Feeding beet pulp

Our vet told my mom to feed her mare beet pulp to help her gain and maintain weight. My mom got beet pulp flakes, and she gets a scoop twice a day, soaked of course. It's been working wonders.

So my question isn't about whether to feed them or not-- everyone has a different opinion about what to feed their horses and what works the best. I went ahead and bought a bag of beet pulp for my horse, since winter has been a little harsher than usual, but the feed store where I get my grain from only had it in shreds. I was planning on feeding her a "dry" scoop, soaked over night.

I was just wondering if the fact that it is shreds instead of flakes makes any difference. I've also seen them in chunks, so that's three different ways it's bagged. Does it make a difference, or is it all the same?

Anybody?

The pelleted has more molasses, but other than that, it's really what you prefer and what is most convenient. It's all the same.

You only have to soak flakes or shreds 20-45 minutes, less if you use warm/hot water. Soaking overnight is not necessary, and it can go bad if the room is warm.

I use beet pulp with my goats to give them extra fiber for their guts and a little extra "bulk" without too much extra protein. It adds some extra calories and bulk, but it doesn't have a whole lot of nutritional value.

I prefer to use alfalfa pellets or chopped alfalfa hay for my horses (I feed grass hay). Alfalfa has more calories than beet pulp, more protein for muscle development, and some lysine, an important amino acid, as well as other good nutrients. Feed 3-5 lbs of alfalfa pellets (or cubes or chopped hay) to supplement most horses' diets.

Not necessarily true.

Do not depend on the shape to figure if there is or is not molasses.

You can buy either (pellets or shreds/flakes) with or without added molasses.


I personally use the Blue Seal pellets that have no added molasses.

Always, that's usually true, but I have a bag of Blue Seal pelleted that have so much molasses in them I can actually smell it, and the pellets are darker than normal.

I generally try to buy the shredded without the added molasses, but the pelleted was the only thing available. I don't really care either way, except that the shreds seem to give me more bang for the buck.

We buy the pelleted - but only because in a worst case scenario - where we can't soak the beet pulp - we are more comfortable feeding the pelleted dry than any other form. Since the beet pulp is the only thing we feed that has molasses in it anymore, I'm not worried about whether the pelleted may or may not have more molasses since either way, there won't be all that much in the horses' feed anyway.

Besides, the extra molasses is probably what helped our new ones get over their concern about eating something they've never had before...like decent feed?

I'd totally forgotten about the fact that they can go bad-- I'll just soak them in the morning before I head out, it takes me about 30 minutes to get out there anyway.

Also, is a "dry" scoop too much? When I fed them to her this morning it seemed like so much pulp after it had been soaked, and seemed disproportionate to the scoop of feed I gave with it. I'll probably only do a half a scoop tomorrow, with a full scoop of grain.

BS has it with and with out added molasses. You must have a bag with added molasses. What does the ingredient list say?

I swear mine smells more like (I imagine) dried sea weed smells like.

Yeah, it has molasses, but Ginger can be finicky so I don't mind the added sugar as long as she eats it.