Copra Meal

[miniaddiction]

Was just wondering if anyone has ever fed Copra Meal?

We have just been given a TB mare by an elderly lady. The mare used to be a racehorse until she injured herself and is fed a really high energy grain and also gets 4 cups of soaked Copra meal with her grain. I have never seen it before, it smells and looks delicious, and this mare is just in absolutely beautiful condition, lovely shiny coat and great body condition.

Here is a link Copra Meal

I was thinking it might be a good addition to the feed of show horses and babies/lactating mares as it is quite high protein and has good natural oil.

Has anyone got any experience to share?

 

[disneyhorse]

I had to use wikipedia.com to figure out what the heck it actually IS!!! I don't know... it basically is meal made from coconuts... and although coconuts are a good food in general I'm not sure I would feed it to horses. Just seems somewhat unnatural. Horses + coconuts???

I guess if you get good results, go ahead and try it. This is not something I've ever seen available in the USA. I did see the other post about the coconut oil/soybean oil blend though... but that is just a weight gain oil type thing, and not a meal.

Andrea

 

[chandab]

Wow, very interesting. Thank you for the link. I've never heard of copra meal before, doubt its available in the states.

 

[miniaddiction]

Andrea..I had the same thought! Coconut + Horses seems like a really odd combination. But perhaps just because we aren't used to it???

I soaked it in hot water and gave it to my mare as a mash after she foaled..never seen her bolt something down so quick and she is still loving it mixed in with her grain and alfalfa three days later....

Seems like it will be good for my skinny old pony with no teeth too! Yay!

Upon some further investigation it is quite popular among eventing and racing stables around NZ...who would have known.

Im going to try it for a while, I'll let you all know how I get on

 

[BM Miniatures]

we use it here

 

[victoria]

We used to feed it back in the show pony days. It is very oily and fatty food which is why coats look nice on it. Personally I don't feed it anymore, I found extruded rice, Boss and flax far superior for the minis. Also I seem to recall a few horses in Oz getting sick and I think some even died that were being feed copra and in some way it was linked, and that was last year. Might be worth doing a google search as that is a concern to me.

 

[BM Miniatures]

we only use it on our Old TB gelding that needs that little extra to keep the weight on and it keeps him looking good though winter.