Multiple high oil supplements/feeds

[TwoStroke]

Does anyone know exactly how much oil it is safe to feed per day/per feed?

I've been given a bunch of feeds by a friend (with an obese horse - friend has finally accepted that the horse needs no more oil!). I have equijewel, outshine and triple top up. I'm already feeding micronised linseed. One of mine could do with more weight, but frankly I'm at a loss as to which (if any) are safe to feed together. I know it's no more than 100ml per 100kg of body weight, but how the devil do you work that out with all these convoluted supplements?

Friend must have spent a fortune on all of these!

 

[SCMSL]

The maximum a horse can process is 10% of the entire diet, and this includes hay.

So if you are feeding lets say 15kg of feed per day including hay, then 1,5kg of that can be fat.

To calculate the fat in each "supplement" you just multiply the percentage of fat of that supplement for the amount you're giving.

Ex.: EquiJewel (18%) at 1,5kg per day = 0,18*1,5=270g of fat from EquiJewel

 

[TwoStroke]

Thanks SCMSL.

That's quite a difference from the 100ml per 100kg of bodyweight, then? Having googled it, 100ml = 100g, so for a 550kg horse that's 550g of oil.

If I fed said horse 2% of it's bodyweight, that's 11kg of feed.

By the % calculation I should be able to feed 1.1kg of the 11kg as oil (though I'd feed more forage than that, as horse is skinny, but keep the oil% the same)? But with the ml/kg calculation, only 550g should be oil .

 

[wench]

Could you just use the different packages up one after the other.

The max outshine you can feed in a day is 1.2kg. I really like outshine, works wonders.

 

[SCMSL]

Ok, so if your horse weighs 550kg, his maximum daily intake is 2,5% of his body weight, so 13,75kg. This is the MAXIMUM he'll eat, so if he has food always available (pasture, hay or haylage) you can assume that's what he's eating.

Now, each feed has its own maximum daily intake ratios (equijewel is 1,5kg, for example) so you shouldn't go over it.
If one fat supplement isn't enough for your horse, you can use others, but you should make sure they don't have the same constituents. Outshine and Equijewel should be compatible because one gets its calories from wheat, soya and linseed and the other one from rice bran and linseed. I know nothing about triple top up so I can't comment on that one.

Now, if you still wanted more calories (horse with tie up or gastric issues, for example), you could always mix soya and linseed oil at a 50:50 rate and top up the feed until you get the 10% global oil intake. By mixing the soya and linseed oils you still maintain an appropriate ratio of omega 3 : omega 6 while keeping it affordable.

 

[TwoStroke]

Ah, thanks SCMSL, that's very helpful.

Wench, I could, and might, but this horse is notoriously hard to get weight on in winter, so was wondering how much it was safe to feed. With ad lib forage he never drops below 2.5 condition score, so I don't normally worry too much about it. Since I've been given the stuff though...