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Discussion on BOSS/Flax
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Member:
Galatea
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Posted on Sunday, Apr 11, 2004 - 12:56 pm:
Hello Dr. O,
I have heard many people singing the praises of feeding Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS) and ground flax meal to their horses as a coat supplement. I did a search for both and have read the article, so I am clear on the flax part of the equation. Having also searched for any info on the BOSS on the site, I found that none of the threads had specifically refered to the Black Oil variety of the seeds. Apparently the people who feed it claim that they are smaller, and that the hulls are softer than the typical striped ball-park treat seed, so digestion was not a problem. Although hoards of people are feeding this to their horses with no trouble, I wanted to make sure by asking you before I tried it. Do you believe it would be safe? No more than 1 cup a day, though I have heard of people feeding up to 4 cups!!
As a bit of a tag on question, does Soy Oil have linoleic acid in it? I currently add a bit of Corn Oil, but the Soy is less expensive and was suggested to me.
Thanks very much for your time,
Nicole
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Apr 11, 2004 - 10:44 pm:
I am not aware of any problems with sunflower seeds but have no personal experience with them. Currently I am on vacation so away from my library so will have to look this up when I return, but I do not think soy is known for its linoleic content like lax is.
DrO
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Member:
Galatea
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 13, 2004 - 12:20 pm:
Thank you very much, I think I'll start gradually giving my horse a bit of the black oil sunflower seeds and see how that goes. As for the Flax, all things being equal is it better to feed the ground flax or whole flax? Something tells me the whole flax would have more oil content, but can a horse's digestive system extract it, or do they pass through whole? Both forms are available at my feed store. Thanks again!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 13, 2004 - 6:18 pm:
We have a lot more information on feeding flax at Care for Horses » Nutrition » Fats and Oils in the Diet of Horses. However whether it is ground or whole probably is not as important as the amount of processing done to it, see if the labels don't list the percent fat, I think they are suppose to.
DrO
DrO
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