Beet pulp

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KanoasDestiny

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I just bought a bag of beet pulp shreds for the first time. I soaked 1 cup in a cup and a half of water, and split it between my two horses. They didn't know what to think about it, but I mixed it with their feed pellets to encourage them to eat it. Since today is the first day that I've used them, I want to go really slow. So how often does everyone feed beet pulp? Is it a once a day thing, or given every feeding?
 
I feed it at the evening feeding(once a day). I started like you did, slowly this past fall. It's good stuff and gets a little extra water in them in winter time. They seem satisfied/eat it right up and look good with good body cover and helps mine keep a trim tummy. My yearling, I watched closely not to over do the pulp as the added fiber could make them too loose. So it's kinda something you have to watch in each indivual horse.....just like people they have their own constitution.

I do about a 1 and 1/2 cups for my yearling and 2 cups for my mature mare, once a day. I will be adjusting this some during show season.

What I do is measure out my dry pulp shreads....put plenty of warm water to cover it...let it soak about 20 to 30 minutes, drain off most of the juice but measure about 1/2 cup of juice on each of their pellets and mix their beet pulp in with it. I try not to over do giving mine that molases juice water as it's sugary but a little doesn't seem to hurt.

Edited to add: the beet pulp is fed in addition to their complete pellets and good quality hay, fresh water.
 
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Hi

I use "Speedi - Beet" just in my evening feed and find that it only takes around 5 minutes to soak in boiling water. As I have a foal, I give him 1/4 cup "Speedi - Beet" to 1 cup of boiling water. By the time I have made up his feed, the "Speedi - Beet" is ready to go and he gets a nice warm meal (he loves it!). I also dilute a little ACV in the water before I add the "Speedi - Beet".

This is from there web site:

Its key benefits are:Quick and Convenient - UNDER 10 minutes

Unmolassed - 95% SUGAR FREE

Ideal Fibre source for horses prone to laminitis - low sugar/high fibre

A Laminitis Trust approved feed

Rapid re-hydration

Non-heating

Slow release energy

Excellent complementary feedstuff to hard feed

Extremely palatable

Unique patented processing allows release of nutrients prior to hind gut fermentation

Why does Speedi-Beet have greater nutrient availability than beet pulp?
Not only does the manufacturing process of Speedi-Beet force fibres apart it also disrupts them. Non-fibrous nutrients that were encapsulated by fibre are now available to the digestive enzymes and the available surface area of the fibres is increased allowing more gut bacteria to attack and ferment them.
I have read on the forum previously by members, that they did not use this product as it was so expensive. It comes in a pretty big bag and as you only use so little, (as it swells so much with water) I find it extremely economical.

I would just say when introducing any new feed, start with small amounts and work your way up to the required amount.
 
I actually feed it with every meal. My old pony would eat it plain with nothing else and act like it was the finest caviar. My mini looked at him like he was crazy and didn't want to touch it. What I normally do when introducing it to a new horse is start out with only about 1/4 the amount (after soaking) of their grain or pellets and mix it in so they are mostly getting their normal feed with a little bit of beet pulp... then I gradually increase it until they will eat the full amount I want them eating just fine. Once I went through that process with my mini he developed a taste for it and now he loves the stuff.
 
I use the pellets- although it has molasses it is easy enough to rinse it off- and I soak them either in boiling water for ten minutes or overnight in cold.

The cold is better if you intend to rinse out the molasses.

I think you need to give it more than ten minutes to soak when introducing it as the softer it is the more palatable it is in the first instance- once they are used to it you can feed it dry if you want they will not care!!

Girrawheen, the reason Speedi Beet was introduced is that we still have a culture that believes that Sugar beet cannot be fed unsoaked- this has been disproven long ago and feeding the shreds- which are unmolassed- lightly soaked or even dry is far, FAR cheaper.

I did try the speedibeet a few years back but it makes up to half the amount of unprocessed beet pulp and is hugely more expensive.

As I am feeding 20 horses this actually matters
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If I was only feeding one or two I suppose it would be less of a problem.
 
I prefer the pellets over the shreds I just seem to get more out of it.

1 cup of dry pellets = 6 cups of soaked beet pulp here..

Right now I have horses on different amounts our 29 in fat gelding gets 3 cups of soaked a day.. most everyone else gets 6 cups of soaked a day with some getting more.

When I am starting someone new on it.. well it takes some time for some to get used to it and some wont even now after years eat it until I put there grain in with it.

If you are going to soak it in hot water(which I do in the winter) I soak it for about 3 hours but just be careful sometimes in the middle of the bucket you can get some hot spots that havent cooled off yet.
 
I prefer the pellets over the shreds I just seem to get more out of it.

Same here. I'd go through about 3 bags of the shreds in the time it takes me to go through a bag of the pellets, and the bags cost the same (about $9us) so for me $9 vs $21 for the same amount of feed makes the pellets worth it.
 
I had a horse choke on beet pulp - not once but twice! Granted, this was a geriatric big horse, so he of course had other issues going on as well, but I DO recommend soaking it!

The first time it happened I had just sprinkled some dry beet pulp with his other feed, and he choked and then colicked. I didn't know what choke looked like, and the farm vet just treated it as a colic.

The second time it had happened I had talked to an equine vet and other horse people, and they had said what I was describing sounded like choke, so I started wetting the feed - and it happened again:(

I'm lucky that my old guy pulled through each time, but I never feed any beet pulp now without soaking it thoroughly first.

And yes, my old gelding had regular equine dental care. He wasn't missing teeth yet and was still able to eat hay.
 
When I introduce a new horse to beet pulp, they generally look at me with an expression like "you want me to do WHAT with this???" lol! I do as others have said though, put just a tiny bit in with their normal grain or pellet feed, and gradually increase. All of my horses love their beet pulp (I soak it) and will gobble it down with nothing else added. I've recently found out that they love the pellets plain too, as treats singly from my hand. Yum! :lol:
 
Yesterday, I only fed it once (afternoon feeding), and mixed it with their Kwik pellets to try to encourage them to eat it. Surprisingly, Zoey ate it all. :new_shocked: She is the picky one of the two. Gideon left quite a bit in his bowl (but picked out his pellets), and Zoey went in and ended up eating his too. I plan on giving it daily, to make sure that they are getting that extra moisture in them. Thanks for all the help.
 

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