 |
Re: [RC] Nutrition/Feeding - heidiHi all. I hope some of you can help me out with a feeding dilema. After doing blood and allergy tests on my Arab mare I have learned, among other things she shows sensitivity to molasses. I am trying to mix her own "personal" feed now and neither one of us is very happy with it. On advice she is getting A grain blend from Pennfield feeds of protein 8%, fat 2% and fiber 7%. Added to this is suggested Micro Phase, a vitamin and mineral supplement, 2 oz/daily with this being a minimum of 14% protein per 4 oz. To make this supposedly more palatable and since we are tring to avoid molasses I am adding corn oil. Three cups to approx. 4 lbs. of grain. Another note here, she tied up approx. a month ago on another supplement I was giving her but it had a much higher protein content and she was not ridden for a week. (My fault). Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated here. All this corn oil is very messy and like I said she is not particularly thrilled over it. Thanks. Karen is right that the oil is apt to make the feed LESS palatable, not more. I'd also suggest feeding LESS grain since she has had a tying up episode, even though you are likely correct that not riding her was also a factor. (Consider selenium levels, too.) If I were in your shoes, I'd cut the grain ration by at least half, and would probably feed either dry COB (corn-oats-barley--although it usually doesn't have very much corn in it) or mix rolled barley and rolled oats. And I'd feed just enough oil to get the vitamin-mineral supplement to stick to the grain. Additionally, you might want to try soaked beet pulp, with some oats/barley for flavoring to get her used to eating it. If you can get her onto that, you can feed the vitamin-mineral supplement in that easily, since it is wet. Heidi ============================================================ There are few places where the horse does not fit in; at least in my world, as delusional as that one may be. ~ Howard Bramhall ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
|