I might be looking into adding some alfalfa to my horses diet and was curious about the pellets. This is a young horse with normal teeth, no current issues. I know for the cubes these are generally soaked as they are large and dense that are a choke hazard if swallowed whole. But what about the pellets? Are they not just essentially pelleted feed? Do people typically soak these as well or just scoop and feed?
If your horse can eat a pellet of that size typically then the pellet being alfalfa will not make a difference.
For my senior horse with dentition issues, I soak. For my other horses I do not soak.
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Ditto - for my 27 year old senior, I soak the pellets. For the other two, no soak.
You can feed them without soaking.
That being said, I prefer dampening or getting them at least a little bit wet. I have had to deal with choke a few times with alfalfa pellets.
Our TBs all get about 1/3rd a quart of pellets 2x a day, and I have noticed they always drink after eating them. It’s very dry and even a bit “dusty” (although it is just the alfalfa and not actual dust). I do, when I dump feed, dump water on top of the alfalfa pellets in light of this.
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They are ok to feed dry, but I do wet them, we use them to make “soup” when it’s cold to get more water in them.
My OTTB gets them year round, but I dampen his food because he has a tieback.
I’ve seen alfalfa pellets in different sizes. I would be totally fine feeding the small pellets (like 1/8" dia) dry, just like regular extruded feeds. I know a few places you can get large pellets (like 1/2" or more dia). Those I would soak to lessen the chance of choke if one gets swallowed whole, especially if the horse is one to eat quickly.
Proceed with caution… I fed them unsoaked to my (then) nine-year-old TB whom I was trying to get weight on. He did great for about three weeks, then I had a vet call because I thought he was colicking. The vet had a hard time getting the tube down his throat, so when he presented the same way a few days later, I figured out he was choking. I took some 60cc syringes and squirted water in and luckily was able to get the mass down without another (emergency $$$) vet call. I’ve never fed them dry since.
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I always soak mine.
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I always soak pellets- makes me feel more at ease about potential choke and also has the added benefit of getting some extra water in the ones that dont drink as much as I would like.
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Mine are soaked with beet pulp.
Proceed with caution…I wish I could feed alfalfa pellets. I have a choke prone horse, for him the absolute worst way to feed alfalfa pellets was slightly soaked. Turned into soup was fine (but he didn’t really like it). Dry was chancy, but doable. Partially soaked, full on choke. Needless to say, he doesn’t get them anymore!
Soak! I had a horse choke on alfalfa pellets, it’s a terrifying thing to watch!
What’s he currently eating? If he’s eating a pelleted feed, and the alf pellets are not the super hard kind (they seem rare, but they are out there), then it’s no different.
If he’s eating a textured feed, adding in some alf pellets to the mix is unlikely to cause an issue.
How much are you planning on feeding? I ask because dumping 1lb, roughly 3c, into a typical feed bucket, is unlikely to allow any sort of problems for a horse with good teeth and chewing habits. 3lb in a narrower deeper bucket? That allows room for a large mouthful.
That said, I do soak mine, but I soak primarily because I feed some powdered supplements that don’t need to end up in lungs.
I agree that “slightly soaked” is often are recipe for disaster, as it makes a sticky paste. You can “slightly soak” pellets in a minute by using too little water, or you can “slightly soak” them by using a lot of water but leaving them sit for longer but still not enough water for that end, fully plumped/broken down pellet to be anything but clay-like. The point is - whenever you put them in front of the horse, it needs to not be a paste, not even close. Add more water if they’ve soaked it all up and it’s sticky, or don’t add any and feed them dry if the horse is capable of chewing properly.
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“I ask because dumping 1lb, roughly 3c, into a typical feed bucket, is unlikely to allow any sort of problems for a horse with good teeth and chewing habits. 3lb in a narrower deeper bucket? That allows room for a large mouthful.”
@JB Can you confirm I am understanding this [above] right:
a larger, but shallow feed pan that means that the feed is spread out in a very shallow one layer manner [ie they have to chase around the pellets and pick it up with their lips in small quantities]…
is preferable to a smaller bucket that allows the feed to be densely and deeply packed together [such that they can open mouth and bite down and get a mouthful]?
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Yes, that’s what I meant, but didn’t explain well LOL
Concur.
G.
Thanks. It’s actually hard to explain, which is why I wanted to be sure I understood… even though it makes complete sense.
I feed alfalfa pellets to my horses late fall through early spring. I feed them separately, after their grain meal (twice per day). Each horse gets 2 quarts (3 lbs) of pellets, soaked with 1.75 liters of water boiled in an electric tea kettle. They are fed in a wide, shallow, rubber feed tub on the ground. Fingers crossed, I haven’t had trouble with choke. They take, on average, about 20 minutes to eat the pellets.
I used to feed one of my now-deceased elderly horses the alfalfa pellets as a hay replacement. He could eat grass, but he quidded hay. He ate about 20 lbs of pellets per day. He managed with that diet for a couple of years until his death (not choke-related…lol).
I’m a big fan of alfalfa pellets. Maybe I wouldn’t be if I had a choke-prone horse.
I always soak them, as I have seen far to many cases of choke with alfalfa pellets.
I feed small amounts (1/2#) of a small-diameter alfalfa pellet, unsoaked. These pellets are not particularly hard in texture, and somewhat similar to pelleted supplements; there have been no issues.
However, I’ve seen large, hard alfalfa pellets and wouldn’t feed those.
