Beet pulp vs. grain

[debbiesshelties]

Hello,

I have a couple of horses that I would like to slim down a bit. Would replacing their morning grain(very little grain) with a cup of soaked beet pulp help?

Thanks,

Debbie

 

[wingnut]

No expert here but what I've read on previous beet pulp posts is that it's not what you want to use when trying to slim down a horse. If you do a forum search (input area is at the bottom of the page) for "beet pulp" it will bring back a lot of results you can read through.

 

[Laura Leopard]

Beetpulp is usually used to increase the weight of a horse. Perhaps, instead of giving grain, you could give a ration balancer (vitamin supplement) I feed Seminole Equalizer to my guys along with grain and beetpulp, but they are all a great weight. The ration balancer will give them the complete vitamins that they need without all of the extra stuff they don't.

 

[debbiesshelties]

Beetpulp is usually used to increase the weight of a horse. Perhaps, instead of giving grain, you could give a ration balancer (vitamin supplement) I feed Seminole Equalizer to my guys along with grain and beetpulp, but they are all a great weight. The ration balancer will give them the complete vitamins that they need without all of the extra stuff they don't.

Thanks for the info. I will look into the ration balancer.

Debbie

 

[disneyhorse]

I think beet pulp is a strange beast. There isn't quite anything like it.

Think of beet pulp in two ways.... if you feed a TINY bit of it, the horse thinks it is getting some grain (but because you can soak it, it allows you to mix in powder supplements and such) but it's not overly fattening as an equivalent amount of grain.

If you feed a LOT of beet pulp, yes it can help put weight on. However, beet pulp does not carry the same calorie punch as grain, rice bran, or corn oil so if you ARE looking to really put weight on a horse consider these alternative calories sources to supplement your beet pulp.

No one food is fattening or slimming... it's your horses' overall diet that will make a difference.

Andrea

 

[~Lisa~]

Beet pulp alone will not make a horse gain weight that is just simply not the truth. It is actually less calories per pound then any grain.

Now true if added to the horses NORMAL grain ration you can feed it to add weight as it is a safe feed- as well as the fact that when soaked it bulks up so what started out for all nutrional purposes as say 1 cup of dry feed soaked now becomes 6 cups of feed. It does not mean the calories have increased 6 times.

This is why it works for a horse who needs to lose weight. You can cut the grain ration in half or more and then add beet pulp the horse is still eating the same amount of food in bulk but it is really getting much less.

It would be like I guess the choice of eating 1/2 say oreo cookie- or one pack of the 100 calorie oreo cookies... there is a difference in calories of course but you also get to eat a lot more with the 100 calorie pack then if you had to eat say only 1/2 an oreo