Has anyone looked at the new grain that tractor supply carries? its called special care and nutrena makes it. it says its only 11% dietary starch.. is this nsc? . the reason I'm asking is that my horses are a pain in the but and are on strike on there grain/ timothy cubes. I was thinking of giving them maybe a 1/4 cup to put a little different flavor in the feed..
With the starch at a maximum of 11% and fat at 7%- I wouldn't necessarily call this feed a "safe" feed. You might be able to get away with a pinch for a taste tempter, but that may also be enough to put a sensitive horse over. I wouldn't risk it if it was my horse.
Has anyone looked at the new grain that tractor supply carries? its called special care and nutrena makes it. it says its only 11% dietary starch.. is this nsc? . the reason I'm asking is that my horses are a pain in the but and are on strike on there grain/ timothy cubes. I was thinking of giving them maybe a 1/4 cup to put a little different flavor in the feed..
NSC is WSC+starch. Sometimes you'll see sugar and starch on a feed label. I believe if you add up the two they add up to NSC. WSC is ESC+ fructans. The group recommends looking at ESC+starch, though some horses really need to account for fructans. For these, its WSC+starch (aka sugar+starch or NSC) to look at. Mine are hypersensitive, so I personally always look at NSC. If you have a less sensitive horse, ESC+starch should be fine.
I have a couple ideas to share with you. The first is turmeric. My horses go crazy for the stuff, to the point where I have to lock my minis away when I syringe feed supplements to my metabolic pony. They absolutely love the stuff.
I've heard good things about fenugreek seed too. Haven't tried it yet, but I should get my first batch soon.
Another idea would be to look at the picky eater file and go through that, to make sure there's nothing else going on.
I do not trust the starch levels on feed bags. At one time, I bought one bag of 5 different feeds that were being marketed as low starch. I sent samples of each to Equi-Analytical for analysis. Starch levels were all above the recommendations of this group and above the levels indicated on their feed labels.
The feed I like best is NuZu Stabul 1. It's harder to acquire but worth it.
For flavorings - Beet Root Powder and Spearmint are big hits here. Beet Root Powder even helps the Pergolide go down!
I also have good success with Uckele's Amino Fac 41 Protein. I have it on hand for young, growing horses. It smells so good that I thought about using it as a flavor enhancer. It works well. It is a high quality protein supplement that is beneficial to horses in all categories so I sometimes add it to feed to hide supplements. It mixes well in water and the horses love it.
I had my horse on the Special Care from TSC, and he got steadily worse on it. But he's severely IR. So if your horse is severe, too, I'd not use it. It's kind of false advertising on Nutrena's part to call that line of feed "Safe Choice". Even the Special Care.
My vet told me to feed Nutrena Safe Choice Special Care. My
greedy horse eats it, but likes his orchard grass hay better. I
give him a cup morning and night so I can feed him his
supplements. His Remission is with the morning dose and he
generally leaves it and some of the pellets. If I put in a handful
of mixed grain that I feed sparingly to the other horses he will
clean the morning dose out better, but since it isn't his Pergolide,
I don't worry too much about it. At night he has salt and ground
flaxseed and vitamin E with it. He likes that better, but still
prefers the hay. He gets his 2 mg. capsule of Pergolide in an apple
core or a prune.
I want to try the Mag Ox when the Remission runs out, but I fear he
won't like it. If I dampen the pellets it might stick to them. The
Remission does, but that is messy. I'd rather find a
dry way to make it palatable. I've tried cinnamon, but that doesn't
seem to make a difference.
