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Rice Bran or Beet Pulp

8K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  klkavich 
#1 ·
okay so my horse needs to gain more weight. She isn't terribly skinny but not at the wanted weight. I upped her feed and gave her more hay, but even after 3 months i haven't seen any change. So i want to try either rice bran or beet pulp but i dont know which one or how much or exactly how to feed it to her. I really need help!
 
#3 ·
I am feeding her 4lbs Purina Senior, and 3 flakes of alphafa which is about 10lbs. she is a hard keeper and i dont know what else to try. She has a pasture but the grass wont grow, so i put a round bale of hay in her pasture she can pick on. She is a 22 year old QH mare.
 
#4 ·
4 pounds of senior is nothing. Take a look at the feeding recommendations:


- WEIGHT OF HORSE IN POUNDS -
LIFESTYLE 600 lbs 800 lbs 1,000 lbs 1,200 lbs 1,400 lbs
Equine Senior® horse feed (lbs/day)
Maintenance 8.00 10.75 13.50 16.25 18.75
Light Work 9.00 11.75 14.75 17.75 20.75
Moderate Work 10.25 14.00 17.25 20.75 24.25
Lactating Broodmare 14.00 18.75 23.50 28.25 33.00
Breeding Stallions 9.75 13.00 16.25 19.50 22.50

It it recommended you feed your mare (based on the assumption that you don't ride her) almost 14 pounds of feed a day. No wonder she isn't gaining on 4 pounds. ;)
 
#5 ·
Wow I really had no idea seniors needed that much but that is a lot of help she gets rode or worked with at least 3 days a week. I will up her feed gradually until i reach 14 pounds. I have heard of people giving their senior horses that much feed but they work their horses everyday.

thank you!! i will try that before i buy rice bran or beet pulp!
 
#6 ·
You might not even need to reach the full recommended serving. :wink: Work your way to 8-10 pounds, and keep a photo log/weight tape record for about a month. See if it's necessary to add more. Feeding a lot of grain can get so expensive! I have a hard keeper who is currently on 6 pounds a day and she is killing my bank account! :lol:
 
#9 ·
Since you apparently don't have an easy keeper:
Copra and beet pulp. With easy keepers you have to be careful of too much copra since it does digest easily and will add the calories.

Both easily digested, low NSC and WSC, none of the issues found with grains. Copra has the reverse more P than Ca so the ratio is backwards, but beet pulp has plenty of Ca and no P so it corrects the ratio.
Copra's digested in the foregut, beet pulp in the hindgut.
You also get about 5-10% coconut oil with copra.
Beet pulp is far too under utilized as an excellent source of easy to digest fiber for the hindgut.

Of course all this should just be things you add to a diet that is made primarily of lots of grazing and/or not too overly "rich", low in WSC, hay.
 
#10 ·
Let me get this straight. The mare is getting 4 lb of senior, 10 lbs of alfalfa plus a round bale and whatever grass she can scrounge. Normally this should be an a more than adequate diet. How are her teeth? How well is she eating the alfalfa which can be stemmy vs grass hay. Timothy is a good grass hay for horses. Senior's should be fed at no more than 5 lbs per feeding. Try slowing down how fast she eats with a small mesh hay net and spread the pellets out as much as you can. The faster it goes in..... Can you split the seniors into two or more feedings?
 
#12 ·
Our senior Belgian had some weight to gain when we first got him (like about 300 lbs!) and he hates beet pulp, picked through supplements, etc. Here's what worked best for us: first since he was already on Purina senior we added Calf Manna supplement and extruded soybean meal. After a few months we slowly switched him over to the Calf Manna equine senior formula and cut out the other two things.
He's now at optimal weight, glossy, and has tremendous hoof growth and his mane and tail no longer feel like dry straw.
It took a year, but as long as you go slow, weigh your feed/hay rather than feed "by the flake" you should see improvement.



 
#13 ·
These complete feeds can work out really expensive, sometimes its better to provide a good mineral lick or supplement and add beet pulp to what you're already feeding for extra weight gain, its high in fibre and calcium plus has the moisture content
 
#14 ·
there is always the ulcer and teeth factor?? but to answer the beet pulp or rice bran question i would recommend beet pulp it is much easier (less messy) to feed in large ammounts and the horses seem to like it a lot more, i had a gelding with sand colic that dropped a lot of weight the beet pulp seemed to help a lot.

they recommend soaking beet pulp for atleast 12 hours I ALWAYS SOAK MINE FOR 24 JUST TO BE SAFE, as like most people i am always a little paranoid when feeding beet pulp.
 
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