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  Discussion on Minerals for young horses
Author Message
Member:
paardex

Posted on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 - 11:39 am:

Is a mineral salt lick available free choice also adequate for foals and weanlings? They are in super condition on only pasture free choice good hay and a little bit of alphalphapellets mixed with rye. All the mineralvitaminproducts available have about 15 to 3 Ca -Ph. With the alphalpha that doesn't sound right to me I already added 1/3 rye and linseedmeal to up the phosphor. I must add the foals stay with the mares for the whole winter so still drink milk to.
For their condition they do not need more then 0,5% bodyweight concentrates is that coupled with the mineral salt lick adequate for the minerals?
Jos
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Monday, Sep 22, 2008 - 9:00 am:

jos, in most cases yes that would be fine but there are exceptions. You should check with your local veterinarian about whether there are any deficiencies common to your area that may need extra supplementation. For more on this see Horse Care » Equine Nutrition, Horse Feeds, Feeding » Minerals and Electrolytes for Horses, an Overview.
DrO
Member:
paardex

Posted on Monday, Sep 22, 2008 - 9:44 am:

Thanks Dr. O. The vets sold me the vit.min. product for the foals. As the soil sample gave no deficiencies and a high Calcium level[a little over 6] I thought it odd the supplement was so high in Calcium and low in Phosphor after reading the articles especially as they eat the alphalphapellets too.
The advised diet over here is oats flattened rye and corn with sometimes peas added for proteine. They keep discouraging feeding alphalpha as they think it is to rich[it's labelled 17 % protein and my horses especially the broodmares have been doing fine on the diet you advised WITH alphalpha pellets] I disagree[especially based on your articles] and now have to OR adjust the CA /PH ratio from 15 - 3 to about 15 to 10 from the mineral vitamin supplement that other then that has the by your articles advised supplementation, or just let them have the mineral lick which DOES have a good Ca /PH ratio.
Sorry to be such a bother but apart from the fact that complete food for foals is twice to three times as expensive it is often over the dates and stored in humid barns which is why I try to balance with products that are sold regularly.
Jos
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008 - 8:18 am:

Hello jos,
"Too rich" by itself really has no meaning as it begs the question too rich in what? The grains you feed are a good bit richer than alfalfa in an energy sense but slightly deficient in protein and without the fiber that aids in digestion. And you need to consider more than just percentages but the total amount fed by weight and how the additional nutrients figure in to adjusting the total dietary nutrients. The horses metabolism sees the "whole diet" not just the components.

Consider the diet of a foal in the wild jos. While we wean foals early, in the wild they continue to access milk from the mare well into the first year. Milk is rich from both an energy and protein standpoint from a dry matter standpoint.

The high calcium supplement looks like it is meant to compensate for the low calcium in grains and grass hays. In order to get an idea of whether this balances or unbalances the diet is to get down and do the math using weights and concentrations to calculate what the total amount of Ca and Phos is and that along with the total weight fed you can calculate the percentages.
DrO
Member:
paardex

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008 - 9:01 am:

Thanks Dr.O. That clears up much for me. As I virtually do not wean the foals they almost eat like in nature. The mares do very well on grass and good hay both ad lib. and alphalphapellets. They both stay way under the limit percentage even for foals and weanlings by weight of alphalalpha pellets. [mare of 1300lbs plus foal of 400lbs recieve 6 lbs alphalphapellets, as the mare eats faster it is virtually impossible that the foal eats to much]
As their condition is good I thus don't need concentrates like grain and the alphalphapellets plus the mineral salt lick should give a balanced diet for now.
If they loose weight and I need to add grains I will recalculate.
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