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Cavalor and Purina Feed

Horse Care
#1

What do we think of Cavalor feeds? From this link they look pretty but kind of pointless to me.

Edited to add: also extremely expensive about $70 for a 20 kg bag at a Canadian feed store

https://cavalor.com/products/

Asking because one of our local feed stores is now distributing Cavalor and Purina Canada. This is a big deal because up until now we’ve really only had two local mills supplying the market. We are the export point for much of the prairie grain production. It doesn’t make sense to import bagged feeds from across the country or internationally.

in the 1970s we bought our sweet feed COB from a feed dealer mill located right in the port close to the grain silos, I imagine they just bought train loads of grain and processed and bagged then right there.

Also any thoughts on how Purina Canada compares to Purina US? I know Purina doesn’t have a good reputation in the US.

1 Like
#2

I have been feeding Purina at my farm for the past 3 years (was feeding Masterfeeds, then went to Tribute and now Purina) and have been very happy with the quality and how my ponies look. My ponies actually stopped eating Masterfeeds (Podium, Surmount and I tried Alltrack but they wouldn’t even touch it - and it smelled so good!). I used Tributes Kalm N Ezy and Essential K, and I didn’t have many complaints on it, but it was very hard for me to get as no feed stores around me carried it and I always had to pre order it and it didn’t always come in on time.

I now feed Excel HD, Superfibra Classic cubes to my older pony as he has teeth issues, Intergi T (to a laminitic pony) and Athlete. I soak them all as well and I feed on the low end as my guys are all easy keepers. I’ve been very happy with the change and my guys look fantastic and they love their grain!

I did feed Trimax for a bit but found my ponies got a little hot from it, and a friend feeds Sport XT but I’ve heard it can make them a bit hot as well (I haven’t tried it though). I have also fed Optimal to my young guys for a protein boost and Equalizer to my older guys to up their nutrients since I feed on the low end.

I have never heard of Cavalor so can’t comment on that. I have also heard that Purina in the US is very different than Purina Canada and have heard the US quality is not as good…

#3

That depends on who you ask I suppose. I pretty much have always used Purina and never had an animal do poorly on it. No major health issues ( due to feed anyways) and the feed has always been good quality , fresh and my animals never refused to eat it.

That says a lot to me.

6 Likes
#4

Ok I’m only going by what I’ve recalled seeing on COTH! We haven’t had major company equine feed distribution here ever, so I have no experience with the big international brands.

Googling again, I see Cavalor is from Belgium and started with a line of expensive supplements. They’ve been in the European and then Middle Eastern markets and now say they have a US office though I can’t find an online hit for that. At some point they started manufacturing feeds. I think now that their feeds are completely unfortified, so I expect that the model is you feed the puffed barley/ pea/ beet flake “meusli” (their word) plus a full dose of their VMS or other supplements.

Ok this is not my local feed store, but here are the Canadian prices on 20 kg bags of feed (not supplements). About $70 a bag (range $69 to &75).

These are as far as I can tell unfortified “meusli” blends that you’d need to add their also expensive VMS products.

#5

Purina would be the unpopular choice on COTH for sure and that is ok – they aren’t feeding my animals.

We have to just try and see what works for us. So much goes into the success of a feed. The horse itself, how you ride and how you house them. It all works together.

5 Likes
#7

Cavalor also uses ag byproducts. They include wheat middlings and flax hulls and beet flakes, etc. All those are ag products.

But I suppose they are working with a fixed ingredients list, rather than a fixed analysis, which is good. I can see the advantage of having an international brand for horses that travel, would make sense for the Spruce Meadows feed store and for Country Feeds to perhaps have the Thunderbird market in mind.

I can see it would also be a lifesaver if you were taking your horses to extremely different climates, where maybe Northern hemisphere grains aren’t even grown.

But these feeds are about 3 times the price of local compounded mixed feeds, and they don’t have any fortification. And the VMS from the company are extremely expensive too.

My routine is beet pellet and alfalfa cube mash with Omniety VMS and salt and flax. Can add oats if needed. It’s cheap, I know exactly what I’m feeding, I can change the volume of mash without changing the VMS.

1 Like
#9

Ok that totally makes sense. I mean even our local beet pulp and alfalfa cubes vary a bit by mill of origin

#10

I can see the benefits of both. Fixed ingredients has one sort of guarantee, fixed analysis has another. If you need more of one ingredient reliably, fixed ingredient is a better guarantee. But if your concern is the fixed nutritional analysis, fixed analysis may be better. Meaning that if ingredient x was maybe a drought crop and not within the expected nutritional analysis that x provided in normal years, feeds using fixed ingredients can use it with no adjustment to the label and it’s anyone’s guess if it really hits the target. If it’s fixed analysis, something in the formula must change to offset ingredient x missing the normal ranges.

I think years ago Purina had a bad rep because there were a lot of improvements/changes in how we feed horses and they weren’t as quick to adapt as other major companies. That’s not my impression of them today. Cavalor isn’t my cup of tea at all. Most of it (over here at least) appears to be high energy formulation. I’m pretty good with high fat, high fiber, low nsc and that doesn’t seem to be their niche.

3 Likes
#11

Yes, I thought Cavalor had more actual grain than most people want to feed these days.

With variable ingredients you might be wanting to stay away from some ingredient like soy, or find that the taste or texture wasn’t consistent from batch to batch. I’m not feeding mixed feeds so I don’t have direct experience with them.

#12

I think Purina has been improving their feeds, too. Mine just get a handful of TC Balancer, but with the hot weather I was recently intrigued with Purina’s Replenemash, which has been getting great reviews here in SoCal.

1 Like
#13

People have brand favorites. There are over a dozen different types of Purina horse feed and Purina has kept up with the trends in reducing sugars/soy/corn etc in their feeds.

Other brands might be newer with better marketing, or people might be into the grain free trend but Purina has been around for a long time. The Purina I feed today is not the Purina I fed 15 years ago.

4 Likes
#14

I haven’t the foggiest clue how Purina US would compare to Purina Canada, but some of the Purina feeds available in the US are really quite good. I had particularly good use from their Omega Match ration balancer and the Ultium Gastric Care. I wouldn’t hesitate to use those feeds again if needed.

Right, wrong or indifferent many US veterinarians recommend Purina feeds.

1 Like
#15

N=1 so YMMV, but my horse is thriving on Purina after failed experiments with Seminole and TC feeds. Personally, the handful of horses I’ve seen on Cavalor look and perform poorly on it, especially for the price. Like anything else, what works for one horse/barn may or may not work for another.

As mentioned above, if you’re in an FEI program where availability and strict ingredient control might be of paramount importance, I could see the benefit. For the average horse and rider, though, it seems very costly.

#16

2 different animals. https://equipurina.ca/en/products/ is one of the safest feeds you can purchase. Their safety standards are extremely high.

Purina Canada works with a fixed ingredients list and manages consistent nutrient list as well

Purina Canada has 1 mill for all of Canada, located in Strathroy, Ontario.

Not a problem with Purina … as long as you can find what you need - it can take some label reading to figure out how to avoid certain items. At least it can all be done on line with a cup (or 5) of coffee to keep your eyes open lol!

2 Likes
#17

The last barn where I boarded before bringing my horses home fed Cavalor, and my mares did well on it. Though they are very easy keeping Morgans and really only got a small amount to be “fed” when everyone else was- looking at the minimum feeding recommendations on FiberForce, I’m sure they weren’t getting 4-5lbs of it daily, so I’m probably not even really qualified to say whether it’s good or not. It was mostly just a small treat to go alongside their hay. They were in light work, mostly trail hacking.

That said, BO had some higher end sporthorses in for dressage/eventing training and they all were gorgeous, fit, shiny, and handled their work easily, so it seemed to work well for her clients.

Also, it’s not nearly as costly where I live, a little higher than the locally milled option or Triple Crown, but not wildly out of whack: https://www.cheshirehorse.com/p/cavalor-fiberforce/CVFF.html (I believe this translates to ~$54 Canadian dollars?)

1 Like
#18

Thank you, this is all very interesting!

Cavalor feed is not fortified and I don’t find the nurtrient levels in their standalone vitamin mineral supplements to be that impressive, especially for the key things like copper and zinc ratios. If you were just using the feeds with no supplements, there would absolutely be nutrition gaps.

It’s good to know Purina Canada is a reputable product

1 Like
#19

Purina in Canada is not the same as Purina in the U.S.

Purina in Canada, as well as many other countries but the U.S., is owned by Cargill. Cargill also manufactures Nutrena feeds.

Purina Mills in the U.S. is owned by Land O’Lakes, and is totally unrelated to the Canadian version.

If you scroll to the bottom on the home page of their websites, it shows who owns each individual company.

2 Likes
#20

Are the formulas the same?

#21

Yes, according to the $ translator that $40 USA for Cavalor should be $54 CAN. But goods imported to Canada from the USA don’t simply have the exchange rate added (like if you buy on line). The prices reflect import duties, transportation and the fact the Canadian market is much smaller, as well as higher wages. I observed this with American based retailers like Banana Republic. When I was living in the US, $CAN and $US were on par for a few years and BR in Canada was still about 50 % more expensive than in the US.

#22

No, since they are totally unrelated, and each company has their own research scientists and nutritionists.

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