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Discussion on Redmond loose mineral salt?
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Member:
teddyj1
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Posted on Tuesday, Oct 23, 2007 - 2:41 pm:
A few months ago I purchased a bag of the "Redmond" loose mineral salts for my two geldings. Everything I've read about the product sounds great.
I followed the directions, and offer it Free Choice. The problem I'm having is that they haven't touched them. I have added them directly to their feed, and they basically sift it out, and hardly eat any. These horses do have 24/7 access to the pasture, but admittedly it's not a good quality pasture, so I guess I'm skeptical they get an abundant amount of nutrition out of the pasture, having said that, they do receive Blue Seals "Carb-Gard" feed, along with locally grown grass hay. This does not address their salt requirement however, so again, what's normal, and are they truly able to decide how much salt they really require, or should I be concerned?
Anybody else experience horses rejecting "Redmond" Salts?
Thanks for your input,
TOD
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007 - 8:50 am:
Hello TOD, a couple of comments but first, "is there a salt or mineral block in the pasture?"
Note the sifting happens naturally as the salts are much heavier than the feed. This is the primary reason molasses is added to sweet feed, to hold the additives. Moistening the feed will greatly increase the minerals sticking to the feed and result is less at the bottom of the feeder. It is possible that your horses needs are being met by their current nutrition and they simply don't have a everyday need for the extra salts. If you continue to get a lot of wastage just put out a block and let them use it as they feel a need. Concerning the horses ability to determine salt and mineral needs is not a simple yes or no and is explained in the article.
DrO
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Member:
teddyj1
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007 - 9:07 am:
Good Morning Dr. O, i forgot to mention that they do have regular salt blocks in there stalls as well, and they don't use those either, that's primarily why I added the Redmond salts. They have literally not used any of the salt available to them for months. I used to feed the Triple crown Complete over the winter here, when the grass is dead, and admittedly being such a high fat feed with the beet pulp, you could hide just about anything in their feed, and they'd happily eat it, but in the mean time I can add some moisture to the Carb Gard pellets.
They both look fantastic, they aren't having any issues, other than my young Holsteiner 's intermittent sticky right lead canter depart, and I don't think that's a related issue.
Thanks for your info,
TOD
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 - 7:20 am:
Ahh the devil is always in the details. The article describes the problem with using plain salt blocks so change out the salt blocks for mineral blocks and then forget about it.
DrO
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Member:
teddyj1
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 - 9:39 am:
Sounds good, will do.
Thanks much,
TOD
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