# Is purina fat\fibre pellets really a bad food?



## gigem88 (May 10, 2011)

Purina's Strategy Healthy Edge will put the weight on. I don't know of very many people that feed their horses sweet feed anymore, too much starch/sugars.


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

gothicangel69 said:


> She said it was a crappy food and no good. She started to go one about a friend of hers who went to school for horse nutrition and was trying to tell me that she says some type of sweet feed food is better (can't remember the brand name though).


Well, can't comment on what you're feeding, because I don't know what's in it - Purina are very good at not including ingredients in their info - but *assuming* your friend & her friend were actually right in what they say, that Purina stuff must be ultra bad, for a sweetfeed(essentially junk food) to be considered healthier! :shock:

Learning a bit about equine nutrition & healthy, natural food & feeding, and taking note of what ingredients & amounts are in the feed you choose are a good move. I recommend a book 'Feed Your Horse Like A Horse' as a particularly good one. also safergrass.org is a good site for some basic info. FeedXL.com & Dr Kellon's site/program are good ones for learning more & getting info on current diets & needs for your animals.


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## Fargosgirl (Jan 12, 2012)

If your family member is a professional equine nutritionist I would be very interested in learning their viewpoint on the fat/fibre feeds. If they are not a specialist in equine nutritional needs I would trust the team of nutritionists that gets paid the big bucks by Purina. 
My old pony, who had been thin for years despite my best efforts, to fatten him up, started on Omelene 300 and was up to a beautiful weight in 3 weeks. I attribute it completely the high fat/fibre in Purina feeds, because I tried switching to a different sweet feed and my horse lost all of the weight he had gained while eating almost twice as much. He's back on 300 again.


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## gothicangel69 (Aug 2, 2011)

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will certainly be doing some research on horse nutritian, and was hoping to contact the company for a list of ingredients so I can compare with other brands.
I just went by what alot of people told me would be a good food, but now I'm in the mindset that i'd like to do some more research and decide for myself what food I think will suit him best (especially since he's at an ideal weight now).


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## gypsygirl (Oct 15, 2009)

subbing.

i just added purina amplify to my horses diet [2.5lb purina strategy per day] because she has lost some weight, and im no nutrition expert ! my friends horse just wouldnt eat it so she gave it to me.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

I feed my horses about 5 lbs of Strategy GX each day. I have one who came here severly underweight and she gets Amplify as well. They all have free choice grass hay and all are doing extremely well on that diet. The only 2 horses who get a 'sweet feed' are the 2 pregnant mares who also get Omolene 300 while they are lactating.


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## gypsygirl (Oct 15, 2009)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> I feed my horses about 5 lbs of Strategy GX each day. I have one who came here severly underweight and she gets Amplify as well. They all have free choice grass hay and all are doing extremely well on that diet. The only 2 horses who get a 'sweet feed' are the 2 pregnant mares who also get Omolene 300 while they are lactating.


how much amplify are you feeding ? the container i got said 1 scoop but it didnt have a scoop in it. i have been feeding about 1/4lb [and 2.5lbs strategy] do you think thats ok ?


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Fargosgirl said:


> If they are not a specialist in equine nutritional needs I would trust the team of nutritionists that gets paid the big bucks by Purina.


Hmm:? call me cynical, but I'd go for nutritional advice that was independant of people the feed co's pay. Just find it hard to trust someone who's ultimately working to sell the feed. That's one reason I like sources such as feedxl.com etc.



> I just went by what alot of people told me would be a good food, but now I'm in the mindset that i'd like to do some more research and decide for myself


A very good mindset IMO! Yeah, what's the saying... if you ask 10 different horse people a question, you're likely to have 20 different opinions!


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

gypsygirl said:


> how much amplify are you feeding ? the container i got said 1 scoop but it didnt have a scoop in it. i have been feeding about 1/4lb [and 2.5lbs strategy] do you think thats ok ?


The measuring thing in the Amplify is more like a big drinking glass than a 'scoop' and holds 1 lb. Amplify is designed to be fed approximately in 1 lb increments, so by only feeding 1/4 lb, you won't cause any harm but I'm not sure you're getting all the benefits either. I only use it for the mare who was so starved that she was close to death. Since it was Nov and already quite cold, I wanted her to gain a lot of weight fairly rapidly but didn't want her to run the risk of laminitis, so she got put on the Amplify. Strategy Healthy Edge already has the Amplify in it, so you might want to look at that instead of the original Strategy, since you're using so little Amplify. I feed the one mare approx 3 lbs of Amplify/day and she's gaining weight very well.

She went from this in early December (I wouldn't put up a picture of her when she first got here, it was frightening): 









To this in late December: 









She's still gaining and needs more weight, but thanks to the Amplify added to the Strategy, she's coming along really well. I don't use Amplify for anything else right now.


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## gypsygirl (Oct 15, 2009)

thanks for the input !!

i dont think i need all the benefits, as i just need it to add a little weight ! i probably wont switch to healthy edge, because i got the amplify for free and it was practically full so im hoping it will last me as long as i need it.


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