeding amounts, especially for these 'complete feeds'? Does anyone actually feed these amounts?

Dex gets a mug full of fibre mash just to stop him from hammering the door down at feeding time, a bag lasts me nearly 2 months.. Plus 9kg of hay overnight and 8 hours in winter grazing on very average grass. He is on the slightly porky side of things and is in light work.

• Baileys Ease & Excel - recommend 0.8kg per 100kg bodyweight - Dex would be eating 5.2kg of this a day! A bag would last less than 4 days, and it would be just under 2 stubbs scoops full each feed.
• Simple Systems Simple Complete - 0.5% of bodyweight
• Dengie Cool, Condition & Shine - 650kg horse in light work, 3.25kg a day which sounds average but that's 7.5 stubbs scoops as it's not a cube it's like chaff based!!
• D&H Fibre Cubes - up to 1kg per 100kg bodyweight! 6.5kg!!

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

It’s bizarre isn’t it? I wonder how they work out the amounts.

“Eg. 500kg horse in moderate work looks well on daily recommended amount (4kg = 3 Stubbs scoops) of Ease & Excel, which delivers 52MJ of DE.”

Does a horse need 52MJ of DE? Or is it together RDA of vits & mins?

Mine get a mugful of Saracen Releve once a day at the moment twice a day in winter with some grass chaff mainly to get supplements into them.

 

[welshwizzard]

I think you're right, I knew someone who fed the exact amounts of days on the bag, the feeds were huge. The horse got ulcers unsurprisingly.
you have to use a bit of common sense, most leisure horses don't need large amounts of hard feed because they're not doing the work to warrant it.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

It's put me off buying a lot of feed as I can't afford to feed it!!

 

[Roxylola]

I think the weights are calculated especially for completes as exclusively - not factoring in forage etc as that's how the nutrition breakdown is worked out. I don't think anyone does except in unusual situations such as horses without teeth or something

 

[Mrs B]

I don't think I've ever paid any attention to recommended feeding amounts - whether that's cat, dog, horse or human food - because they're so waaayyyy off base.

 

[Polos Mum]

Is it to do with the level of vits and minerals in these - so they are so small / trace amounts to get to RDA of anything you have to feed 3 x stubbs scoops worth?

They can't really be calculated on the basis that is ALL you are feeding them - assuming no grass / hay would be almost negligent !

Other species food states "not a complete feed" for the terribly dumb who can't work out grazing animals need mostly grass / forrage.

 

[magicmoments]

If you don't want to feed the recommend amount, then a balancer, or vitamin and mineral supplement would be best.

 

[P.forpony]

Feeding rates for complete feeds are worked out on the vit + min levels but there aren't actually industry standard RDA levels for horses. If memory serves I think the last study is several decades old and was more along the lines of the minimum level before detrimental effects were observed.

They are also assuming some sort of forage is being fed though otherwise fibre levels would be too low in almost all complete feeds.

And yes some people do feed the reccomended levels... pity those like me, poor TB owners in winter!
My big lad gets the reccomended levels of ease and excel across 3 feeds a day with a cup of linseed in each, as well as ad lib hay and turnout on good grass.
The good doers get much less but the difference made up with a balancer.

Some feeding rates are just wild though!

 

[SEL]

My horses would love to be fed that much!!!

I currently give them a very sloppy scoop of haycobs (so 1 scoop does 6 feeds) bulked out with a bit of chaff and they think that's awesome.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I don't tend to buy complete feeds I just feed a balancer with grass chaff and unmolassed sugar beet or I will feed spillers speedy mash, never feed the amounts they advise.

My 2 would be too fat and off there rockers on that kind of food and they only get 1 feed a day and its a very small feed, a bag of 12 hour soak beet lasts me about a year

They get ad lib in winter though.

 

[HJJ]

I've noticed this too but feed nowhere near the recommendations. I feed (chaff & high fibre cubes) according to my horses' bodyweight and work they are doing, and add a balancer for their vits and minerals.

 

[Peglo]

My wee hippo just gets molasses free chaff with her supplements mixed in. Feeding full amounts of complete feeds must be crazy expensive.

 

[P.forpony]

My wee hippo just gets molasses free chaff with her supplements mixed in. Feeding full amounts of complete feeds must be crazy expensive.

It is!

 

[Gloi]

I'd never let mine see what they suggest he gets. A bag of chop lasts 3 months to carry his minerals and he should be grateful for it.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I think the weights are calculated especially for completes as exclusively - not factoring in forage etc as that's how the nutrition breakdown is worked out. I don't think anyone does except in unusual situations such as horses without teeth or something

When ive queried feeds with feed companies they always ask for forage intake. The amounts recommend of bagged feed are still massive!!

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I understand for those that actually need it eg: poor doer TB's, older horses or those who are 5* eventing, but for most I think it's ludicrous.

If that is how much you have to feed to get the full dosage of whatever vit/min/balancer/benefit they are advertising, then it makes 99% of feeds redundant, as you are going to either have an obese horse getting the right dosage, or not be feeding enough to get any benefit from it.

 

[YourValentine]

I understand for those that actually need it eg: poor doer TB's, older horses or those who are 5* eventing, but for most I think it's ludicrous.

If that is how much you have to feed to get the full dosage of whatever vit/min/balancer/benefit they are advertising, then it makes 99% of feeds redundant, as you are going to either have an obese horse getting the right dosage, or not be feeding enough to get any benefit from it.

A lot of the feed industry data and guides is rubbish due to a lack of independent standards and guides written by people who's main job is to sell feed. So obviously more volume/products/etc are essential.

 

[Mudfukkle]

I agree - you have to take into account the amount of grass/hay fed etc, then just make sensible choices, adding a powdered balancer works for me.
BTW it's the same for dogs! If I fed my dogs the recommended amount, they would be obese. So I feed them a sensible amount, coupled with plenty of exercise and a vitamin supplement. The vet says they are always a good weight.

 

[P.forpony]

Also it's worth bearing in mind the research follows the money. So most of it is based or generated around TBs in racing.
Possibly not the best starting point for most leisure owners and their assorted breeds in nowhere near that intensity of work....

 

[rara007]

It’s mad! I’m trying to work out winter feeding for mine and without buying 5 bags of feed a week it seems limited…!

 

[Polos Mum]

It’s mad! I’m trying to work out winter feeding for mine and without buying 5 bags of feed a week it seems limited…!

If they don't need the calories then a powder balancer with high levels of vits / mins in it - mixed with a handful of whatever your particular horse finds most taste has got to be most economic.

A good level of minerals tastes horrible - so the better quality powder (with least fillers) tends to be the least palatable - which is why a handful of something sugary is often needed.

 

[ihatework]

It’s utterly bonkers isn’t it. There are very very few horses that need anywhere close to those amounts!

The only horse I’ve had that needed significant levels of feed was the flying cart horse eventer, well over 17hh and not a great doer. He would have 4.5kg cubes a day split into 3 feeds.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I'm a rubbish owner, I feed the animal in front of me with an appropriate amount for the work it is or isn't doing.....
The feed companies won't like me!

 

[little_critter]

It’s mad! I’m trying to work out winter feeding for mine and without buying 5 bags of feed a week it seems limited…!

Mine is on speedibeet (1 mug dry volume) grass nuts (3/4 mug dry volume) and Pro Earth balancer.
If he drops weight in winter then I'll add some linseed (as well as increasing the speedibeet). He doesn't really need the grass nuts, they are just there for variety.
I used to feed Ease and Excel but got fed up going through a bag a week.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

I’m be never fed the correct amount of feeds recommended as the feeds would be too large. I feed a balancer to recommended levels but that’s it. And we wonder why we have fat horses when the recommended feeding levels are so high.

 

[Fieldlife]

The last compound feed, I fed was Saracen's Releve - https://saracenhorsefeeds.com/sports/product/re-leve-mix

Their feeding rate of 2-3.5 for 500kg horse seems reasonable. One stubbs scoop is 1.5kg, so 1.33 scoops to 2 scoops.


I think when I used it, I fed about 1/2 recommended amounts and supplements vitamins and minerals.



Currently I work backwards

Feed adlib haylage / hay (netted / smaller holes if approach getting fat)

Enough feed and tasty enough feed to ensure all supplements eaten.

Ensure total protein sufficient by possibly increasing protein in bucket

If still need weight gain in winter - high oil feed / oil added

 

[Birker2020]

Bailey would have burst if I'd fed the recommended feeding rate of the feed I've fed over the years and I'd be broke!

At one time I fed Baileys feed balancer.
I only fed eight bags of it in total because I won a competition sponsored by Baileys Horse Feeds in around 2006 to have a lesson with a 'famous' SJ and also won rug, polo shirt and feed vouchers. I was featured in a 3 page spread with me and the other prize winner in Horse & Rider magazine.

After the vouchers had been used up I think I was horrified to work out that it would cost me £33 every nine days to feed Bailey at the volume they'd told me to feed her.

So she went onto something cheap and cheerful, a mug or two a day of mix and a handful of chaff. Always maintained her weight, never lost any. If anything I had to watch her calorie intake!

 

[Barton Bounty]

I have never read a bag in my life I just go with the flow if he needs a bit more, add a bit more

 

[Melody Grey]

Wow! I think it’s quite irresponsible of feed companies to be giving those ‘guidelines’. Imagine how many laminitics or metabolic horses are out there either as a result of this ‘advice’ or not doing their best because of it.

Feed companies have long known there’s no money to be made out of me!!