What DO you feed?

[Field-of-Dreams]

Ok, after reading so many posts for a while, what DO you actually feed?

Brand:

Price:

Amount you feed:

Type hay:

How much you feed:

Price:

Just curious, what to get an idea of what most of you feed.

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

Me:

Brand: Purina Mini & Pony, nothing added

Price: $15.75

Amount you feed: 1 scoop (yeah, that's helpful) Looks to be a 2 cup scoop. Fancy gets more, Sunny gets less.

Type hay: Coastal 3 string bale right now

How much you feed: Split one flake 2x a day between 4 minis. (BIG flake)

Price: $22.50 3 string

 

[muffntuf]

Brand: AMD Senior Patriot, Ultra Fiber and Junior Glo

Price: $16.75 / $16.00 / $23.00 (prices were just before I bought pallets)

Amount you feed: Depends on animal - minis 3/4 lb. Senior Patriot or 2 lbs. Ultra Fiber

Type hay: orchard grass mix and alfalfa (either a mix or straight)

How much you feed: They get 1.5% of their body weight until winter and then I up it a bit to another %.

Price: This year - 3.25 a 45 lb. bale orchard grass mix. $8.50 a 70 lb. bale on the alfalfa/alfalfa grass mix.

 

[disneyhorse]

Right now I'm feeding Timothy and orchard hay ($27 and $25 per 100 pound bale respectively).

I'm feeding the ration balancer ProAdvantage ($50 per 50# bag) and that's it. Simplicity at this time.

Feeding about 8 pounds of hay daily to my 46" Shetland (2% of his body weight roughly) and two cups of the ration balancer daily.

 

[muffntuf]

Hey Andrea can you post a pic of the ration balancer? - was always curious about that.

 

[hoofhearted]

Strategy (changing over from Omoline 300), $18.00, depends on who..a little less than amount on bag.

All are on pasture during the day(gelding and stud on green 10 acres, mares and foals, donkeys on weaker pasture, 3 acres) Dollar a 3 string square bale for 200 bales, and it's lovely! Next load will be $3.50 per..(I have a huge cow that eats a lot, lol.

Timothy/.fescue/orchard hay (what we can get) i flake per stall in a bag lasts several days (nights).

We add timothy/alfalfa mini-cubes to the grain, about a handful, soaked. $14.00

Donkeys also get Remission to help with their weight and issues.

One mare gets BioSponge daily (full dose, 2 scoops) because she has chronic cow pie poop. yukky..it does fix it though!

 

[Renolizzie]

My little guy has been getting meadow hay $10 per two twine bale] that has a lot of timothy in it and a small scoop [1/2 cup maybe less] of Nutrena senior feed [$17 per bag] on the days I cart him or take him for a walk. Also, he generally gets a carrot or half an apple cut into eights for treats most days.

He seems bright eyed and healthy and the farrier says his feet look really good. The flax seed in the senior feed seems to help a lot with his dandruff.

We live in a desert and he never eats green grass of any sort. Dry lot, I think you call that.

I don't know if this is the best way to feed since everyone seems to have an opinion. I've never been big on supplements [unless an animal has an issue [like the little horse having dandruff].

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

My feeding list is pretty simple

Brand:Otter Co-op Ration Balancer

Price: about $22.00 for a 20lb (I think thats what it converts to might be more) bag

Amount you feed: 1 cup for the smallest ones and 1.5 to 1.75cups for the larger ones. I'd tell you the weight but I don't recall, I weighed it out when I first started using it and made sure that they were getting the recommended amounts for their body weight.

Type hay: Timothy/brome/orchard grass mix with a little red clover in it occasionally (depends on the feild)

How much you feed: 4lbs a day for the smallest ones and 6lbs a day to the larger ones - split into 2 or 3 feedings (if I am home I offer them an afternoon snack of some of the days allotment )

Price: This year $25 per 1200-1500lb bale most years $50 for the same size bale (and this is the best hay I've seen in years too

)

The only thing I add besides free choice salt is whole flax seed. They get (careful measurement here ) 2 handfuls each with the ration balancer

 

[JMS Miniatures]

ADM PrimeGLO

$23

.6 ounces a day

Depends on what I can get on hay, prefer straight orchard grass, right now I'm feeding alfalfa/grass mix, 50 lb bale.

4 lbs a day for each mini, one is getting 6 lbs a day.

$15 but looking into getting a pallet load (36 bales) for $13 a bale, my hay rose in price by $2 in one jump.

Also get a 100 lb MoorMan's GROSTRONG Pro-Vita-Min tub for $55, horses love it.

 

[Minimor]

Most of our horses get just hay, no grain (other than as a treat once in awhile). A group of 10 geldings (all B sized, 34-37") gets a 1200 lb round bale of grass hay ($40) and that lasts them about 8 days. So--that is about 15 lbs of hay per day; a small amount of that is wastage but the geldings aren't too messy or wasteful. A group of 9 mares will go through that same bale in the same 8 days, but they have more wastage--dirty things! They also have a choice of mineral block or salt block. At one time they ignored the salt & devoured the mineral, now it is the other way around. Mineral blocks were sitting unused and salt blocks get devoured.

A group of 5 geldings will go through an 800 lb round bale in 12 days--those are mixed bales--cost $40 once delivery is added in to those. I just got a load of rounds from this particular supplier--price is the same, $40 delivered, but the bales are smaller than last year (which the guy forgot to mention when he told me the price wouldn't be going up from last year)--I'm very disappointed, because these bales are so much smaller. That same group of 5 geldings went through a new bale in just 6 days.

I'm buying small squares (55 lbs) of mixed hay; one hay feeds 7 horses for one feeding, so each gets approx. 7-8 lbs of hay per feed and all clean that up by next feed. Those are $3 each.

I have two young stallions and the mature Mini stallion on grain--also one weanling filly. The two young pony stallions get one litre of grain (1/2 rolled oats, 1/2 Frontrunner Phase Two pellets) twice a day. The Mini stallion gets a 500 ml scoop of rolled oats 2x a day and the weanling filly (Mini) gets 1 litre of grain (half oats, half Phase 2 pellets) once a day. The phase 2 pellets are a mare/yearling feed, 14% protein. I would have been buying the Phase one which is the foal feed, 16% protein, but the yearling pony stallion won't eat it--the Phase Two is the only thing that he will eat--it took time to get him worked up to half oats, initially he would eat the pellets ONLY.

Pellets are, I think, $16 or $17 for a 55 lb bag; rolled oats vary a bit in price, I was paying $7.70 for a 50 lb bag but I picked some up yesterday and it had jumped to $8.60 per bag.

Everyone gets mineral and salt blocks--at the moment salt blocks are the only ones being used.

 

[disneyhorse]

Hey Andrea can you post a pic of the ration balancer? - was always curious about that.

http://www.prognutrition.com/pagrassformula.html

This is what I'm feeding. It's $50 a bag here but only because the vendor has a monopoly and shipping is so much to the west coast down here. It's fully loaded with vitamins and protein so builds top lines easily. Progressive Nutrition is pretty helpful too with their customer service.

It helps eliminate the need to feed supplements and its really palatable. All the horses I've seen in this product look great, so I've started feeding it too and it's worth the cost.

 

[muffntuf]

Is it a pellet though?

 

[chandab]

Brand: Running Horse Trail Mix (extruded), Woody's Senior, beet pulp, oats

Price: 21.85/ $15.50 / $16.00/ $16.00

Amount you feed: Depends on animal - Most mares get 3/4# extruded feed, little stallion 1.25# senior, skinny mare 1# oats/1#bp (everyone else gets 1/3# beet pulp daily), and skinny gelding gets 1# beetpulp.

Type hay: grass mix, mostly crested wheatgrass and some brome (mostly homegrown in round bales)

How much you feed: They get 1.5% of their body weight until winter and then nearly free choice for all but the real fatties who get 2%.

Price: Bought 50 bales of mixed grass hay for $90/ton, comes to about $3.25/75# bale.

 

[Becky]

Muffntuf, yes it's a pellet. I've had a yearling colt on Progressive Nutritions' Pro Advantage Grass Balancer since January this year. I was having some leg issues with him earlier caused by the variety of products I had him on. After visiting with one of the nutritionists at Progressive, his recommendation was Pro Advantage Grass Formula and grass hay. Only. Nothing else. I started that immediately, the colt's condition improved dramatically in a short period of time, I put him in show training in June and he finished the year with an AMHA World Championship and a World Top 10. Here he is pictured jsut a few weeks ago at the World Show. Conditioned entirely on Grass Balancer and Timothy hay.

 

[disneyhorse]

It looks kind of like Purina Strategy but its not grain based and you don't feed as much of it.

 

[muffntuf]

How big are the pellets?

 

[hoofhearted]

We have used both salt and mineral blocks..have to read carefully, as some of the cattle ones have molasses added to get them to take more.

Our horses came from a place where they only had poor quality 'cow hay' and no salt..and a bit of sweet feed they fought over. The mares were within a few months of foaling, and we were really worried. When they came here, they would lick the dirt, and when they found the salt they went crazy. Licking turned into biting chunks. I figured they were lacking, and let them have it(within reason). Then I replaced the blocks with the rocks (don't know what they are called, but they are big rocks wrapped in plastic). The gang loves them, but at the right amount. Lick when needed, and no more. I was glad to find something that works.

If everyone looks good, and you don't sense any issues, then all is likely well. Sometimes it's worse to change things when you don't have to, and then getting back to normal can take a while.

My two boys on the grass pasture look great, and get no grain. When the weather turns cold, we'll add some to help them stay warm and happy.

 

[disneyhorse]

Muffntuff.. The pellets are very small, like purina strategy size... Or maybe like rabbit alfalfa pellet size if I remember correctly...

 

[muffntuf]

Thanks! I appreciate the information.

 

[Jill]

We feed a good number of little horses.

Most of our horses eat a low starch "complete" pellet, called Pace-Maker Fat & Fiber, which is 12% protein / 6% fat / 20% fiber, to most of our adult horses. It is milled by our local Farmer's Co-op, but formulated by Kentucky Equine Research. It is available in other locations from local mills that have licensed the formula. Currently, it is about $15.25 / bag.

Some of our horses are getting a complete senior feed, called Pace-Maker Old Timers, which is 14% protein / 5% fat / 18% fiber... we give this to a few hard keepers and also to PG mares late term / nursing and growing horses. It is currently about $17.50 / bag and also milled / formulated as per above.

The hay we feed is an orchard grass mix, which may contain fescue but we have no PG mares at this time. We pay $5 / bale BUT have a special relationship with the particular farm.

What we do is feed the pellets 2x a day. Baseline is 1 mini scoop per horse, adjusted for the individual. They get hay 1x per day, except the few harder keepers who get it 2x a day along with "grain" 2x a day.

Hope this is helpful!!!