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To beet pulp or not? :o Help!

3K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  UnrealJumper 
#1 ·
I've heard beet pulp is great and I've also heard it's bad. What's your take on it?

I just purchased a new horse who was on beet pulp before he came to me and I'm not sure if I should put him back on it.
 
#2 ·
I've never had problems with beet pulp. Just make sure you soak it first as many horses can choke on it as it expands in their saliva as they chew ( a good example was when my friend, completely oblivious to the fact that she was handfeeding her gelding beetpulp instead of pellets, had to rush him to the vet because he couldn't breath!). There is also alot of heavy debate of what it does inside the stomach if not previously soaked.
Anywho... it's a great way to help horses gain weight as it is generally higher in calories than any other forage & contains very little sugar.
Check this out...
The Myths and Reality of Beet Pulp - Susan Evans Garlinghouse
 
#4 · (Edited)
Beet pulp is a great addition as a weightbuilder on an underweight or hard keeper. It does NOT need to be soaked. You can find websites all over the net saying good and bad about it - I'd talk to your vet to get their advice on it. (for example - Carleen mentions above soaking for 8+ hours. I had always heard never to feed beet pulp that has soaked longer than 1 hour because it starts to break down/ferment very quickly and becomes unsafe. Who is right? Who knows. To each their own. I don't think I'd go off any advise/home made websites you find on the net. Ask your vet. I personally also feed my mare beet pulp that has been soaked, for the same reasons Carleen mentions, my mare is not a good drinker. But I would personally have no aversions to feeding it dry either.)
 
#5 ·
It doesn't need to be soaked but if you are feeding it in large quantities and your horse will eat it (so it doesn't go bad) I would still soak it because it can be a choking risk if they gorge on it.

It does pose a choke risk to some horses and I'd rather be safe than sorry, personally, if I was feeding it in large quantities -- which is exactly what I did when I did!

I stopped feeding it to my horse though because he is not a hard keeper and it was unnecessary with all the other stuff he was getting.
 
#6 ·
Love beet pulp!

My mare gets it all winter. Soaked to a nice slurry. She is not a good hay eater and in the winter she does not drink well so this gives her extra fiber and makes sure she gets a certain amount of water.

I have fed it dry with out an issue too.


Many feeds contain beet pulp. It is a pretty common ingredient in complete feeds.
 
#8 ·
Thanks guys! I went out and got beet pulp, Callaway and Diego are now both on it.

Diego is very interested in it, but Callaway (Silver Serenade) pushes it around with his nose, eats a few bite's, knocks it over and walks away! Any suggestions on how to get him to eat it?
 
#10 ·
I'd try adding sweet feed, corn syrup or mollasses. If you're gonna use sweet feed, do about half&half until your horse gets used to it, then gradually decrease the amount of sweet feed & eventually your guy should be able to eat it straight. :wink:
 
#11 ·
Beet pulp has very few cons. It is 10x better for your horse then grain because it is digested like a forage (hay) as opposed to a concentrate (oats). The equine digestive system was never intended to eat concentrates and combined with the bad feeding schedule we keep, it's a recipe for colic.

You do not have to soak better pulp - they have done extensive studies and proven that digestion works far to quickly for it to expand in the gut and cause problems. Consider making beet pulp - to FULLY expand it, you must soak it for upwards of 8+ hours. It cannot swell fast enough in the mouth, throat OR gut to ever cause problems.

However, beet pulp pellets are also EXTREMELY hard - moreso then the average pellet. You risk many more episodes of choke when feeding it unsoaked, and many horses love it soaked - the sloppier the better. It contains the same nutrients either way, so it boils down to personal preference.

Soaked beet pulp is also fantastic for typical bolters - it turns all the feeds added to it a little mushier and makes a nice palpatable meal for the older horse, finicky horse or bolter.

Beet pulp must be fed within 24 hours of soaking or it will begin to ferment. The fermentation process is quite recognizable, you WILL be able to smell beet pulp that has turned. Think of spoiled fruit and that "alcoholic" yeasty smell. Soaking beet pulp for only 1 hour in cold water will not come close to expanding it, so keep in mind that less is more in those cases (1 scoop of 1 hour soaked beet pulp is going to be almost twice as much food as 1 scoop of 8 hour soaked beet pulp).

If you are in a pinch, you can soak up a batch of beet pulp by using boiling hot water in about 10-20 minutes. It's not fully expanded, but it speeds it up if you forgot to put some on the night before. DO NOT ever use hot water if you're feeding the next day - it will ferment rapidly. This is only for a quick fix solution when you need to feed soaked immediately.

Our horses all get beet pulp and complete feed and thrive on it. They all love it extra sloppy as well and will turn their nose up if it's to dry! :lol:
 
#13 ·
Alrighty.

I've been soaking it so that it's expanded and I'm also feeding complete feed with it.
Do you mix the the feed and the beet pulp?


That is what I had to do to get my mare to try it originally. I took half her grain ration and soaked it with the beet pulp. The other half of her grain was put in her bucket on top of the soaked pulp/feed mix. She dove in to eat her pellets and had the rude awakening that there was that evil beet pulp underneath.

It took a while (a couple of weeks) but now she will eat plain soaked beet pulp. She actually loves it. Dives in like it is her favorite thing.
 
#14 ·
My vet told me to feed my underweight mare beet pulp soaked overnight...He says it's really good for putting on weight. Didn't know not to use hot water if soaked overnight though. She was on it last winter when she was skinny...I never had a problem with her not eating it, she always just ate whatever I put in her bucket.
 
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