Black oil sunflower seeds

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backwoodsnanny

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We have heard both good and not so good things about BOSS and I tried a search to find out what everyone thought of using them but could not find anything specific so could some of you who use them tell me of your experience?

Also how did you feed them just as they come from the bag or ground and put on food?

Did you use them on all horses or just dark horses? How long before you saw a change? Do you use both BOSS and ground Flax or just one at a time? Thank you for any response in advance.
 
Hi there

I use black sunflower seeds for my minis and my big horse.

Other people I know feed them straight from the bag, but I prefer to soften mine by soaking them for a little while. For my big horse I use a mugful per day and I noticed a difference within a few weeks. I feed the seeds along with boiled barley and a little stud and conditioning mix.

Didn't think it mattered what colour horse/pony you used them on.

Hope this helps you a bit.
 
I feed it to all of my horses. Each get 1/4 cup twice a day straight from the bag. I noticed a difference in their coats within 2 weeks. I have fed these for years and when I stopped once, I could tell a significant difference.

Mary
 
Thank you both for your replies. I was interested in the differences that they might make. Also do you also give flax or only the BOSS? Do they add shine to a coat or just improve hair quality? Sorry for so many questions. No problems for the horses in digesting them right?
 
I use 1/4 cup every day mixed in with their grain/feed. I like what it does for their coats. I must admit, however, it can be difficult to get the horses to eat it every now and then. I have a couple of chow hounds that refused to touch their feed if the sunflower seeds were in it. Even if I mixed them in carefully. I had to start very, very slowly with those 3 or 4 horses. Now everyone eats them right out of the bag.

I have heard many people talk about how they will change the color on your horse a bit. I have to admit, there may be some truth to it. The seeds seem to bring out the red in the coats. They deepen the gold of palominis and buckskins, bring fiery highlights to sorrels etc. The problem is that they also make your blacks have a reddish cast, almost like sunbleach. A friend of mine is certain of this as his black horse and his blue roan both got a reddish cast to their coats when he used the seeds. I'm no scientist so it could have very well been something else that caused it, but it went away after a month or two when he stopped using the seeds.

Just some thoughts!
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I give my show horses 1/2 c twice a day and 1/4 c of ground flax once a day. My horses have a beautiful bloom on them. My bay developed huge dapples, a gorgeous black overlay, and was named national champion color horse in 2008. I don't soak. They seem to enjoy chewing on them. They're softer than corn, and they chew that up just fine. Never had anybody refuse to eat them or pick them out.
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Do they do anything else for the horse besides making the coat shine, any other benefits?
 
I too use BOSS straight from the bag...a handful each feeding....which is approx 1/4 cup....I can definitely tell a change in coat quality and bloom...even the new horses that come in their winter coats are coarser and duller and harder to shed out....once they are on it the next year you can see a big difference in hair texture... My forever horses seem to drop their winter coats faster and have a nicer feel to it even when its long and wooley. I LOVE BOSS!!! One of my mares is a jet black and white and she stays that way with the seeds..no fade no red cast.....I have a new blue roan this year so will see what it does for her....she had no trouble whatsoever eating them..yum! Course all my horses are piggies
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and an added bonus..every once in awhile I get a sunflower out in the pasture
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This is kinda a silly question, but I haven't seen it posted. WITH THE SHELLS or WITH OUT the SHELLS??????????? TJ
 
This is kinda a silly question, but I haven't seen it posted. WITH THE SHELLS or WITH OUT the SHELLS??????????? TJ
Must be black not striped and with the shells, does also help with dandruff, but watch some easy keepers can ad weight.
 
I'm a bit late but I'd like to add that BOSS really does wonders if you have a horse with dry skin/coat and dandruff. My mini came to me with dandruff the first spring and within a week on it she was over the flakes. Didn't notice any redness to her coat but she was silky black from head to toe! My bay dappled out for the first time in three years and her black markings were much more pronounced.
 
I was always told to feed black and bay horses the black oil sunflower seeds to help them KEEP their black coats BLACK!!! It worked for me when I was using them with my black arab and my black/white pinto mare!!!! Since I stopped feeding them my arab has bleached out to a reddish color in some sots and in his mane. I'm going to start feeding them again to him and to my minis too to help with their coat conditions!!!!
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My blood bay shows an extremely noticable difference in his coat -- very shiny and bright -- after a couple of weeks of BOSS. My sorrel pinto, silver dapple, and red roan show less of a difference, but they all love and benefit from it. It is a fat, so easy keepers definitely can get too much of a good thing!

In addition to adding it as a feed supplement, I also use it as bait at shows and for training -- very neat and tidy with no crumbs in the pockets. I have to check my pockets before doing laundry, though...
 
Are you talking about the same BOSS that you'd buy to feed birds, i.e from a feed mill or Fleet Farm??

I have an easy keeper...sort of well-endowed, always hungry type mare...would you feed BOSS in ADDITION to her daily 1/4 cup grain and 1/4 cup minerals or INSTEAD of one or the other?

LG
 
This is the information that I have on BOSS:

As already noted, BOSS is an acronym for Black Oil Sunflower Seed. These can be found in feed stores, pet stores, any place that carries bird seed, etc. The black oil seed is said to contain more oil in the shell than the gray-striped version, but nutritionally they are otherwise fairly equivalent. The gray-striped have a larger shell surface, and some reports indicate that they may be better for horses who tend to not chew their food well (seniors, horses with teeth problems). On the other hand, some sources say that the gray-striped shells splinter more easily. There are no real rock hard facts about feeding sunflower seeds, but they have been a staple in the equine diet in other parts of the world, especially Australia for years, and have been used around the race tracks for a long time as well.

Sunflower seeds are high in fat, anywhere from 30-50%, but are also mineral rich, are a good source of Vitamins A and E (both good for the hair coat), and are high in omega-6 essential fatty acids which are essential for skin/coat/hoof health and a strong immune system. The seeds also contain a high level of protein and good levels of amino acids (but not lysine and threonine, two of the more important ones). They are also very calorie dense, so a little goes a long way.

If you'd like to add BOSS to your mini's diet, you should introduce the seeds slowly, like you would any new food item. The average amount given to an adult mini should be less than 1/2 cup per day. Because they are rich in minerals, anything more than that should be mineral balanced with the rest of the diet in mind. If your mini is in extra good flesh, you could use the seeds to SUBSTITUTE for part of the grain ration, instead of just adding them to what he is already getting. As far as what age to introduce them to your mini -- there's no real hard facts on this. Personally, I start my horses on them once they are about 8-9 months old and are starting to get more grinding surface to their teeth. In any case, whether you feed them to young or old horses, there are bound to be some seeds that don't get ground up and digested well and are passed in the manure. The upside to that is your pasture or manure pile gets a little more attractive as the plants grow and bloom!

I feed grain in the morning and mix BOSS with the grain - in the evening I mix it with my wet, soupy beet pulp - this has worked great for me and my horses have a gorgeous shine to their coats.
 
Thank you all for your responses I had heard so many conflicting reports I wasnt sure wether to use them or not. Again Thanks.
 
Thank you all for your responses I had heard so many conflicting reports I wasnt sure wether to use them or not. Again Thanks.
I too have heard conflicting reports, the big one being the Omega 6 vs Omega 3 balance in the diet, and that flax has Omega 3, so better for the horse. I fed BOSS for a few years and liked how my horses looked, then this winter decided to try the Flax (no BOSS), after hearing the Omega 6 in BOSS wasn't as good for horses as the Omega 3 in Flax. Well, frankly, my horses looked better on BOSS, so once my current supply of flax is gone, I'm going back to BOSS. [i know some people use both, but as I have to special order flax, and can only get it pre-ground, the BOSS is much more convenient and it works better for my horses and feed program. My budget will only handle handle one or the other, so might as well use BOSS, the one that works for me.]
 
Anyone tried BOSS on a palomino?

I want to give it a go, but concerned that it would make him smutty.
 
Ok, so I"m slow to get things done, but I'm glad I was able to find this old thread. I'm finally going to try putting my horses back on BOSS and see how it works for me this time around. I've bought a couple other coat supplements in the meantime and tried a few things, but I keep thinking back to how good they all looked on BOSS, so I guess that's where I need to go next.
 

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