here's what we were told: you will have to adjust the amounts for your herd. we have 28 total so i use 3 cups in a gallon of water... let it sit about 24 hours (so each night i fix it after feeding, for the next night) - but do not save any leftovers and use them the next day, we were told it starts to ferment and that's bad, so be sure to clean your container well also... sorry no details on that, we just "follow the rules" LOL. anyway as the seeds soak they turn the water into a jelly, kinda sticky... i hate when i get it on my hands or clothes... when we are ready to feed we use a ladle and just stir and scoop, stir and scoop, to try and keep the ratio the same for everyone... kinda like italian salad dressing that you have to shake before putting on your salad, it tends to "separate" - the seeds sink to the bottom. anyway i give the little ones not quite a full ladle, and the pony-sized a ladle, and the "big" horses get 1 1/2 to 2... we just dump all their buckets of pellets into their feeders, then go back and dump in some bran and ladle the flax seed on top. everyone loves it - even the ones that are fussy about bran and won't eat much scarf up the seeds... :aktion033: even my daughter tried it! :new_shocked:
edited to say, we were told that the jelly, being sticky, picks up the sand from their intestines as it goes through.. someone elsewhere on the forum said that is a myth, it works for a different reason... but all i care is, it works! when we do a sand test (boy is THAT fun) we have way less than we used to...
ok before you ask... to do a sand test, pick up as much as you can of a fresh pile of poop, without getting the pieces that have sand or dirt sticking to the bottom of them from hitting the ground... put it in a bucket. add water and stir, the hay particles will float to the top and over the edge, keep stirring until the wtaer is clear, if you have more than a quarter teaspoon of sand in the bottom of the bucket that is too much. and a piece of advice i learned the hard way - do NOT use your BARE hands to stir!
: i washed my hands countless times and still smelled like poop 3 days later!!! :smileypuke: