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Ask the Nutritionist: Dr. Getty's Forum for Equine Nutrition

   Welcome to my forum. 

Here you will find more than 6 years of questions and my answers. It is searchable and offers a great deal of information. 

Currently, I am discontinuing new questions. This may change in the future, but in the meantime, please know that It has been a true pleasure serving you. 

Take a look at my Nutrition Library and Tips of the Month for a variety of answers on selected topics. Be sure to sign up for my monthly e-newsletter, Forage for Thought

I also have a growing number of recordings on "Teleseminars on Nutrition Topics that Concern You" as well as the new, Spotlight on Equine Nutrition Series -- printed versions of favorite teleseminars.

And finally, look for my articles in a variety of local publications and online newsletters, as well as the Horse Journal, where I am the Contributing Nutrition Editor.  

 

All the best,

 Dr. Getty 

 



Ask the Nutritionist: Dr. Getty's Forum for Equine Nutrition
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Alfalfa

Dear Dr. Getty

I live in Portugal and I have for horses which I ride in my free time, they have a very light exercise. Presently they eat between 5 and 6 liters of grain mixture and 5 kg straw of wheat. I would like to start giving them alfalfa pellets but I don't know how much should I decrease the quantity of grain they eat (it's a grain mixture from provimi and it has 12% of protein).

If you could give an advice I would be most grateful.

Thank you

Antónia

Where are you from? Portugal

How did you locate this forum? Horse forum

Re: Alfalfa

Hello Antonia,

A good guideline is to limit your horses’ meal size to no more than 1 ½ liters. If you are feeding 5 to 6 liters of feed each day, you are likely providing a meal that is too large, unless you are feeding several meals each day. A horse’s stomach is not very large and if you offer too much feed, your horse is likely to experience digestive upset.

Alfalfa pellets are excellent to feed and much better for them than grain. I would suggest that you offer a ratio of 2 parts alfalfa to 1 part grain, so if you were to feed 1 ½ liters, that would mean a meal would have 1 liter of alfalfa pellets and ½ liter of grain.

If your horses require more energy to maintain their weight, additional fat, rather than grain, would be a safer, and provide less volume for more calories. Good fat sources include flaxseed meal or stabilized rice bran.

Thank you for writing!

All the best,

Dr. Getty

Re: Alfalfa

Dr. Getty

Thank you for your answer. My horses eat six times a day because we have automatic feeders so they don’t eat more than 1 liter each time.

As for the Alfalfa I will reduce the quantity of grain and increase the quantity of Alfalfa as you said.

Antónia

Where are you from? Portugal

How did you locate this forum? Horse forum