Sunflower seeds

Hi everyone,

I have read a little bit about feeding black oil sunflower seeds to horses to improve their coat. My horse already has a really good shiny coat but I would love to bring out her dapples more. At the moment you can only see them faintly when the sun shines directly on them and they never show up in photos. I've read that half a cup a day is good for shine without causing weight gain (my horse is a very easy keeper). What about if I just used them for treats a couple of times a week (or as a reward if teaching a trick) instead of feeding it everyday, would that still have the some benefit?

Are there any dangers associated with feeding sunflower seeds?

Also where can I get them from?

You can buy them about anywhere... including Walmart.

I dont' like them because they are high in Omega 6's which has been shown to promote swelling/imflammation .

I just started feeding my mare a small amount of BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) in her feed after it was suggested on this forum on a thread I started. Too early to see any results yet. I'm not sure you would see any results at all if you only feed her a handful of them here and there, might be better to make it part of her feeding routine...? Otherwise I know that feeding corn oil in the feed can help with coat shine as well. Both are cheap and easy to get anywhere...local supermarket should have both the oil and the seeds for cheap! ALSO, I know that I remember seeing somewhere a specialized feed for horses with dapples to really get them to show - not sure what it was or if it would even help at all, but you might want to search for something like that too.

~*~Robin and horse Deva~*~

Not that I know of. We don't normally feed sunflower seeds, but when we fill up the bird feeders, our mares park themselves underneath to eat all the seeds that the birds drop so they must taste good.

I keep hearing about BOSS! Has anyone seen any resolts? I would hate to use it instead of something cheaper like Corn Oil & have it work the same.

If I was to feed my horses BOSS would feeding them say a couple capfuls, ect a week or every other day be okay?
I hear that oils can make horses gain weight, my new horses (rescues) need the weight pretty bad but I can get that with all the grass they eat.

1. If you decide to buy BOSS from WalMart or wherever, at least be sure to buy the kind that does NOT have "bird koting" on it. The bag will say if it does.

2. Here's a link to support the fact that Omega-6 does, indeed, promote/aggravate inflammation. BOSS is very high in Omega-6

Omega Fatty Acids Are Health Benefits for Horses | MyHorse.com

The best way to ensure a proper balance of 3's & 6's would be to invest n a bag of Omega-3 Horsehine. It does wonders to promote a shiny coat and even promotes healthy hooves as an added benefit

Omega Horseshine

A 20# bag is a little on the pricey side BUT one only needs to feed half cup/daily, whereas most folks seem to want to feed anywhere from one to two cups daily of BOSS.

EDITED TO ADD: I just noticed you live in Australia. If you can't get Omega-3 Horseshine, perhaps there would be another flax product available that would have the proper balance of 3' & 6's.

After doing lots of research I have decided to go with flaxseed over sunflower seeds. It seems to be much more nutritionally beneficial :)

We used to feed flaxseed oil, theres also an omega oil that Mitavite sells, it might be worth looking into that to see if its cheaper, I remember the flaxseed oil was so expensive..

Thanks for that ninjahorse, will do :) I'll be going to the various horse supply shops around here to see what is available at all of them. I can also get ground flax seed from the health food shop and it's pretty cheap.

Horses do not need more Omega 6 fatty acids, as found in BOSS and Corn Oil and most hay retains its Omega 6 fatty acids. If you want shine, go with Flax Meal or oil. I like NutraFlax from horsetech.com, their prices include shipping.

You need to feed 1/2 cup of ground flax a day to see good results. That's about 2 oz by weight.