You’re right, I forgot that one is textured. It’s an anomaly for sure.
The point is - there are forage balancers that are also pelleted. with vitamins and minerals to compliment hay and pasture.
What distinguishes are ration balancer from a forage balancer is, pretty universally, calories and protein, not whether they’re pelleted.
Huh. I’ve only fed KIS Trace and it has amino acids, calcium, and magnesium. I’ve researched Vermont Blend (and Pro) and California Blend (and Pro). They both have protein/amino acids. VB has magnesium but no calcium. CB has neither mag nor calcium.
KIS also has 2,500 IU of Vitamin E, which really makes it the winner for me of these three.
A supplement may “have” those ingredients but not in quantities sufficient enough to meet a horse’s needs. In the feed industry, we call this “tag dressing”, and some companies excel at it.
The amounts are published on the sites for these and I assume printed on the bag just like on KIS Trace. KIS Trace label
Our barn feeds this, too. My horse loves it and will come off of his pasture or free-grazing around the lush farm to eat it. He’ll even come off of clover (OMG!) to eat it. My vet (now the BOs vet) approves of it. We have several borderline metabolic cases (the 2 worst are the BO’s horses) and they are carefully managed with this product.
I should have same - no calcium of any significance. Most don’t have any. KIS Trace has around 1g per serving, which might as well not be there. High Point Grass has some amino acids, but not significant amounts.
keep in mind it’s all synthetic, and because it’s with copper and there’s nothing to protect it like soybean oil, it’s likely degrading. If you rely on this Vit E for any significant amount of time, I’d recommend some blood work just to check on that.
Here’s some info on that from Ghazzu from a thread last year on California Trace
Yes, for sure! But just to be clear - VB and VB Pro, along with CT and CT Plus, and even KIS Trace it appears, do have appreciable levels of lysine and methionine and sometimes also threonine. VB/Pro have 10/5/2, respectively, for example.
JB, how does one know if a forage balancer like KIS or others is using synthetic vitamin E vs. natural?
I use Uckele Equi VM. I like it because it covers all the bases adequately, is palatable, only 2 oz/day, and is very cost effective. So far I haven’t found anything else quite as thorough that is as affordable.
assume it’s synthetic unless they specifically state “natural E” or the actual d-alpha tocopherol listing
When they list both, I make an assumption it’s about 50/50, only because the few products where I’ve asked, that’s their ratio
it depends on what you mean by “thorough”. The AA profile is negligible (only 1.7gm lysine, for example), only 2.27gm Mg, no Ca or P of any significance. No biggie in some cases, a deal breaker in others.
I answered the OP’s request is all. FWIW I do feed alfalfa.
I know 
But a lot of people read “thorough” and assume that means it has everything they need. It was just more info for someone to consider.
Back when I was feeding a ration balancer, I preferred Triple Crown Balancer over the other RB brands that I had tried (Purina, Nutrena, Buckeye, and LMF) I liked the amount of Vitamin E, Cu/Zn and the inclusion of probiotics. With that said, I now feed a forage balancer and have seen an immense improvement in my horses’ hooves, coat, and overall comfort level in my older gelding vs feeding a ration balancer. I am currently feeding Vermont Blend and have been very pleased with it!
Gotcha. That makes sense. I bought some Ultra Cruz Natural Vitamin E about a month ago. Started feeding it, then worried I might be over-supplementing with the KIS Trace and stopped. I’ll start back up and will at least use it up. I just got the small bag, but it’s a tiny scoop too. I do a half scoop AM and a half scoop PM since I don’t think he needs 2 scoops of it a day. He’s got grass, and there is Vitamin E in Omega Horseshine and I think I read that the sunflower oil in his CocoSun oil provides some Vitamin E too.
Thanks for your help!
Is it the scoop that comes with it? Unless they’ve changed, their scoop holds 4000IU, so yes, 4000IU on top of grass and what’s in the KT and the OH is quite a lot. You could always do blood work to see where all that has his level
Yes, that’s the scoop that comes with it.
But, okay, so maybe I don’t need it at all, yeah? Given the OHS and KT plus grazing? I don’t want to feed him too much. I may save it if it’ll keep until winter when the grass is gone again.
His CocoSun oil also says it provides some Vitamin E from the sunflower seed oil. I don’t know how much that would be, but it seems he’s probably good on Vit. E without adding any extra.
It is not textured. Very small pellets compared to most RBs plus some whole food ingredients (oats, BOSS, dried carrots, etc.), but it is not textured. The other feeds in the line have a mixture of pellets and textured feed (largely from the beet pulp) and whole ingredients.
I thought that was the definition of textured?
I mean, the bulk of the feed is pellets. There isn’t very much in the way of the other ingredients per pound compared to the senior and performance feed. It does not compare to, say, TC Complete or even the other Wholesome Blends feeds in the amount of non-pellet stuff. It is not 100% pellets but I didn’t want people to think that it would be like buying the typical textured feed either.
It is. 
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