Triple Crown Safe Starch Forage

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Abby P

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I just switched Rowan onto this after my new batch of hay (same supplier, same type, new year's crop I guess) caused him to develop a cresty neck in a matter of a few days. It's a struggle to eliminate all the grass from his area without making it tiny but I did reduce the size of his paddock earlier this year and that got rid of most of the grass, he still gets some along the fencelines that I can't do anything about.

Currently I'm experimenting with slow feeding methods for the chopped forage - he normally eats hay out of 3/4" hole Hayburners (woven) nets and those do not slow him down in the least with the chopped hay. I tried doubling them but then he couldn't get any out at all! So far the best hanging net setup I have found is two 1" hole Haychix knotted nets, that slows him down to almost a reasonable amount for a pony his size to consume each day but the knots wear his nose off so I don't want to use those long-term. I have ordered muck bucket topper nets from Hayburners in the 3/4" size; supposedly they can't get the hay out as easily when there is no gravity pushing it against the net so I am hoping the 3/4" will slow him down enough in the tubs, if not, then I'll add a second topper in a larger hole size. The tubs have the added effect with chopped hay of the horse not getting "bonus rain" every time they take a bite - when the net is hanging, a little falls out every time they touch the net and so overall it just comes out a lot faster.

This product is expensive, however, it does have all the supplementation they need contained in it - minerals, vitamins, etc. so the only other thing you have to feed is salt. It will work out to be a bit more expensive for me but not too bad once I subtract supplement costs and what I pay the barn to feed him the supplements. There is zero waste and the sugar is guaranteed to be extremely low. Hopefully the remaining additional cost will be made up for in peace of mind and better feet! He has not been frankly laminitic but does get white line disease every summer that I feel is due to his sugar intake.
 
I was also wondering if the last batch of coastal bermuda I bought for Billy was the cause of his recent episode. He obviously loved it and ate every blade--no waste. But I'm thinking it was high in sugar. I had some of his other hay left so now he has that in his slow feed bag.
I think it would be hard if one is boarding to get things right.
 
I loved Triple Crown Safe Starch and bought it for an older mini who had foundered. It is a terrific product but as you stated, expensive. Goldie did very well on it and as it is a complete feed needed no other feed. After about 6 months, however, I could no longer get it in my area even by special order.

Rowan will love it, I bet!
 
Oh he sure does love it! A little too much, haha, working on slowing him down - right now it's in muck buckets with 3/4" net toppers and I am cautiously optimistic. He was annoyed enough with them to try pawing at them and standing in them but he's definitely able to eat, and the pawing had downgraded to waving his foot in the air occasionally while eating by the end of the first day, so I'm hoping for just the right balance.

Luckily my local feed store carries it and in a pinch Tractor Supply has it at some locations around here as well.
 
Oh he sure does love it! A little too much, haha, working on slowing him down - right now it's in muck buckets with 3/4" net toppers and I am cautiously optimistic. He was annoyed enough with them to try pawing at them and standing in them but he's definitely able to eat, and the pawing had downgraded to waving his foot in the air occasionally while eating by the end of the first day, so I'm hoping for just the right balance.

Luckily my local feed store carries it and in a pinch Tractor Supply has it at some locations around here as well.
What is a net topper?
 
Hay goes under the net. It being in the bucket slows them down a little bit more vs. a hanging setup (no gravity pushing the hay against the net).
 

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Hayburners sells the net topper kit, the bucket is just a regular old muck bucket. They make them for stock tanks of all sizes too. I did have to zip-tie it to the wall to keep him from flipping it over!
 
Just wanted to report in that at least from what I can tell so far, the tub topper nets really seem to be just about right in terms of slowing him down enough but not making him frustrated.
 
Just wanted to report in that at least from what I can tell so far, the tub topper nets really seem to be just about right in terms of slowing him down enough but not making him frustrated.
He is able to push the topper to reach to get to the bottom?
 
Yes - the net is big enough to line the entire tub (so when you put it on a full tub, there is a fair bit of loose net). So the horse can get all the way into the corners and get everything out. :)
 
Yes - the net is big enough to line the entire tub (so when you put it on a full tub, there is a fair bit of loose net). So the horse can get all the way into the corners and get everything out. :)
Thanks. I like it. Where did you fine it? I'm going to look for this.
 
An update: in two weeks Rowan ate two bags of the Safe Starch Forage, with that being somewhat front-loaded to the first week while I was figuring out how to feed it to him and waiting for my muck bucket topper nets to arrive (read: moving it back and forth, spilling some here and there, a couple of days where he was able to stuff himself with as much as he wanted). So hopefully this is about perfect - that works out to an average of 5.5 lbs per day which will hopefully become closer to 5lbs now that it's consistently in the muck buckets and he's slowed down appropriately. That's under 2% of his ideal body weight so fingers crossed we get a little weight loss. His crest already seems softer/smaller so here's hoping!
 
I just ordered two bags of Safe Starch forage for one of mine that has become picky, and won't eat anything other than her hay; but she needs some weight before winter, so we'll try some safe starch and see how it goes.
I have some extra netting, so will find a clean muck bucket that I can use, if needed; mostly it's going to be supplemental to her baled hay.
 
Right, if you WANT them to eat it efficiently, then just putting it in their regular food bucket would probably work just fine! I don't think he'd waste any if the nets weren't there, he seems to like it pretty well, and it's not stemmy or anything like that.
 
OK, here is the photo comparison! Three weeks on the Safe Starch. He is taking about 9 days to eat 40lbs now that I've got the delivery method sorted out. Here he is the day I started him on it:

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And here he is today:

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Slightly different lighting and unfortunately I cut his butt off in the first pic but he does appear to have lost weight and his crest is going down. Gained a hole on the girth of his harness. And...only one data point on this, but...he was not at all bothered by gravelly areas last time I had him out on the trail, areas where he would previously sometimes go bushwhacking to avoid walking on the rocks, he just tromped right down the middle.
 

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