Rice Bran question

Can someone help me with the daily amount of rice bran to ad to a minis diet to add a bit of weight and better coat, this is in addition to a well balanced diet.

Thanks for any help.

esty said:

Can someone help me with the daily amount of rice bran to ad to a minis diet to add a bit of weight and better coat, this is in addition to a well balanced diet.

Thanks for any help.

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If you are purchasing a stabilized, commercial rice bran product in a feed store, there should be feeding instructions by weight of the animal. Usually this will reflect the amounts suggested for a 1000-1100 lb full size horse. Just use about 1/4 of that amount if your mini is in the average 200-300 lb range. A little more or a little less won't make any difference in terms of the balance of the diet since most of these products are "balanced" themselves. Rice bran typically has about 10 times more phosphorus than calcium in it, so is inherently "inverted" in terms of the proper calciumhosphorus ratio. Therefore most rice bran products will have calcium added back into them to bring the ratio back to normal. Look for the "calcium added" label on the product to be sure you are buying a balanced mix. If it does NOT say calcium added, then just be more careful about how much you add in relationship to how much calcium your horse might be getting from other sources. If he is getting alfalfa products or beet pulp, those are higher in calcium than phosphorus and will help offset the high phosphorus of the non-calcium added rice bran.

Generally speaking 2-6 ounces of rice bran would be plenty for most adult minis. Be aware that rice bran contains gamma oryzanol, and while that might help with weight gain, many horse owners have reported that they also gain weight on their neck quite readily while eating rice bran. If this would be a problem in your horse (though it sounds like he could actually use the weight), then you might want to seek an alternative way to add fat to the diet.

Robin C