Re: Fat?

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

Heya Lovell,

Animal fat is commonly used as a fat supplement for horses, cattle,
swine, poultry, etc.  It's virtually the same in digestibility as
vegetable-derived fats and has about the same energy level.

The pelleted fat you're referring to is a process of manufacturing
wherein the fatty acid is bound to a calcium molecule and becomes a
solid sort of crystal or granule.  There are also methods in which the
fat globule is encapsulated in different types of polysaccharide so that
you can time exactly where the fat portion is released into the GI
tract.  The latter method is used primarily for cattle, as fats affect
them a little differently than non-ruminants.

The advantange to using the crystallized fat is that it's very often
more palatable to the horse, as it doesn't have the slimy texture to
it.  It stays fresher much longer than liquid oil and is easy to store
as long as it doesn't go over about a hundred degrees, when it starts to
melt.  If the product you saw looked like lard, it was probably
melted---when it's in good shape, it has a dry, slightly waxy feel, but
isn't gooey.  A couple of the manufacturers add a molasses or caramel
flavoring to it to also increase the palatability.  As far as I know,
this is NOT the fat source used in Purina Athlete.  The FatPak/Energy
100 is usually just sold by itself as a supplement.  The dairy industry
uses tons of it.

Some people are horrified over the very idea of feeding an animal fat to
horses, that it's "unnatural".  But, nutritionally, it's perfectly
acceptable, causes no physiological disadvantages and is no more
unnatural than most of the other things we ask horses to do for us. 
It's okay if someone doesn't feel comfortable feeding animal fat, but by
the same standards, they also shouldn't use leather tack or bristle
brushes or neatsfoot oil.  And for that matter, feeding fats of any
kind, or large amounts of grain, or even hay at all is a deviation from
what the horse would be eating in the wild.  Don't mean this to turn
into a soapbox, but I thought it likely the subject might come up at
some point.

Anyway, the only thing I've heard about using the crystallized fats is
that some people report pulse hanging, whereas they don't using
vegetable fats.  I havent seen that myself, but I personally only feed
it to a broodmare (and have had good luck with it), not to my
performance guys.

Hope this answers your questions (and probably then some)!

Susan G

Zaronica@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I remember a nutrition seminar given by the Farmland Nutritionist, and she
> spoke of pelleted animal fat for horses.  I have never fed anything but
> soybean oil.  I was wondering if anyone you know of ever used animal fat and
> if perhaps that was the source of fat in the Purina Athlete being discussed
> awhile back?  Just curious.  The animal fat of course looked sort of like lard
> which of course looked unappetizing to me.  Lovell