switching from oats to rice bran

[Cheval Gris]

I am thinking of switching my OTTB (hard keeper) from oats to rice bran. He is currently getting 3 pounds of oats per day, and since increasing his oats, hes getting a little wild. So I was thinking of taking him off of oats and switching him to rice bran for calories (less carbs). I make my own feed (oats, beat pulp, ration balancer and alfalfa pellets, plus a few supplements) and the oats seems to keep him from being ribby, but I am not wild about all the carbs. Is this a good idea for a switch?

[purplnurpl]

YES!
If you add up calories the new list that you have made will out weight plain oats.
You can always add some soybean or cocasoya oil if needed. No corn oil though. Go with veggie oil before corn oil.

Infact pulp, bran with flax, balancer or multi vitamin is what ours eat. They eat very little and stay very fat. : )

[jn4jenny]

As long as you buy the stabilized/balanced calc-phos variety of rice bran, it sounds like a brilliant plan. If you don't buy the calc-phos balanced kind, then it's a recipe for disaster.

[TheOrangeOne]

Is the horse not doing well? Skinny or hot or not digesting everything? ou can definitely add rice bran, but oats have lysine and vitamins, so they're a good thing to include in the diet. 3 pounds isn't enough to cause concern unless he's an EPSM horse or something.

[purplnurpl]

Is the horse not doing well? Skinny or hot or not digesting everything? ou can definitely add rice bran, but oats have lysine and vitamins, so they're a good thing to include in the diet. 3 pounds isn't enough to cause concern unless he's an EPSM horse or something.


diet balancer takes care of that.
Often also the rice bran is balanced with amino acids.

[HandsomeBayFarm]

Your horse is not a hard keeper.

Have you really weighed that feed?

Fresh? Really? After 6 weeks off with a bruise. :rolleyes: Huh.

[JB]

As long as you buy the stabilized/balanced calc-phos variety of rice bran, it sounds like a brilliant plan. If you don't buy the calc-phos balanced kind, then it's a recipe for disaster.

It's not really a disaster. Yes, with a grass/grass hay diet, it's much more preferable to have fortified (added calcium) rice bran so that you at least don't add more unnecessary phosphorous to the diet. But since you don't want to feed more than 2lb of rice bran, if it's not fortified, it's not the total end of the world. I WOULD use fortified though - just don't need to add more phos.

OP - what type of and how much hay does your horse get? Which ration balancer and how much? How much of the other stuff? What have you dewormed him with, and when, in the last year? Every done a power pack?

[jn4jenny]

since you don't want to feed more than 2lb of rice bran, if it's not fortified, it's not the total end of the world. I WOULD use fortified though - just don't need to add more phos.

I agree that if the OP keeps it under 2 lbs of rice bran daily, then it's not really an issue. But it sounds like the OP may be wanting to replace all of the oats with rice bran, and that would put well over 2 lbs of rice bran daily if she's going for the same MCal.

But let's say she IS trying to replace all of the oat energy with rice bran energy.

Oat grain = 1.33 MCal/lb, so 3 lbs daily = 3.99 MCals daily from oat grain.
Rice bran (15% fat) = 1.44 McCal/lb, so to get 3.99 MCals daily from rice bran, you'd need 2.77 lbs of rice bran daily.

It's possible that the extra calcium from the alf pellets and beet pulp would balance it out, but since we didn't get the numbers on those, it's hard to say.

To the OP: if you just get calcium-fortified rice bran, then the problem is solved for sure and you can easily feed 2.77 or 3 lbs of it daily.

[HandsomeBayFarm]

What have you dewormed him with, and when, in the last year? Every done a power pack?

Ah ha! I told you!

You need to do the PP this month.

[Cheval Gris]

First, hes not 'skinny' per sey, but he could have better weight over ribs. And I increased his oats from 1.5 lbs per day to 3lbs per day for calories and he is a little hotter, hince the idea to switch all the carbs. (Hes pretty big boned, 16.2 and 1185 lbs, so not technically underweight I don't think. Handsome bay sees him regularly to attest). Yes I really weighed all of the feed before I posted to get an accurate reference here.
Ok, I power packed him in December (a little late) and followed that two weeks later with 1.5 x anthelcide. Month before Power Pak did Equimax, he has been home alone on the farm for the past 3 months so I got behind on monthly worming, but did just do safeguard gel and planned on powerpacking in May (just to put 6 months in between both powerpacks). He is on a pound of seminole ration balancer (which i believe is what is recommended on bag), 2 pounds of beat pulp, 1 pound of alfalfa, 3 pounds of oats, vit e/sel, copper poly and trace minerals. And up until this week he has been on free choice coastal, but now hes not interested in round bales so I have purchased square bales and he is getting about 14lbs of that a day, plus is on nice grassy pasture 24/7. Is he just not getting enough bulk? I don't think he looks particularly ribby, but JB can attest that he has the pockets behind the withers with not as much muslce development I would like to see with proper work and protein. Also, I was thinking of adding triamino to the mix, and feeling like he is the most supplemented animal I know....
Oh, and to address, I was considering taking him off the oats because of the high carbs, but I don't want to add another mix to the menu if I can accomplish the same thing with one or the other. And would rather not feed double of the rice bran to reach the same caloric intake of the oats....Oh equine dietary...not what it was when I had a QH!!

[JB]

Hes pretty big boned, 16.2 and 1185 lbs, so not technically underweight I don't think.
I would say that 16.2 and 1185 (weighed how?) is not "pretty big boned" at all ;) My TB gelding WAS a bigger boned boy, 16.2 and 1320 on the NSCU vet scales. Even my 16.1 light boned TB mare weighs over 1200.

Ok, I power packed him in December (a little late) and followed that two weeks later with 1.5 x anthelcide. Month before Power Pak did Equimax,
Ok, sounds like you at least aren't feeding worms :D

he has been home alone on the farm for the past 3 months so I got behind on monthly worming,
MONTHLY deworming???

but did just do safeguard gel and planned on powerpacking in May (just to put 6 months in between both powerpacks).
That's 5 months ;) unless you did beginning of Dec and will do end of May ;)

He is on a pound of seminole ration balancer (which i believe is what is recommended on bag), 2 pounds of beat pulp, 1 pound of alfalfa, 3 pounds of oats, vit e/sel, copper poly and trace minerals.
I would drop the oats to 2lb, up the alf to 2lb, and see how that goes. You can do a couple more lb of alf if you like.

And up until this week he has been on free choice coastal, but now hes not interested in round bales so I have purchased square bales and he is getting about 14lbs of that a day, plus is on nice grassy pasture 24/7. Is he just not getting enough bulk?
That sounds like enough

I don't think he looks particularly ribby, but JB can attest that he has the pockets behind the withers with not as much muslce development I would like to see with proper work and protein. Also, I was thinking of adding triamino to the mix, and feeling like he is the most supplemented animal I know....
Oh, DUH, I know who you're talking about now, SO sorry!:o See if the above oats/alf changes help, then yes, I'd do the tri-amino

Oh, and to address, I was considering taking him off the oats because of the high carbs, but I don't want to add another mix to the menu if I can accomplish the same thing with one or the other. And would rather not feed double of the rice bran to reach the same caloric intake of the oats....Oh equine dietary...not what it was when I had a QH!!
I think you can just rearrange some of what you have not instead of adding something else to the mix :)

[Cheval Gris]

When I said big boned, I really meant that he is not a fine boned spindly TB, more of the dense homebred type. :) Thanks for advice, I like learning all this stuff. One day I will be my own feed guru!

[ThoroughbredFancy]

Also, if you ever want to add more calories I have found that Canola Oil works well with my TB. That combined with the Omega Horseshine he is getting gives him such a shiny healthy coat.

Even though I have worked out what grain will work with my horse and the oil added with the flax and 2lb alfalfa pellets...more hay def. helps him out. My BO only supplies me with so much hay per feeding so I purchased my own and I felt as though that helped a lot.

So I wouldn't shy away from increasing the hay/alfalfa pellets.