Nutritional clued up folks please :)

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thatsmygirl

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Up until 2 weeks ago I had all my horses on equimins advance complete balancer, they are all good doers so don't get hard feed just a handful of chaff with the equimins. Now after speaking to a rep and getting a few bags of topspec balancers free iv swapped mine over on to this but I'm unsure which is better vits/mins wise. I'm thinking the equimins is but can't quite work it out. For example copper in the equimins is 4500mg/kg but the topspec is 200mg/kg and it goes on like that with quite large level differences or am I missing something? Also am I being thick or the way I'm looking at it is there's 1000 mg to a gram so the equimins makes sence but topspec being 200? Surely if 1000 mg = gram that would be 0.200?
I have a copper shortage so iv picked copper in this case to look at but there seems to be such a big difference in spec between these 2 and a HUGE price difference. Now I'm not wanting to get involved with hay testing etc but soil tests proved that we have very very poor soil so I should think the grass will follow that. We are fine with that due to our laminitis prone lad so won't use fertilisers etc but do want a good decent vit/min supplement without giving loads of food. Tbh the topspec measure is far far more than they are use to ( 450grams) so that shows what I mean in regards to a small handful of chaff with a good supplement in which is what I'm after, any ideas? And can anybody shed light on the copper workouts between the topspec/equimins? My lots are loving the topspec but is it worth the money? Going to give them decent amounts of mins. Thanks
 
Can't find the analysis on the topspec website so can't really help with that, though 200mg Cu per kg seems far too low unless you are feeding nearly a kg of it per day!

After looking at lots of expensive supplements I have decided to just feed my horse the main things which seem to be deficient across the UK.

He gets 175mg copper, 525mg zinc, 5gms magnesium, 0.5mg selenium and 500iu vit E daily, all from pro earth on ebay. They are relatively cheap to buy as seperates and last for ages, but it is a bit of a pain having so many tubs!
He also has salt and linseed added to his chaff and handful of oats.
Seems to be working well for him, he's barefoot, sound and looks good, and its a lot cheaper than buying a ready made mix. :)
 
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Thanks for your reply, topspec is def 200mg/kg as I checked on the bag a few times due to the huge difference between the 2 products. I just can't get my head round working how how much copper they are actually getting when given 450g of topspec per day. What do u think of the equimins?
 
The equimins is 4500mg/kg and they were getting a 40g dose a day but again I can't work that out to what copper they are actually getting
 
The equimins is providing 180mg per day and the topspec only about half of that (100mg in 500gms and you feed 450gms, so about 90mg copper) so for me the equimins is much better. :)
 
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Thanks :) how did u work the equimins out? I couldn't do it.
The equimins is linseed based and the topspec has wheat feed etc in it. The only other thing that worrys me is that, with a handful of chaff and equimins are they getting enough protein?
 
1 dose is 40 gms so 1000gms (1kg) provides 25 doses (1000/40) divide 4500mg by 25 and that gives 180mg. :)
Don't know if equimins provides any protein or not, but I just chuck 10gms lysine and 5 gms methionine into my feeds just to be on the safe side, I buy it from pro earth.

I'm such a cheapskate, but I resent paying a fortune for ready made suppements when I can make my own for half the price!

Would go for the equimins over the topspec though, don't really do compound feeds these days, just simple straights and my own concoctions!
 
Thank you so much hollybear :) think I shall stick to what I was doing with the equimins, yes equimins does have protein in it at 14.5% I think. Mine really are loving the topspec but its so expensive
 
The other thing I would look at is levels of iron and manganese. If these are high they interfere with the absorption of copper and zinc. Given that forage in the UK tends to be too high in these, you don't want your balancer to add more.

That's why I like the progressive earth and forageplus one. I don't know the levels in equimins.

Btw I always assume if mine love something straightaway, it probably includes something that isn't very good for them ;)
 
Topspec lite balancer has the correct levels of vits n mins for your horse...Not sure about the norm... Spillers lite balancer also has a good spec of balanced vits /mins
 
The equimins has no iron added at all but the topspec has I believe 400mg/kg if I'm right.
There is molasses in the topspec which my lot aren't use to having so that's prob why they love it so much. I have to say though I also love the smell of topspec
 
I have a list of Top Spec and Equimins. The copper on Top Spec is 100 and Equimins 150 per 500g feed. Mine is on top spec and looks great :) but not tried the equimins. The top spec is under 10 in starch and sugars, the lowest ive found unless using a lite balancer.
 
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