BOSS????

[silverstar]

For those of you that feed Black Oil Sunflower Seeds for condition and shine in your miniatures, Do you feed them as they come or do you have to prepare them??? Also how much do you give your miniatures daily???

Thankyou

 

[Irish Hills Farm]

I feed it as is. I give a "handful" with each meal. Basically what you can enclose in the palm of your hand.

 

[barefoot]

Look for the sunflower seeds without the KOTE, that they add for the birds. I have heard it is bad for the horses.

Emma

I think their is a bag at walmart that is KOTE free.

 

[ruffian]

I do the same as Sheryl, about a handful with each feeding.

What is KOTE? Never heard of it. . .

 

[Alex]

I also feed it as is, and Its probablly about a handful...

 

[chandab]

I feed it as is. A 1/4 cup to my B-size minis (34-37") and an 1/8 cup to my only small mini (31"). [i feed 1.5-2 cups to my senior half-Arab gelding.]

 

[barefoot]

I cannot find the article I read explaining why bird-kote is bad for horses. Here is an explanation of what it is though. If I find where I read that I will post it.

Enriched with Bird-Kote®, a nutritious coating for wild bird feeds made up of vegetable oil, which has been fortified with oil soluble vitamins and elements needed by wild birds. Among these additives are: Vitamin A,Vitamin D3, Iodine, Calcium, and Nutritious Vegetable Oil.

 

[The Simple Life Farm]

I also feed a handful at each feeding. I found it made them gain weight (which I needed). It also caused some loose stools for a few days. I THINK it may help prevent certain colics since it contains so much oil, JMO.

I took 3 of my mares off it, they didn't need the extra weight, they were "fluffy" enough. LOL

 

[dali1111]

BOSS is wonderful I swear by it now. Both my horses had naturally lack luster coats and oily flaky skin. Now they are soft and silky and my black just gleams. At shows people always comment on thier coats. I feed mine a cup and a half each and they are little (29 inches). They used to colic ALL of the time but other than a cold they haven't been sick since I started them on it. Also if you can get it at your feed store it's way cheaper and and you can get it in giant bags. My horses get about half a cup of complete feed, one and a half cups of BOSS and their hay each day.

 

[Jill]

I got them one time to feed to our horses, but only fed them once. I just worried about the shells especially as one of my horses had to have colic surgery (had been at a trainers when it happened) and the surgeon told me as to why "it was as if she was fed very coarse feed". So........ No shells for my horses.

What I do feed them is ground flax seed. It really, really makes them shine and brings out the bloom and healthy dapples (don't mean silver dapples). I used to feed Select Nu Image as a coat conditioner but am happier with how the ground flax seed does.

 

[Margaret]

This product is high in fat and oil content., so it is good to control the amounts as some have stated here to avoid unwanted weight gain..

I had a mare years ago that was fed too much of this product, by someone else, and this mare put on some serious fat pads by spring.

for coat conditioning, I cant see feeding more than Chandab has mentioned for her miniatures, or a small handful as the others stated.

 

[silverstar]

This product is high in fat and oil content., so it is good to control the amounts as some have stated here to avoid unwanted weight gain..

I had a mare years ago that was fed too much of this product, by someone else, and this mare put on some serious fat pads by spring.

for coat conditioning, I cant see feeding more than Chandab has mentioned for her miniatures, or a small handful as the others stated.

Yes thankyou everyone. I dont need it for weight gain, just for condition so ill try a small handful a day, thanks!!

 

[tnovak]

It's fed with the shells on then? My herd of 2 might like it as a little treat.

 

[Hosscrazy]

Yes, it's fed with the shell on (the shell is soft). I also feed about a handful each day for each horse.

Liz R.

 

[Relic]

l used BOSS for only 2 years for the ones we showed yes they were shiny but not any more so then when using flax seed. My daughter hated when l fed it to her mare because she would get fat rolls on the sides of her neck which wouldn't exercise of in time for showing. Last year she was a lot slimmer necked and nice and shiny with only using flax...just our experience. l do give it year round at half a cup a feeding to one of the stallions who can't stand still for more then 30 seconds 24/7 along with other fattening grub and free choice hay to help keep weight on him..he glows in the dark.

 

[Anne ABC]

I got them one time to feed to our horses, but only fed them once. I just worried about the shells especially as one of my horses had to have colic surgery (had been at a trainers when it happened) and the surgeon told me as to why "it was as if she was fed very coarse feed". So........ No shells for my horses.

What I do feed them is ground flax seed. It really, really makes them shine and brings out the bloom and healthy dapples (don't mean silver dapples). I used to feed Select Nu Image as a coat conditioner but am happier with how the ground flax seed does.

How much ground flax would you feed to a 31" mini per day?

 

[Jill]

I would give a heaping tablespoon.

Another nice thing about ground flax seed (must be ground, not whole) is that it helps them shed out in the spring

 

[Mini Mouse]

This is probably a dumb question but: Is Flax Seed something you buy at the health food store or do they make it for horses and buy at feed store?

 

[Jill]

This is probably a dumb question but: Is Flax Seed something you buy at the health food store or do they make it for horses and buy at feed store?

Not a dumb question at all! You can buy it at the health food store (and probably should) if you're the one eating it. A lot of people do use it themselves. But, if it's for the horses, then you can buy it at the feed store. I think a 40 or 50 pound bag costs me only $30 or so. It's very inexpensive at the feed store, but it costs tremendously more at the health food store.

It comes in a burlap sack and is whole. You need to grind it. I grind it using an inexpensive ($5 or so) coffee grinder. What I've done and has worked fine for me is to grind a lot or all of it at one time, and keep what I'm using in a big coffee can and freeze the rest. Once it is ground, it will not keep a long time, so either grind and freeze it, or only grind it a little at a time.

 

[tnovak]

Stupid question......is Milled Flax seed the same as ground??