Top Tips for Tempting Fussy Equine Eaters to Gobble their Supplements!
1. Introduce new supplements very gradually - start with just a few grams and increase the amount over a period of a week or more.
2. Get the moisture level of the whole feed right - not too wet, not too dry. Supplements stick best in slightly damp feeds but some horses prefer to eat feeds dry. Most horses dislike sloppy mush.
3. Add the supplement to a feed that your horse already likes such as:
copra
lucerne chaff
pellets.
4. Adding something sweet can help disguise the taste of new ingredients. Try a little:
grated carrot
grated apple
apple sauce
molasses.
5. Some horses love the taste of apple cider vinegar, oil or salt and these can also be used to disguise supplements.
6. Make a smoothie or slushy in the blender with the supplements as well as your horse’s choice of carrots, apples or bananas.
7. Investigate why your horse is fussy - very fussy horses eating sweet high sugar/starch feeds often do better on low starch alternatives such as Speedibeet, Microbeet or Maxisoy, lupins and/or copra rather than cereal grains or by products such as bran, pollard and millrun. Always read the ingredients list of bagged or pelleted feeds so you know what you are feeding! It can take months to convince these horses to make the change but is usually worth the effort.
8. Some fussy horses don't need enough hard feed to successfully disguise powdered supplements. Look for palatable, pelleted supplements such as Equine Vit&Min Mineral Balancer Pellets from your local feed store or www.farmalogic.com.au.
