Low starch, high fibre diet?

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Currently feeding half a scoop of speedibeat, quarter of a scoop of fibre beat and 3 cups of spillers condioning cubes split into 3 feeds a day. He needs to gain a bit of condition hence the conditioning cubes, but I am a bot worried with the amount of starch in them (20%) as he is prone to gastric ulcers due to a heavy starch diet in previous home.

So is there an alternative conditioning cube with less starch anyone had found? Or is there anything else low starch and high fibre that will promote weight gain? I've been recommended micronised linseed instead of the conditioning cubes to gain weight then reduce them when he gets to a good weight?

Any exspirience with this would be really helpful!

Sorry forgot to add just starting him on coligone also, to help with acid issues.

Thanks! :)
 
'Conditioning' feeds drive me mad :o.

It's like getting a Mars bar, repackaging it and calling it a 'health bar' :mad:.

A horse looses condition, so the owner goes for a 'conditioning' feed which is often high in starch, sugar and cereals (all the things contra-indicated for ulcer horses). The gut is made more inefficient - and so the horse remains skinny. Then the owner buys more and more 'conditioning' feeds and it goes round in a circle........

Ignore the packaging and look at the ingredients :D.

As a rule I would never bucket feed anything with a higher combined starch and sugar than 10%.

50% of the horse's calorie yield comes from fermenting fibre in the hind gut. So fibre is a good place to start.

Forage is obviously the foundation - as that is what the horse eats most of (grass/hay/haylage).

If the horse needs more, then bucket feeding with a fibre based feed is the next step.....unmolassed beet, Fast Fibre, unmolassed hay/straw chaff, high fibre cubes (Spillers and Dodson and Horrell's ERS are good) can all be fed in high volumes to aid weight.
Alfalfa is a helpful ingredient for an ulcer prone horse as the calcium helps buffer stomach acid - but be cautious as alfalfa can be problematic to some horses.

Added to that I would give a fibre balancing supplement that provides copper, zinc, magnesium, lysine but not iron. An ulcer prone horse should also get gut aids such as yea-sacc or brewer's yeast. You can also use glutamine.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f215af8a0
http://forageplus.co.uk/product/forageplus-winter-equine-balancer/
http://forageplus.co.uk/product-category/equine-ulcers/

Micronised linseed is an excellent choice, especially in winter. Linseed provides omega 3 and 6 in the same ratio as grass - so it has the magic of Dr Green without the sugar. It also contains the amino acid methionine (good for hooves), is a polar lipid (helps to maintain the hoof moisture balance) and provides gut muculage for an ulcer prone horse.
http://www.charnwoodmilling.co.uk/horse_specs/micronized whole linseed.htm

Salt at 25g per day (more if sweating).

Then we get onto the next tier where we can use such things as soya (Solution Mash) or Coolstance copra for weight.

Oats are great and safe for an ulcer prone horse.
 
Thanks so much! That's really helpful! I think I'll drop the cubes and up the speedibeat and fibre and see how he goes. If that isn't enough I will try him on alfalfa, but havnt tried him on it before as other horse goes bonkers on it!

Thanks again!
 
Oberon said:
'Conditioning' feeds drive me mad :o.

It's like getting a Mars bar, repackaging it and calling it a 'health bar' :mad:.

A horse looses condition, so the owner goes for a 'conditioning' feed which is often high in starch, sugar and cereals (all the things contra-indicated for ulcer horses). The gut is made more inefficient - and so the horse remains skinny. Then the owner buys more and more 'conditioning' feeds and it goes round in a circle........

Ignore the packaging and look at the ingredients :D.

As a rule I would never bucket feed anything with a higher combined starch and sugar than 10%.

50% of the horse's calorie yield comes from fermenting fibre in the hind gut. So fibre is a good place to start.

Forage is obviously the foundation - as that is what the horse eats most of (grass/hay/haylage).

If the horse needs more, then bucket feeding with a fibre based feed is the next step.....unmolassed beet, Fast Fibre, unmolassed hay/straw chaff, high fibre cubes (Spillers and Dodson and Horrell's ERS are good) can all be fed in high volumes to aid weight.
Alfalfa is a helpful ingredient for an ulcer prone horse as the calcium helps buffer stomach acid - but be cautious as alfalfa can be problematic to some horses.

Added to that I would give a fibre balancing supplement that provides copper, zinc, magnesium, lysine but not iron. An ulcer prone horse should also get gut aids such as yea-sacc or brewer's yeast. You can also use glutamine.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f215af8a0
http://forageplus.co.uk/product/forageplus-winter-equine-balancer/
http://forageplus.co.uk/product-category/equine-ulcers/

Micronised linseed is an excellent choice, especially in winter. Linseed provides omega 3 and 6 in the same ratio as grass - so it has the magic of Dr Green without the sugar. It also contains the amino acid methionine (good for hooves), is a polar lipid (helps to maintain the hoof moisture balance) and provides gut muculage for an ulcer prone horse.
http://www.charnwoodmilling.co.uk/horse_specs/micronized whole linseed.htm

Salt at 25g per day (more if sweating).

Then we get onto the next tier where we can use such things as soya (Solution Mash) or Coolstance copra for weight.

Oats are great and safe for an ulcer prone horse.
Click to expand...

A fantastic informative reply Oberon
 
Top Spec Cool Condition (cubes) doesn't contain any cereals, I gave it to my IR oldie for months with no ill effects. I'm on a similar page to Oberon these days though - if you need more weight gain, you could up the ration in general, add micronised linseed and/or oil and maybe look for something with more protein like alfalfa, to build muscle.
 
If you want to feed a cube of some kind, I really liked the Spillers Slow Response... When I was trying to muscle my cob up a bit last year, I gave him a mug of conditioning cubes for the protein (can't have alfalfa or soya), until I came across the Spillers SR and compared the starch and fibre contents... Didn't even finish the bag of conditioning cubes!

Coblet had a mug in each feed for a couple of months over the summer when we were doing a lot and looked fab - coat and hooves good and no fizzyness, but just a little extra oomph and put muscle on really well with schooling.

I've been feeding speedi-beet with a sprinkle of graze-on, linseed and pro hoof all winter, and he's never looked better though isn't muscling up as well...
 
Oberon said:
'Conditioning' feeds drive me mad :eek:.

It's like getting a Mars bar, repackaging it and calling it a 'health bar' :mad:.

A horse looses condition, so the owner goes for a 'conditioning' feed which is often high in starch, sugar and cereals (all the things contra-indicated for ulcer horses). The gut is made more inefficient - and so the horse remains skinny. Then the owner buys more and more 'conditioning' feeds and it goes round in a circle........

Ignore the packaging and look at the ingredients :D.

As a rule I would never bucket feed anything with a higher combined starch and sugar than 10%.

50% of the horse's calorie yield comes from fermenting fibre in the hind gut. So fibre is a good place to start.

Forage is obviously the foundation - as that is what the horse eats most of (grass/hay/haylage).

If the horse needs more, then bucket feeding with a fibre based feed is the next step.....unmolassed beet, Fast Fibre, unmolassed hay/straw chaff, high fibre cubes (Spillers and Dodson and Horrell's ERS are good) can all be fed in high volumes to aid weight.
Alfalfa is a helpful ingredient for an ulcer prone horse as the calcium helps buffer stomach acid - but be cautious as alfalfa can be problematic to some horses.

Added to that I would give a fibre balancing supplement that provides copper, zinc, magnesium, lysine but not iron. An ulcer prone horse should also get gut aids such as yea-sacc or brewer's yeast. You can also use glutamine.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HOOF-...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f215af8a0
http://forageplus.co.uk/product/forageplus-winter-equine-balancer/
http://forageplus.co.uk/product-category/equine-ulcers/

Micronised linseed is an excellent choice, especially in winter. Linseed provides omega 3 and 6 in the same ratio as grass - so it has the magic of Dr Green without the sugar. It also contains the amino acid methionine (good for hooves), is a polar lipid (helps to maintain the hoof moisture balance) and provides gut muculage for an ulcer prone horse.
http://www.charnwoodmilling.co.uk/horse_specs/micronized whole linseed.htm

Salt at 25g per day (more if sweating).

Then we get onto the next tier where we can use such things as soya (Solution Mash) or Coolstance copra for weight.

Oats are great and safe for an ulcer prone horse.
Click to expand...
Hi my name is Jean
I've read your advice with great interest.i feed my ulcer Prone and nervous horse. Fibre beet. And happy hoof.he eats new really well.then stops
 
More and more I prefer straights - grass pellets, grass chop, micronised linseed, unmollassed beet and for a bit more oomph micronised barley. I looked at some of the compounds and thought that any supplements in them I would rather feed separately so at least I know how much. But I have access to a feed store and don't have to rely on what a tack shop stocks.

For my perennial poor doer(almost starved to death before he was rescued so we always wonder about his internal organs) the one thing that really did make a difference was a good pre/and probiotic - Protexin made a HUGE difference to him and he has maintained it ever since he was fed it several months ago. If the gut isn't efficient nothing he eats will help
 
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