Re: Purina Athlete

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Hi8,

I'm going to just refer you to Maggie Mieske's reply, since she pretty
much says what I was going to.  However, so this doesn't totally qualify
as a "me too" post, you mention it would be impossible to feed your
horse the amount of oil he would need to gain maintain weight.  If you
try mixing the oil into the beet pulp, you'll be able to get alot more
into him and it'll still be much more efficient than trying to feed alot
of Purina Athlete.  I don't have any recent experience with
Athlete---some years ago, Purina had some problems with maintaining
freshness and consistent quality, I would assume they've solved those
problems by now.  One of the problems you are always going to face in
feeding a high-fat feed is: how are they keeping the fat content from
going rancid?  (and you care about that because oxidized fat smells bad
and is far less nutritious).  Either they can add antioxidants, which
will slow down but not wholly stop the oxidizing process, and/or they
can use very heavy, lined feed bags, date-stamp the bags and really keep
on top of maintaining fresh product at the feed store.  Just a few
things to keep in mind when buying any commercially mixed feed with a
high fat content.  Anyway, that's one of the reasons you might consider
just adding fat to some beet pulp (or if you like, you can add some
Athlete to the beet pulp and oil as well)---you can control the amount
of fat, you know it's fresh (assuming you buy the oil in fairly small
amounts and keep it tightly closed in a cool, dark place), and it's
still the most concentrated form of calories you can get.

BTW, you *can* actually feed more than two cups a day, just work them up
to it slowly.

Good luck,

Susan G

Olympian06@aol.com wrote:
> 
>         Hi all....on one of my treks to the feed store I came across a new product
> (new to me atleast) called Purina Athlete.  I have never heard about this
> product and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this food?
>         I started feeding this because my Arabian has tendency to drop weight when he
> is racing.  I feed a good quality grass hay and they receive oats and sweet
> feed.  I do not feed alfalfa because of various reasons. I need to put this
> weight on my horse and the amount of oil he would need would be impossible to
> feed him.  SO....this feed has a lot of fat and protein, it goes like
> this.....
> Crude protein not less than...............14%
> Crude fat not less that ......................14%
> Crude fiber not more than..................4.0%
> 
> All I am wondering is if anyone can see any problem with this feed, or has
> heard anything about this, either good or bad.  I greatly appreciate any
> information you might have and can give.  Thank you all so very much!!!
> 
> It is so warm here lately that all of the horses are shedding, whoopee!!!!!
> 
> Johnna Robb
> Arizona
> Olympian06@aol.com