How much beet pulp do you feed?

[jmbnsyd]

My new BO adds beet pulp to all her horses grain (in varying amounts) and she recommended adding some to my horses grain since he could use some weight. I said ok and she added a little bit of soaked BP and he loved it. She wants to bump him up to 4lbs at each feeding (total 8lbs a day). This sounds like a lot to me...So, how much BP (in lbs) to you feed per day??

Also, he gets Blue Seal Vintage Versitility which has BP listed as a main ingredient. Is there any worry about too much beet pulp in a diet?

Thanks!

[JB]

4lb a feeding doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a whole lotta volume - shredded bp is roughly 9c/lb, and then if you soak it that's a lot more volume. Some horse won't eat that much in a feeding.

Generally, you're looking at 40% of the forage requirements as the upper limit to feed in bp. So, the 1000lb horse who needs 20lb of hay should get no more than 8lb bp.

What does "needs some weight" mean? I wouldn't head straight towards working up to 4lb/feeding - overall that would be 8000-8800 calories, which is a LOT. I'd probably start by ending at 2lb/feeding (all dry weight of course!) and giving that a chance to settle in and see where you end up. From there, you can adjust up or down.

[jn4jenny]

What JB said. I'd be much more concerned about the volume than about the weight.

[Auventera Two]

Two of my horses just get a couple cups, soaked.

My arab mare gets a mix of beet pulp and alfalfa cubes. Once its soaked, it is about 2 1/2 gallons, or half of a regular 5 gallon feed bucket. That's in addition to her hay.

[manyspots]

While I don't know the weight, I measure out 3/4 QT of pelleted dry beet pulp with a 3 QT scoop then put it in an 8 QT bucket (the small ones) and add about 3/4 bucket water. The beet pulp expands to fill this entire amount of water in the bucket. This makes up the bulk of his meal, along with 2.5QT of Alfalfa pellets and 3/4QT oats.

[Cashela]

How much bp actually affects calcium levels? Or should I say, how much bp is to much in the calcium dept.?

[jaimebaker]

I have my horses out on pasture 24/7 and they just get BP to carry their supps in. 4 of the 6 are overweight so they get 1 cup shredded BP and soaked it equals it little over 2 cups. The average keepers get 2 cups (before soaking).

Heck, for all 6 horses beet pulp put together it's barely a pound. But I do NOT want extra weight on my horses since they need to lose weight. So, if you want it for weight gain I don't exactly how much is recommended. So yep, meaningless post:lol:

[JB]

How much bp actually affects calcium levels? Or should I say, how much bp is to much in the calcium dept.?

Actually, about 20% of a grass forage would make a nice balance in the calcium department :)

It's similar to alfalfa in the calcium area.

[Brockstables]

Hmmm. We feed 1 1/2 cups dry beet pulp per horse per day, soaked.
We add that to senior feed and timothy hay.

[Bank of Dad]

Each of my guys get 2 cups dry measure, then soaked, mixed in with ration balancer or senior feed twice a day. They get a couple flakes of hay twice a day each too.

[jmbnsyd]

Thanks for the info guys!

I just moved to a new barn and my TB always backs off grain when under stress (not very motivated by food at all!).

Before the move, he was eating about 5lbs of BS Versitility and about 5 lbs of hay stretcher (the hay and pasture at old barn was poor quality).

He's now on great pasture and has free choice grass hay (he's not crazy about it) and gets a flake or two of a grass/alf mix AM &PM. He's currently eating 3lbs of BS Versitility & 4lbs of Hay stretcher. BO mixes 2 cups of bp with his grain and he loves it.

He has dropped weight since the move, which I expected, but now that he's settled in and eating good, I'm struggling with what's best. Should I eliminate the hay stretcher and add more BP?? My blue seal rep said he prefers the Hay stretcher (no surprise) bc it's balanced.

Any comments or suggestions??

[deltawave]

Four pounds of beet pulp would probably take my horses an hour to eat. It's not a problem, but I'd build him up to that amount gradually--it's a BIG volume of "stuff", and a picky eater might not have the patience.

Could you add more of the grass/alfalfa hay, assuming he likes it? How about a source of fat, such as oil of some sort? I'd consider beet pulp and hay more or less equivalent on the "weight gain" scale, but that assumes average-quality hay. Richer hay such as alfalfa will give you more calories, usually. I'd always err on the side of forage over another grain or pellet--I consider beet pulp closer to forage than grain--when it comes to a "first choice" for putting weight on a horse. Next would be a fat source.

I wouldn't worry about the calcium--the body will handle it. :)

[Ravencrest_Camp]

Four pounds of beet pulp would probably take my horses an hour to eat. It's not a problem, but I'd build him up to that amount gradually--it's a BIG volume of "stuff", and a picky eater might not have the patience.

Could you add more of the grass/alfalfa hay, assuming he likes it? How about a source of fat, such as oil of some sort? I'd consider beet pulp and hay more or less equivalent on the "weight gain" scale, but that assumes average-quality hay. Richer hay such as alfalfa will give you more calories, usually. I'd always err on the side of forage over another grain or pellet--I consider beet pulp closer to forage than grain--when it comes to a "first choice" for putting weight on a horse. Next would be a fat source.

I wouldn't worry about the calcium--the body will handle it. :)


So beet pulp would be your first choice for weight gain, over a fat supplement?

[deltawave]

FORAGE would be my first choice, generally speaking. :) I'd go with HAY before beet pulp, actually. ;) But if the horse did better with beet pulp for whatever reason, sure, beet pulp is fine. I wouldn't choose it OVER fat, but FIRST. Does that make sense?

CALORIES are what cause a horse to gain weight, and although fat has more calories, ounce-for-ounce, I always would go FIRST with what is more natural to the horse: forage. It doesn't mean I wouldn't use both, but my mind-set for nutrition is always to go with forage before anything else. Hope that makes sense--fat is great, but I figure there's almost always more room to add hay, except in circumstances where the horse can't handle it, the hay is not optimal, or the horse won't eat enough.

ETA: especially in winter, I think forage is so much more "the way to go" for a horse needing to gain weight. A belly full of hay keeps the critter warm, preventing needless loss of calories to stay comfortable.

[luvmywalkers]

In general, for a mature horse, beet pulp shouldn't be more than 25% of its total diet. It lacks several minerals and vitamins, is relatively high in calcium and low in phosporus; these imbalances should be corrected with the rest of the diet.
Beet pulp provides more digestible energy than most good-quality grass hays, which is why it can put weight on where free-choice grass hay won't do it.

[KristiKGC]

My new BO adds beet pulp to all her horses grain (in varying amounts) and she recommended adding some to my horses grain since he could use some weight. I said ok and she added a little bit of soaked BP and he loved it. She wants to bump him up to 4lbs at each feeding (total 8lbs a day). This sounds like a lot to me...So, how much BP (in lbs) to you feed per day??

Also, he gets Blue Seal Vintage Versitility which has BP listed as a main ingredient. Is there any worry about too much beet pulp in a diet?

Thanks!

4lbs dry, or after soaking? 4 lbs dry sounds like a lot to me, that would take a long time for them to eat! 4lbs after soaking doesn't sound like too much to feed though.

[Dirty Little Secret]

my gelding gets 6 cups dry beet pulp at each meal. So 12 cups total/day.

[mypaintwattie]

I give my mare 5 cups (roughly 1 qt.) once daily. When soaked it comes to about 1/3 of an 8qt bucket. Has really helped her maintain weight.

[kelser01]

Be warned you might actually lower his hay intake (if he is free choice) by adding a lot of Beet Pulp. That is what happened with my guy. When I backed off the BP he started eating more hay again. I think he was just full.

[pintopiaffe]

The folks talking in cups crack me up!

Mine all get ~2lbs dry weight of pellets, soaked, 1x/day. With oil, vits/mins, yeast & flax in that meal.

It is fairly easy to get 4lb dry weight if you're feeding pellets. Soaked it IS a big volume, almost a full 5 gallon bucket, but since the pellets are just over a lb per coffee-can quart, it's not all that much to start with.

I think the stuff I feed *with* the beep is what is about helping keep weight on. I also feed it to make up for any differences from bale to bale in hay. Same land, same crop, same maker, just one bale may be more weedy from the edge of the field, then the next from a rich low spot...

For REALLY adding weight, 1/2 beep, 1/2 falf, plus rice bran, plus something like Sunshine Plus or CalfManna is my favorite. (I already feed 1/2-1c oil/day.)

[kookicat]

Mine get around four pounds of soaked BP per day. It's spread over three or four meals and they eat it very well. I make it very wet too, so it's likely a bit less than four pounds. I like it to get more water into them during the winter when they're not drinking as much.

When I bought Asp, she'd been at a racing yard and had never been fed and BP. Took a while for her to eat is consistantly- she started on just a few ounces to get her used to the texture and taste. I also fed hers a bit drier (drained the liquid off her scoop) at first.

[jmbnsyd]

We started adding the bp very slowly. I am going to measure out how much he's up to so I can track it in pounds (she just uses a plastic cup). It will be interesting to see how much he'll eat as he is such a picky guy, but so far he really likes it!

Deltawave--I will ask her to give him more of the alf/grass mix as that's what he's eating. He's always been a picky hay eater, never been able to get him to eat the recommended 20lbs...which is why I started the hay stretcher.

I think I'll wait and give the bp some time to see how he maintains before changing or adding anything else.

I don't know who stresses more when you move barns...the horse or the owner?? :D
Thanks again for everyones input!

[msj]

I don't go by weight but by cups. I feed Blue Seal pelleted BP and generally mix anywhere from 2-4 cups (dry) with the appropriate amount of water/1:4 ratio depending upon the season or horse needs. Two cups dry is mixed with 8 cups water and yields about 10 cups total that I split between both horses. I mix PM bp mix at AM feed and vice versa. Of course I put it in the microwave to make it nice and warm for them. :D

Maybe when we get out of this deep freeze, I pull out the scale and weigh it but I doubt it. Right now both horses look pretty good and are holding their weight well.

[okggo]

First let me say, I must be lazy...I couldn't imagine measuring out 10 plus cups of feed per horse/per day. I have historically gone by the pound, b/c that is how most feed recommendations are laid out. I take the poundage I want, find a container that it fits in nicely, and that is my measuring cup (scoop times = 1).

So, that said :) I mix grain, so all mine get some combo of oats/barley/alfalfa pellets/beet pulp based on their needs. Of the beet pulp, the most I feed is our old senior guy who can't chew, and he gets 3 pounds per day. 1.5 pounds fills my southern states bucket (8 qt maybe?) when soaked with a little room at the top so I don't slop on the trek out to feed. It takes him awhile to eat that.

[jmbnsyd]

msj-I didn't know blue seal sold pelleted bp. I'll have to aske my dealer, but I didn't see any info about it on their website?

[prince and ponies]

I'd like to ask a question here regarding the BP adding weight. I feed my 25 yr old cushings guy 1.5 lbs (weighed dry) soaked beet pulp, with 8 oz. rice bran and 3.5 lbs TC low starch pellets all mixed together 2 x a day along with grass hay. He has not gained the weight I thought he would with this much bp. I really don't want to increase the mixture since this does make a very large feeding at a time. Shouldn't he be gaining weight with this mixture? He's been on this over a year and he is a hard keeper. Is there something else that should be added--fat of some kind?

[deltawave]

Try adding 1/2 cup of the oil of your choice with each feeding, and work your way up. I don't have my feed spreadsheet handy, but oil has a LOT of calories per unit of volume, along the lines of 3-4 times that of grain or hay.

[prince and ponies]

Hi-thanks for your suggestion & I would do that except I think I understand that cushings guys aren't suppose to get oil. Could be wrong about that but think I read it somewhere while wading through all the info on cushings when I was trying to educate myself on that horrible disease.

[msj]

Hi-thanks for your suggestion & I would do that except I think I understand that cushings guys aren't suppose to get oil. Could be wrong about that but think I read it somewhere while wading through all the info on cushings when I was trying to educate myself on that horrible disease.

Well, I hope you're wrong as my Cushing's horse gets 1 cup corn oil/day and has for the just about the entire yr. :eek: And the old geezer is still walking around really well - much to his owner's (not me) dismay.

I know I mentioned it to the vet who has treated him for at least the last 15 yrs and she didn't say anything about corn oil.

[Chief2]

PrinceandPonies, I had a horse who burned thorough his calories quickly, courtesy of almost 70 percent of his small intestine being removed and resectioned. The only way I could keep the weight on him was to increase his feedings to three and even four times a day. That way, there was always a source of calories for him to burn. Would it be possible to add in a lunch to his current schedule, or a late night snack?

[CapitolDesign]

OP:
What does your horse get besides bp?

Also, I usually ask my vet when I make big changes to horse's feed.
Had a horse on bp and he was just getting a bloated-looking tummy. Took him off and started giving him more sweet feed, and he put on over 200 pounds of overall weight.
I have heard the bp aids in weight gain by allowing better digestion of other things going in, but I may be wrong? Anyone?

[jmbnsyd]

CD-My guy is currently getting 3lbs of Vintage Versatility, 3lbs of Hay Stretcher pellets, free choice hay, and 8hrs turnout on fairly good pasture for this time of year.

We just added the bp and he seems to like it. He was getting 6lbs of grain, but because of the move he backed off his grain and won't finish more then 3lbs. I'd love to be able to offer him a lunch, but not doable in my current situation.

My plan is to give his new schedule and the bp some time and evaluate him in a month or so.

I spoke with my vet and the blue seal rep and they both thought that adding bp was a good alternative since his grain has been reduced and he's a picky hay eater. We'll see.