Can you feed dry beet pulp to horses without any problem?
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Yes. Most horses can safely eat dry beet pulp.
As long as your horse is not a choke risk eating it, there is no reason they can not have it dry.
Edit to add - there was a good blog post on this that I can not find right now. Hopefully someone else can find it. Well written, some funny parts, good information.
Edit to add again - this is not the thing I was looking for but this covers it.
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The squirrel beet pulp story?
Always worth reposting! I can’t find the original, but here’s a link to the repost
https://www.horseforum.com/threads/a-beet-pulp-safety-warning.46899/
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Thank you @DMK! Yes, the squirrel beet pulp story.
I totally remember the photo of the fat squirrel.
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Theoretically but I never would. I’ve known a half a dozen or more bad chokes from dry or under soaked beet pulp. The only way I’d feed it is soaking wet and soaked for at least two hours.
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There are lots of pelleted feeds that are beet pulp based and most people do not bother to soak those.
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We do see a lot of chokes come into the clinic because of dry beet pulp, way more so than with feeds that contain beet pulp. Maybe it’s the pellet size that matters, I’m not sure. But I personally would not feed it to my horses.
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I don’t think it requires soaking for any period of time, but in my experience, it is less likely to cause choke if wet first…
A normal horse produces great amounts of saliva while chewing, and even dry beet pulp will be fairly moist after being masticated, but often BP is fed to older animals with poor dentition who don’t chew it much.
Having said that, I’ve treated choke in horses fed BP, pelleted feeds, carrots, and coarse hay.
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My horse ate dry beet pulp just fine…until she choked. -25 outside and she is dripping sweat!!
I will never feed unsoked beet pulp again.
Even a 30 min soak will swell and reduce choke. Personally I prefer at least an hour.
There are several feeds that contain beet pulp that aren’t soaked. Perhaps they are a smaller size but then they are only part beet pulp.
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Yes, I put dry beet pulp shreds in the same hazard category as pellets. Both soak up a lot of natural saliva, so there’s a higher probability of choke in a horse predisposed to choke.
That said, I soak all meals because more hydration can’t be a bad thing. Of course no good deed goes unpunished. I started making it a regular practice with a senior horse with some colic issues (hydration!), and at the same time I had a young horse so it was just easier to soak both of their meals. Then the senior horse was gone and it was only the not so young horse and I kept feeding him soaked food. So now I have an almost 18-year-old horse who can choke on gruel. It goes without saying that there is just simply no way to win when you own a horse!
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I’m wondering at the why part of the OP’s question-- most of us feed BP soaked as a fiber addition to bring extra hydration to a meal for horses, and mostly to older horses who cannot eat hay or pasture well. Not judging! Just asking for clarification on why dry BP as opposed to wet. Those pellets are HARD! My rat infestors will not eat it dry…ha ha!
I soak alfalfa, hay and beet pulp for my aged boarders, whether they have good teeth or not. Great way to provide a low fat, high fiber, wet meal to help get meds and vitamins into them. There are clever ways to safely soak and store soaked feeds in heat and cold, too.
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I feed the Unbeetable forage pellets dry.
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My assumption was it was shreds. At least around here, that’s a lot more common than meatball <---- hahahaha voice to text! Beet pulp pellets. I feed the pellets but I have the time and resources to soak them the length of time they need to break down, and they’re just a little more storage efficient than shreds. But most barns around here use shreds which soak up pretty fast and with a horse not prone to choke probably wouldn’t cause a problem if they weren’t soaked
Shreds are so much more $$$ here, that I have always just fed pellets. Soaking is not a big deal, just takes a bit of prep and planning. My aged horses get them with their vitamins and, if needed, other soaked feeds. I had a ‘toothless’ pony here this summer who ate four big meals a day of soaked beet, orchard, and alfalfa pellets along with senior feed and rice bran. She gained weight (which had been an ongoing issue) and slicked right up. She’d quid anything besides soaked food and I worried so much about choke!
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Just curiosity because Seen someone feeding not soaked and told me never had any problèms. It was thé shredded though
Ah… that makes more sense! As others have said, shreds don’t pose the same issues as pellets. I guess I don’t understand the point of a feed that seems designed to be fed soaked, being fed dry. But that’s just my take! I wish it weren’t in such demand so the price would have stayed reasonable. It is literally in nearly every feed- horse, cattle, DOG! Check those labels, it’s crazy where it’s being used as a filler.
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I too soak every meal - soaked beet pulp pellets, plus soaked hay cubes, with their ration balancer pellets and senior feed added, and more warm water, and soaked again.
It always soaks up quite a bit more water, and more hydration is always a good thing.
I do this all year round, every meal, even though I have good grass in the spring, summer and fall.
Not saying I am right, just this is what I do for my horses.
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