Supplement with good amounts of protein

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redpepper

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I've been feeding Forageplus winter balancer plus their essential amino acid supplement.

I would like to find something a bit cheaper and wondered if anyone knew of a supplement with a good protein content? It must be low calorie, with no rubbish mixers in it. The horse is a good doer, who will eat anything.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an online feed database with everything clearly labelled?
 
I suspect you'll find the cheaper the product the less good quality protein is in it - labels make for interesting reading, or the manufacturers website. If it's just the protein you want, just buy some lysine and methionine?
 
Protein supplements are often discussed on the PSSM forum on FB and generally fall one of three ways.

1) Whey isolate protein (normally about 90% protein) you need to feed approx. 100g per day
2) Proprietary amino acid mix (e.g. Tri-Aminos from the US, or the Forage Plus AA supplement)
3) Buy separate essential AAs and make up your own mix.
 
Bulk Powders do amino acid supplements. I think they also do a BCAA supplement.

Not sure how prices compare to those made especially for the equine market, but last time I checked the BP product to one of the equine products the % of the various amino acids were identical. Probably same manufacturer!
 
I expect the right answer depends on why your horse needs these protein supplements, and what other limitations there are on what he can eat. You could have a look at the Equivita, ProHoof and Equimins Advance Complete balancers, all of which have somewhere around 10g lysine and 3g methionine per dose, if I remember correctly.
I wouldn't normally expect a horse to need essential amino acid supplementation beyond that. If you feel you need more quality protein in the diet, you could look at upgrading to a forage with higher protein content, at swapping some of the hay ration for alfalfa, or add something like soya bean meal to the diet (which is ~45% easily digestible protein with a good amino acid profile). Anything that is "livestock feed" and comes in a 20kg bag will probably work out cheaper than protein supplements, but you invariably feed a less "pure" version of protein, and potentially more extra calories.
The more refined you want your amino acids, the more it will cost you, I'm afraid.

BTW, Dairy One labs maintains a pretty comprehensive library of typical nutritional analyses for a whole range of feedstuffs:
http://dairyone.com/analytical-serv...library/interactive-feed-composition-library/
 
NOISYGIRL said:
Topspec Balancers
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Topspec is such a bad feed, honestly go through the ingredients and see the amount off cheap fillers which you are paying good money for them work out how much vits etc your horse is getting daily, it's v v low. Then work out a good supplement such as forage plus or equimins. I wouldn't feed my horses topspec ever but to many people believe fancy marketing and the writing on the bag, owners need to start to research these feeds
 
thatsmygirl said:
Topspec is such a bad feed, honestly go through the ingredients and see the amount off cheap fillers which you are paying good money for them work out how much vits etc your horse is getting daily, it's v v low. Then work out a good supplement such as forage plus or equimins. I wouldn't feed my horses topspec ever but to many people believe fancy marketing and the writing on the bag, owners need to start to research these feeds
Click to expand...

HERE HERE!!!
I see this recommended time and time again, it's full of byproducts! I wouldn't even feed my 2 a free sample of the stuff.
OP, stick with forage plus. It's not that expensive when you compare it to what you'd have to feed of a commercial alternative.
 
thatsmygirl said:
Topspec is such a bad feed, honestly go through the ingredients and see the amount off cheap fillers which you are paying good money for them work out how much vits etc your horse is getting daily, it's v v low. Then work out a good supplement such as forage plus or equimins. I wouldn't feed my horses topspec ever but to many people believe fancy marketing and the writing on the bag, owners need to start to research these feeds
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He won't eat anything else ! its working for me he is 38 so can't be doing much wrong
 
fairyclare said:
HERE HERE!!!
I see this recommended time and time again, it's full of byproducts! I wouldn't even feed my 2 a free sample of the stuff.
OP, stick with forage plus. It's not that expensive when you compare it to what you'd have to feed of a commercial alternative.
Click to expand...

Bit difficult when he won't eat anything else !!!! you don't know my circumstances or his
 
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