starting on beet pulp

[TAMARACKREG]

What would be a good starting quantity for a large TB mare? She gets grain once a day and free choice grass hay 24/7. How rapidly should it be increased and what is a good daily ration to increase weight? Any other beet pulp tips?
Thanks for your assistance.

 

[Howdyjabo]

http://www.horses-and-horse-information ... dalt.shtml

 

[msscamp]

What would be a good starting quantity for a large TB mare? She gets grain once a day and free choice grass hay 24/7. How rapidly should it be increased and what is a good daily ration to increase weight? Any other beet pulp tips?
Thanks for your assistance.

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.asp ... eet%20Pulp

 

[holly heifer]

i hate beet pulp I was feeding it to an old pony
and he choaked on it severely and developed aspiration pneumonia. The pony almost died . Cost me $1000 in vet bills
Pony is fine now. I like the beep pulp that is in the senior feeds
but I will never again feed it straight. The pony was eating it
soaked. I have been told to feed it dry as well as wet. I can see
how either way it can swell in the esopagus ansd cause choke.
Be careful! Just my personal experience! :shock:

 

[Alan]

i hate beet pulp I was feeding it to an old pony
and he choaked on it severely and developed aspiration pneumonia. The pony almost died . Cost me $1000 in vet bills
Pony is fine now. I like the beep pulp that is in the senior feeds
but I will never again feed it straight. The pony was eating it
soaked. I have been told to feed it dry as well as wet. I can see
how either way it can swell in the esopagus ansd cause choke.
Be careful! Just my personal experience! :shock:

So is why I always throw warnings out about beet pulp, you really need to soak it very well if you are going to feed it. I feed all my horses it during the evening feeding mix with the vits, and grain. But I soak it a minimum of 5 hours before feeding, mix in the morning feed in the evening. Great source of extra filler and moisture for weight gain. We have a 16.2 TB gelding that I feed it to, he just never seems to gain weight. He's not thin, it's just they way TB's are.

You have gotten some good advice already, but just to keep it simple for me, I would start with 1 scoop of a 1lb butter tub full of beet pulp mix with her regular grain and supplement portion mixed with water. I put all the dry into a bucket and mix, then add water to the bucket so it's at least 3 inches above the mixture, let set for 5 or 6 hours. Check how thick it is before you feed. You can bump up the amout of beet pulp after a week or so, just compensate with more water. Not much to the nutrition value but will benifit a thin horse or a horse you're hauling for a long trip, (great way to get water to them). A lot of horses won't eat beet pulp on it's own, it needs to be sweetened up, grain, molassas, etc. Don't worry about getting too much water in it, my horse will all eat it even if it have the thickness of cold ceral in a bowl of milk, although if they are not use to it you may need to mix in some treats on top the first few days, pieces of apples, carrots. Just leave it in the stall they will get the idea, (it does spoil in about 24 hours)

Good luck,
Alan

 

[hayray]

I don't see why feeding 5 pounds at a time would be a problem. I feed it to some old horses that don't have much teeth and can't chew hay very good. I don't think there are any problems with gasing or anything like that. I agree with Alan, you need to soak it. I add ground corn and some molases to mine quite a bit to make sure they clean it up.

Ray

 

[Alan]

I was curious, so I check the bag to see what value beet pulp had:

8% protien
19% fiber
2% fat (I think can't really remember the last one)

but other than fiber no much to it.

 

[TAMARACKREG]

Thanks for the responses and the info. I soaked it (2 cups dry) all day while I was at work and mixed it w/ her oats and sunflower seeds (1 qt. each). After 5 days of feeding and 2 cases of choking we're done. Probably moving on to corn oil.