minerals

[Kenneth F]

I’ve got three horses two haflingers and a paso fino one of my haflingers was bred to a jack in June I have Dumor brand bag horse minerals in front of them free choice but they need something more they’re chewing on wood and licking the metal hitching rail. a fella said they were missing something and you can tell it. I started them on red cell yesterday what else can I do, or do I need to to do what’s another brand if mineral that’s good I got the dumor on sale less than half price so I bought 3 bags

Kenneth

[jen judkins]

Kenneth, I am not familiar with the DuMor loose minerals for horses…just their mineral blocks (which are full of crappy by-products and molasses). Are you sure you don’t have a bag of the cow minerals? In that case I would not feed to the horses as the potential Urea cross contamination could make them sick.

When it comes to free choicing minerals, buy clean minerals without molasses. Free choice and molasses do not belong in the same sentence. I use alot of free choice minerals and also feed out 100 lbs of kelp each year free choice (a 50lb bag each in spring and in fall) for 6 horses.

I use dynamite free choices. They are good quality and cover my needs nicely.

https://www.dynamitespecialty.com/OrderCustom.asp?InvDispCatID=4&InvDispSubCatID=40

ABC has a long list of free choice minerals and I have used them in the past (the copper and magnesium in particular) with good results.

http://www.abcplus.biz/Categories.aspx?Id=Free_Choice_Minerals

Horses are amazing in that they will forage for minerals in their environment very intelligently. You can encourage this instinct by fencing a browsing area for them in your pasture (some shrubs and wood trash). Mineral deficiencies are more common in horses with limited turnout, because of this.

What do you feed your horses?

[Kenneth F]

I’m gonna check when I get home I’m almost positive it is horse but can’t find it on their website. now I’m second guessing my self.

[grey]

I use Moorman’s Grostrong.

[Kenneth F]

[Kenneth F]

Thanks for the replies I’m feeding southern states select feed 12%. the mare that’s really showing it is bred, I haven’t thought about it but I don’t guess a mare and foal would hurt. it’d probably help her I’m gonna check and see what southern states has for minerals.

[jen judkins]

Nothing wrong with the mineral mix you have, except that it contains alot of different minerals. Horses that are deficient in a mineral can overdo it with a mix like this, accidentally overloading them on other minerals, exaccerbating the problem, which is why I like to free choice a variety if salts. Your pregnant mare will need alot of calcium (in the proper ratio to phosphorus) to support the bone growth of the foal without leaching her own bones.

[Kenneth F]

What do I need to look for as a calcium source?

[jen judkins]

you can check with southern states, but one of the two links I shared above will do. Dynamite has two calcium free choices…2:1 for horses with mainly timothy hay for forage and 1:1 for those getting a fair amount of legumes. ABC’s calcium free choice is a bit more challenging as you have to be careful about balancing the phosphorus. http://www.abcplus.biz/abc2.aspx?Id=Equine_Minerals_C-Mix

[Lanny Collins]

I use Moorman’s Grostrong like Grey but not sure if it is alway’s mineral deficiency that causes wood or metal chewing. I have a couple
of mares that will eat the paint off a vehicle if left in the field but other horses won’t bother it. I wonder if some of it could be just boredom or ?

[Anonymous]

ive used redmonds salts with all of my animals and it seems to work, I picked up one of the redmonds rocks the other day to see if the pigs would waste less and both the pigs and the horse seem to like it a lot. I second the fact that animals need a broad spectrum of forage to balance out the diet and self medicate.

Jared

[grey]

I leave out three blocks, also. A trace mineral salt block, a sulfur salt block and a cobalt salt block. Sometimes one block gets hit really hard by everybody and disappears. Other times they ignore it. It comes in fits and spurts. I had one that gnawed on wood when she was in the tie stall but I think it was just anxiety. At the time, I tried everything under the sun to coat the wood with something repugnant enough that she wouldn’t chew on it, to no avail. I tried six different commercial preparations marketed for just such a thing and all it did was slow her down a bit. The behavior has since disappeared on its own.

[Lanny Collins]

http://www.equisearch.com/horses_care/health/winter/winter-wood-chewing-in-horses/?utm_source=TrailRiderFB&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Facebook

Saw this link on facebook and thought someone might like to see it.

[jen judkins]

Thanks for the link, Lanny. It reminded me about rule number one concerning feeding horses. Horses are meant to have there heads near the ground grazing or foraging about 18 hours a day. So increasing their hay ration or figuring out how to make it last longer is key to preventing boredom and worse, digestive issues like ulcers. I love the slow feed nets. They are nets with small openings (come in various sizes) that cause the horse to eat slowly, so hay lasts longer and best of all, they waste very little. They have really cut my hay usage down and hay that I put out in the am lasts until I feed at night.

Shire nets are the cheapest and are sturdy, but the holes are somewhat larger than the other more pricey nets. But there are tns of options if you just google ‘slow feeder nets’

[Kenneth F]

Interesting read that may be the whole problem. I got a block yesterday just to see what they would do. southern states minerals looked to be the same just a little less on some minerals.

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