# Alfalfa cubes - How much to feed?



## Tamibunny

I would start off with a quarter of a scoop for the first week, and see how he does. He may or may not get a bit hot. If you think its ok then move him up to half a scoop. He'll probably get some runny poop since the alfalfa is so rich. If you like his weight where is it I probably wouldnt feed any more than a half a scoop(about 2 lbs i think)
PLEASE please please remember to soak the cubes in water before you feed them. I dont know if your familair with feeding these or not... If you give your horse a cube as a treat now and then ok but feeding in bulk unsoaked they can seriously dehydrate a horse and even make them choke. (not a good senerio)
well there's my two cents


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## Royal Pine Buck

yes i agree about soaking. they are very dry and hard if not. they also expand A lot! ... if you're feeding for weight i would make sure he has good grass hay free choice. 

is he just getting hay or is he on grain also ? and how much. i would try maybe 2-3 lbs of alfalfa cubes twice daily (weighed DRY)  for increase in weight.

but yes start slowly with a handful...then increase daily if you start him up slow enough he should have any runs.  good luck!

p.s when i feed my horse any type of hay cubes i soak them then i squeeze the excess water out of them before i give it. it is messy but i don't want them overly heavy. but if he tends to bolt his feed keeping it a little soupy might slow him down some. so it is up to you.


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## QHDragon

Right now he is getting 3 pounds of a senior feed, beet pulp, is out to pasture 24/7. 3 pounds is all that is included in board, so I wanted to find sooooomething more to add to his food.


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## MIEventer

He is only getting 3lbs? Per feeding, or is that for the day?


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## QHDragon

That's for the day. 

He loved the alfalfa cubes. I soaked them and broke them into manageable pieces then feed them spaced out while I groomed him and treated his feet. When they were all gone he gave me a through checking over to make sure I didn't have any more!


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## SAsamone

Please soak your cubes. Not only does it show you the actual amount of alfalfa that he will be getting, but it prevents choking. also, don't drain the water when you finish soaking the cubes- it is full of vitamins and such.


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## MIEventer

No wonder why he isn't gaining anything. A senior feed has to be fed up to minimally 6lbs a day. When I was feeding Tripple Crown Senior, he was getting 10lbs a day - 5lbs per feeding. 

3lbs a day is effin' rediculous. It's not even worth you spending the money on that, because he's getting diddly squat out of 3lbs. The bag states you should be feeding 6lbs or more a day. He's getting nothing out of that 3lbs. 

You're better off buying your own bags of feed and having them feed 5lbs per feeding or 3lbs per feeding - twice a day. You can go to the Feed Bag and they sell Tripple Crown Senior.


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## SAsamone

think it depends on the feed??? My feed sais mantainance is 0.25 to 0.50 for every 100lbs. Assuming a horse is 1000, that would be about 2.5 to 5.0lbs of food. It's 1lb of feed for every 100lbs at HEAVY exercise. that's a 12% with 7% fat (Nutrena Compete). 

So really, 3lbs is not too bad. You have to see what it sais on the bag.


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## QHDragon

He was gaining and filling out for a while on 3 pounds and beet pulp though, so obviously it was good for something.


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## MIEventer

Ok, what Senior feed is he getting? Most senior feeds state you need to be giving minimally 6lbs a day for the feed to be doing any service to the horse.


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## MyBoyPuck

With the hay cubes, I used to put them in water before my ride and feed them after. It seems to take them a good 40 minutes or so to fully puff up. I used to feed 5lbs as a midday snack.


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## Royal Pine Buck

you have to soak the cubes at least till there soft and are mushy. i drain the water out of them because the water has excess surface iron that i don't want my horse to get because i am already in an iron overloaded area and it will throw the copper balance off more. also there is lots of dust and dirt attached to the surface of the alfalfa cubes.

draining them of the excess water shouldn't hurt the other minerals within the alfalfa you're just getting rid of the surface contaminants. 

the only way you would harm nutritional content is if you soak them for over 15-20 mins. they usually don't take that long (of course i use warm-hot water). even then it is only a small amount the protein that is compromised. 

there would be such a small supply of minerals and vitamins from the amount he is getting i think it is a moot point. since he is on 24/7 pasture (depending if there is enough grass and it is good quality) he should be getting plenty of his daily needs of vits and mins.


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## QHDragon

At what kind of rate should I increase how much I give him? I gave him 3 and half cubes yesterday. He gobbled them up, so I will likely have to hand feed to keep him from eating too fast. Don't want to risk a choke. 

Maybe I just used more water than most, but it only took about five minutes for them to soften up.


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## Tamibunny

QHDragon said:


> At what kind of rate should I increase how much I give him? I gave him 3 and half cubes yesterday. He gobbled them up, so I will likely have to hand feed to keep him from eating too fast. Don't want to risk a choke.
> 
> Maybe I just used more water than most, but it only took about five minutes for them to soften up.


 
5- 10 minutes should be fine to soak them, as long as you dont notice any dry parts. I dont think you need to worry about hand feeding him either. Once the cubes are soaked and mushy it should be fine. 
Read my first post for my suggestion one when and how much to increase.


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## QHDragon

Oops, must have missed that one. 

I don't have any way to really measure them. How much do you think 3-4 cubes weights?


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## Tamibunny

If you have one of those plastic grain scoops, I believe those hold a total of 3 pounds of grain. So I would start off with only about half of that.
Or...See if you can find an old soup can or coffee can that has about 16 ounces in it, that is equal to a pound. Its a cheap way to measure too.


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## QHDragon

Oh, hey, they do use a coffee can to scoop the grain.


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## MyBoyPuck

I know that a heaping two handful of them is 5 pounds if that helps! As for how much, I just tried to figure out how much forage my horse was already getting and making up the difference with hay cubes. At 1.5% of body weight, my horse needed 16 pounds of forage a day to maintain weight. His hay weighed near 11 pounds, so I added 5 pounds of hay cubes to get to 16.


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## waresbear

What I love about hay/alfalfa cubes? I hide them in various spots around the boys' paddocks and they go a hunting the cubes. Prevents boredom.


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## QHDragon

MyBoyPuck said:


> I know that a heaping two handful of them is 5 pounds if that helps! As for how much, I just tried to figure out how much forage my horse was already getting and making up the difference with hay cubes. At 1.5% of body weight, my horse needed 16 pounds of forage a day to maintain weight. His hay weighed near 11 pounds, so I added 5 pounds of hay cubes to get to 16.


Wow, how big are your hands? :lol: 3-4 cubes is about two handfuls for me but it doesn't feel like 5 pounds.


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## Peggysue

you can feed up to 10lbs of them a day ... so have at it

I would try to get 3 to 4 lbs a day into him 

a scale can be gotten at walmart for about $10  

which senior feed is he on?


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## ScharmLily

Just wanted to add that I also feed triple crown senior and for the feeding recommendations it says about 3.6-4.5 lbs for my horse (around 800 lbs). This is per day, and it is never recommended to feed more than 5 lbs in a single serving. To me, if your horse needs more than a few lbs of feed per feeding, then you should try to split it up into 3 feedings per day. This is what I did for my old guy when he needed to gain weight, and I have slowly been able to back off so that he is now on 3.2 lbs per day. This is under the recommended feeding level for moderate work, but my guy is in very light work at best (Maybe a trail ride mostly walking once per week).

Since I have recently done a lot of research on feeding (due to buying a horse who had ulcers) it is definitely better to feed less grain and more hay. I think that the alfalfa will be great for him, and also has the added benefit of buffering stomach acid after a grain meal (high in calcium). I just bought alfalfa pellets for my guy, and I am feeding him a pound with his morning and night grain, and a half pound with his lunch grain.

Please note that these recommendations are designed for a horse eating good quality forage as well as grain. I think that when people recommend something like 10 lbs of feed per day, they are likely thinking of feeding a complete senior feed, which is designed to be fed to older horses that are able to consume little to no hay. From all my research, the most important thing that is to be considered is adequate hay consumption. Horses are designed to be constantly grazing, and when humans feed them only several large, high sugar, meals, this can make havock on their digestive tract. So anyway, to the OP, I do think that the alfalfa is a good addition to his diet, let us know how it goes.


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## MIEventer

My Tripple Crown Senior bag states to start at 6lbs a day. 

For Nelson, being 1100lbs +, he was getting 5 lbs per feeding = 10lbs a day. Plus pasture, plus a round bale. 

In order for the senior feed to do what it is intended to do, you must feed the requirements that they state on their bags. 

3lbs a day, is doing nothing.

I do agree with PLENTY of roughage - tons of it. As much as possible, the better. Pasture, round bales. Alfalfa cubes are definately a good thing to add, especially if your horse is only getting 3lbs of senior feed. You need to balance out what your horse is getting, or lack there of.

Here's a great article:

http://www.horseforum.com/horse-nutrition/balancing-act-designing-diet-modern-horse-79404/


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## QHDragon

He is out to pasture 24/7 and is given hay at night, half a bale for two horses. 

I keep forgetting to check what feed he is getting. The BO buys in bulk then dumps all the food into a big chest to keep pests away. 

I am treating him for ulcers with aloe vera juice with his grain. He was at a higher risk of having them according to my vet based on the type of barn he was kept in before I got him (kept stalled all day, only out to pasture for four hours a day, only fed twice a day, etc).


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## MIEventer

I don't know what Aloe Vera juice does for ulcers? Do you know where the ulcers are? In the stomache, in the digestive tracts beyond the stomache? Aloe Vera juice might not touch what is going on in there - if anything. You wont know unless you scope. 

If there are ulcers, the best remedy is consistant roughage - 24/7 roughage. The more in the digestive system, the better. But again, you don't know unless you scope.

You might need a "more powerful" approach, like SmartGut Pellets or etc, etc, etc.


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## Alwaysbehind

Feeding alfalfa cubes dry is no more a risk for dehydrating your horse than your horse eating his regular hay dry. 
Some horses do tend to choke on the cubes, some horses do fine.
Soaking is not required but most people do soak them.
The bonus with soaking is it is putting known water into your horse.
(It is not really extra water because studies have shown that most horses simply drink less if there food is made wet.)

I would look at the alfalfa cubes as part of your hay ration. How many pounds of hay is your horse getting now? Your horse should get 1-2% of their body weight per day in hay (obviously this can reduced if on good pasture and such). 






Tamibunny said:


> If you have one of those plastic grain scoops, I believe those hold a total of 3 pounds of grain. So I would start off with only about half of that.
> Or...See if you can find an old soup can or coffee can that has about 16 ounces in it, that is equal to a pound. Its a cheap way to measure too.


Laugh.
Fluid ounces does not necessarily transfer over into a weight. Fluid ounces is a volume measurement not a weight measurement.
And saying a scoop holds three pounds of grain is very over generalizing. Plastic grain scoops come in various sizes. I have one that claims to be 2 quarts and one that claims to be 3 quarts and they are just about the same size. If I fill it with pelleted feed it will weigh quite a bit more than if I fill it with an extruded feed (like most senior feeds).
That is why people really need to weigh their feeds to get an idea of how much they are actually feeding.
And no, I do not expect people to weigh every feeding. Sure that would be best but who has the time for that...
Once you know what a pound (or six pounds depending on your horse) looks like you can use your scoops like you would normally use them.

If you do not have a scale at home (digital kitchen scales are pretty cheap as is a fish scale that you can get in the sporting department at Walmart to weigh your hay) measure some hay cubes (or grain) into a clean baggie and take it to your local Walmart store and set it on the scale in the produce department.


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## QHDragon

Okay, so seeing another thread rung a bell in my head. I am pretty sure the BO feeds SafeChoice. 

MIE - Do a google search of aloe vera juice for horses, there is a lot of info out there about the benefits. He has none of the symptoms other than he drank A LOT, just the risk factors. Scoping can't see every spot that an ulcer could hide. 

Here is a basic discription:
"Aloe Vera Juice
Aloe Vera is classified as a mucilaginous and bitter herb. It is beneficial for the skin, stomach, and colon. Aloe’s major properties are as a cell proliferant, healer, demulcent (soothing agent), and allergy reducer. It is high in digestible fiber, which gives it the properties of lowering bowel transit time, absorbing toxins in the bowel, regulating colonic bacteria, and soothing and protecting the digestive tract.

Aloe also contains a complex mixture of mucopolysaccharides (complex sugars) that nourish cells and support them in replicating. This property is especially important for the healing of pre-existing ulcers. The polysaccharides also have an antibiotic action, which can be helpful for horses who have been on buffering agents or other medications that destroy healthy bacterial populations in the gut and allow pathogenic bacteria to multiply.

Good quality Aloe juice can be found in most health food stores. I find that the Aloe sold by the quart is generally less diluted than the Aloe sold in gallon containers. Two to four ounces daily of the concentrated Aloe are usually adequate. "


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## Alwaysbehind

Safechoice is not a senior feed.


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## QHDragon

Nope, it's not. I was wrong in thinking it was a senior feed.


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## MIEventer

3lbs of SafeChoice, is NO WHERE near enough for that feed to do what it is intended to do. If you want your horse to get the proper amounts of Protien in a day, you need to do more than 3lbs. If you want your horse to get the needed amounts of Biotin, you're going to have to do better than 3lbs a day.

You need minimally 6lbs of SafeChoice a day, preferrably 10lbs a day. I would break up his feedings into 2 to 3 feedings a day. 

And scoping will find ulcers. If I didn't scope Nelson, we wouldn't of found out that he had ulcers beyond his stomach - there were a couple in his tummy, and in his digestive tract beyond. Scoping will find ulcers.

And as Always stated - SafeChoice is NOT a senior feed. And Nutrena is low in the peckin order of quality of feeds. Nutrena is in and around the quality of Purina. Low. I am interested in knowing what the ingredients are in this product - the website wont even show the ingredients. 

I am going to guess that King has ulcers. If he had lack of roughage in this stomache, there's probobly ulcers. The less feed in their tummy's, the more chances they have at getting ulcers - they are meant to consistantly graze due to how their systems are created.


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## Alwaysbehind

My reasonably easy keeper mare gets 2 lbs of safe choice per day (1 pound 2x per day) during the winter and that keeps her fat. I would not think a horse that you are trying to put weight on will thrive on such a small amount.

Safechoice's ingredients are area specific. Guaranteed analysis, not guaranteed ingredients.



I like the idea of adding the alfalfa cubes but have you thought about adding something like a stabilized rice bran pellet? Nice way to get fat and calories into the horse.


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## myhorsesonador

Do you have a siminol feed near you??? I have a hard keeper and there feed is the ONLY feed I have had that actualy works for my horse. My mare gets 3 lb alfalfa pellets and 2 1/2 wellness seinor plus a loose mineral for our area 2 X's a day. Plus all the costal she can eat. The costal I buy is tested at 14% protein.


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## QHDragon

Alwaysbehind said:


> My reasonably easy keeper mare gets 2 lbs of safe choice per day (1 pound 2x per day) during the winter and that keeps her fat. I would not think a horse that you are trying to put weight on will thrive on such a small amount.
> 
> Safechoice's ingredients are area specific. Guaranteed analysis, not guaranteed ingredients.
> 
> 
> 
> I like the idea of adding the alfalfa cubes but have you thought about adding something like a stabilized rice bran pellet? Nice way to get fat and calories into the horse.


He gets 1-2 pounds of beet pulp right now with his grain to soak up the aloe vera juice (otherwise it just ends up at the bottom of the bucket). I've never thought about rice bran pellet...I don't think I have even ever seen it at the local feed store. 

He was gaining on the 3 pounds of grain, beet pulp, and lots of hay (and 24/7 pasture). He just in the past few weeks seems to have leveled off when I compare pictures to each other. So like I said before, obviously it was doing soooomething for him.


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## QHDragon

myhorsesonador said:


> Do you have a siminol feed near you??? I have a hard keeper and there feed is the ONLY feed I have had that actualy works for my horse. My mare gets 3 lb alfalfa pellets and 2 1/2 wellness seinor plus a loose mineral for our area 2 X's a day. Plus all the costal she can eat. The costal I buy is tested at 14% protein.


All of the local feed stores either carry purina or nutrina around here. :-(


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## Alwaysbehind

I am thinking gaining weight is like losing weight. Things work well and then you hit a spot where what you were doing before is not working quite as well. 

How is the grass in his pasture? Could he be spending so much time eating little grass nubs that he is not getting a much hay as he used to be getting?

PS, I love beet pulp as a feed. I am in no way suggesting you get rid of beet pulp.

If you can not find something like Max-E-Glo Nutrina does sell Empower Boost, it is a good source of fat.


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## QHDragon

He usually eats the hay first, and then the grass, the goof. Their pasture is pretty good, and the BO is careful to rotate so no pasture gets over grazed. 

What about something like Cool Calorie 100: Cool Calories 100 - Horse Weight Gain Supplements from SmartPak Equine

Even though I am sure the BO would kill me if I added another supplement. :lol: Right now I am doing the alfalfa myself just so I don't have to ask her to do one more thing.


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## Alwaysbehind

Cool calories is worth a try.


I have two that eat their hay first too. So I know all about that little quirk. 

The wanting to eat the nubs and skipping the hay is a common problem this time of year causing weight loss, that is why I mentioned it.


I have not checked it lately but it used to be that getting Smartpak brand supplements were no more expensive in actual smartpaks than they are in buckets. If you everything you use is a Smartpak supplement having them in a smartpak might make it less of a eye rolling thing for your BO.


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## QHDragon

He currently gets his cosequin in smartpaks, but his MSM is cheaper to buy from smartpak in a bucket than in their smartpaks, which I find odd. Plus his aloe vera, plus soaking his beet pulp... I think he's the most complicated horse on the farm! I am taking the time to go out every day to soak and feed his alfalfa just so its not one more thing to add to the list.


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## QHDragon

I tried feeding them to him in his grain bin tonight since he's been rather pushy about me hand feeding them to him the past two days (totally not in character, he is never pushy about normal treats). Well he started to act like he was choking which totally made me panic, so back to hand feeding it is.

Thankfully he got through it and is totally fine.


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