Favorite senior feed

[stb]

It’s time to add some senior feed to the diet of my QH gelding, who will soon be 19 years old. He is currently on a ration balancer and a bit of beet pulp. I plan to drop the beet pulp and replace with the senior feed. I am primarily looking at Triple Crown or Seminole. I can also get Tribute but know nothing about it. Any suggestions?

I fed TC Senior years ago and loved it, but see that they have made manufacturing changes since then. Is quality the same?

Seminole Senior Wellness smells divine but the starch and sugar are higher than TC, which worries me a bit.

i would love opinions on currently available Senior feeds. Thanks!

[4LeafCloverFarm]

I don’t have access to Triple Crown feeds (I’m in a Nutrena/Purina area), so I use Pro Elite Senior - which I’ve been told is very similar to the Triple Crown Senior. I’ve (so far) had excellent results with the Pro Elite. So I’d say go with the Triple Crown. But you might check to see if you have somewhere that carries the Pro Elite feeds in your area. Its fairly new.

[cnd8]

I’d stick with the TC personally.

[WhiteOakFarm]

TC sr. Has the lowest NSC I’ve found, 12%

[Liscar]

I feed the Tribute Seniority Textured, and have for many years. Very happy with this feed. My horses look fabulous, and no one can tell my two 22 year old boys are that old!! :winkgrin: All kidding aside, all three of my horses eat this, even my non-senior mare. They all do very well, with great weight, coats and hoof quality. They also get the Tribute Essential K ration balancer.

[Coreene]

Hygain Zero is 5.5% NSC. Love it.

[Palm_Beach]

@stb

It’s time to add some senior feed to the diet of my QH gelding, who will soon be 19 years old. He is currently on a ration balancer and a bit of beet pulp. I plan to drop the beet pulp and replace with the senior feed. I am primarily looking at Triple Crown or Seminole. I can also get Tribute but know nothing about it. Any suggestions?

I fed TC Senior years ago and loved it, but see that they have made manufacturing changes since then. Is quality the same?

Seminole Senior Wellness smells divine but the starch and sugar are higher than TC, which worries me a bit.

i would love opinions on currently available Senior feeds. Thanks!

I would not change anything unless your horse changes for the worse, especially if he looks good on what you are feeding. Are you considering a change because he is 19, or because you have noticed physical changes?

[JB]

@stb

It’s time to add some senior feed to the diet of my QH gelding, who will soon be 19 years old. He is currently on a ration balancer and a bit of beet pulp. I plan to drop the beet pulp and replace with the senior feed.

I know you didn’t ask this, but how much Sr were you planning on adding, and why? Just a couple pounds for a bit more weight, and keeping the RB because of not feeding a full serving of the Sr?

I am primarily looking at Triple Crown or Seminole. I can also get Tribute but know nothing about it. Any suggestions?

I fed TC Senior years ago and loved it, but see that they have made manufacturing changes since then. Is quality the same?

TC Sr is still the same formula, just milled in Purina mills on the East Coast now. Western milling hasn’t changed. But since you can get Seminole, I"m assuming you’re in the SE area.

Seminole Senior Wellness smells divine but the starch and sugar are higher than TC, which worries me a bit.

i would love opinions on currently available Senior feeds. Thanks!

Seminole Wellness Senior is 17% NSC, and the Seminole Senior is 19%.

Tribute has 2 Sr feeds - pelleted and textured. Textured is 24.3% NSC, and the Pelleted is 19.5%. So since you’re already concerned about Seminole’s NSC, I’d say Tribute is out.

If you have Southern States, the ProElite Sr is 13% NSC.

Purina Equine Sr Active is 16%.

[stb]

To clarify - I am thinking of adding Senior feed because I have seen a decrease in topline over the past year, and am seeing a bit of weight loss over this winter. I am in the Southeast, and good hay is hard to come by here, so am feeding a combination of Coastal Bermuda and Standlee Timothy - both of which are relatively low in protein. This horse can not tolerate Orchard hay at all - gives him terrible diarrhea. Figures, since that is readily available in my area, unlike Timothy.

Also, this horse has some chewing issues. I have had him checked by multiple vets and equine dentists and none can find any issue, but he clearly prefers soft, non stemmy hay and sometimes quids as well.

So, between the topline and weight loss, the lack of protein in my hay, and his apparent difficulty chewing hay at times, I am thinking the Senior feed might be good for him. Also, beet pulp soaking is a PIA, so I would like to get away from that if at all possible. My plan is to keep him on the 30% and start by adding a pound or two of Senior daily and go from there. I would like to see about a 50 pound weight gain.

I appreciate everyone’s input on this.

[stb]

I should also add that this horse has just recently started back on the 30%. Before that he was on a vit/min mix, beet pulp, and Timothy pellets. So, I feel he needs more protein at this point, which he will get with the 30%, but also think he needs a bit more of something to put back on some weight. I also do like him being on beet pulp, but hate soaking it, so was figuring that he would get beet pulp in the Senior feed.

[JB]

That helps a lot, thanks!

I totally agree with your line of thinking. 1lb of the balancer, and 2-4lb of a good Sr feed may be the ticket for him.

Another option is 2lb of the balancer, and a couple pounds alfalfa pellets

[alterhorse]

In addition to what the others said…

Many of the senior horses I used to care for did better when we wetted their feed with warm water to make a soft mash.

I’ve experienced two senior horses who choked on TC Senior fed dry. The vet said the stuff can set up like concrete in a horses esophagus. We mitigated that by making it into a mash, feeding from a rubber ground feeder, and putting a grapefruit sized rounded river rock in the feed tray to keep the horse from bolting the feed.

For extra calories I like to add a 1/4 cup of vegetable oil to the feed, and add a couple of flakes of alfalfa hay to the daily hay ration.

Soaked alfala cubes are also an option. But I’ve gotten moldy bags before so I’d check them each time I opened a new bag. I prefer the alfalfa hay if the horse can chew it.

[stb]

I think I will go with the TC Senior, but I will definitely feed it wet. I have never heard of choke issues with TC Senior before, but I sure don’t want to take any chances in that regard. I generally feed wet anyway - this horse does have chewing difficulties and I just feel like it never hurts to get more fluids in as well.

Thanks, all!

[Aamira]

I have been feeding my 33 yo Arabian Triple Crown Senior for years. He hates any of the low starch stuff and would not eat beet pulp. I had been using other types of senior to start with but the pellets are just too hard. Rather than add water I put a cup of Coco Soya oil on each meal. He loves the stuff. He plays with his hay but really does not eat all that much. I feed him 12 to 18 pounds per day depending on how cold it is.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Aamira

I have been feeding my 33 yo Arabian Triple Crown Senior for years. He hates any of the low starch stuff and would not eat beet pulp. I had been using other types of senior to start with but the pellets are just too hard. Rather than add water I put a cup of Coco Soya oil on each meal. He loves the stuff. He plays with his hay but really does not eat all that much. I feed him 12 to 18 pounds per day depending on how cold it is.

:eek: 18 pounds of TC senior in a single day? along with a couple of cups of oil (assuming you split that 18 pounds into at least 3 meals)? That’s more than 1/3rd of a bag of feed No wonder he just plays with his hay!

Even my hard-keeping 17.2 hand, 27 year old TB X Draft cross couldn’t eat that much senior. That’s one hungry Arab.

[JB]

TC Sr is a complete feed, designed to be able to be fed as the sole source of nutrition and calories if needed. At 33, I would imagine that horse doesn’t have much tooth left, or at least not much of any grinding surface. So, “playing with hay” is his default, not as a function of having so much of TC Sr to eat.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@JB

TC Sr is a complete feed, designed to be able to be fed as the sole source of nutrition and calories if needed. At 33, I would imagine that horse doesn’t have much tooth left, or at least not much of any grinding surface. So, “playing with hay” is his default, not as a function of having so much of TC Sr to eat.

I’m aware. And I know those that in a pinch, if no hay is available, feed senior several times a day until hay can be found (to adult horses, not seniors). I was going by that he has hay available, and if he is being given hay that he’s able to eat it. But I probably just misunderstood.

[SharonA]

@4LeafCloverFarm

:eek: 18 pounds of TC senior in a single day? along with a couple of cups of oil (assuming you split that 18 pounds into at least 3 meals)? That’s more than 1/3rd of a bag of feed No wonder he just plays with his hay!

Even my hard-keeping 17.2 hand, 27 year old TB X Draft cross couldn’t eat that much senior. That’s one hungry Arab.

The horse is 33. He gets to do whatever the hell he wants, and so does his owner.

[Lord_Helpus]

Forgive me for poking my nose in, but I am new to these discussions on senior feed. I am happy to learn the basics on other threads if someone could point me to them. I could not tell from the posts, above, if you all were talking about Senior feed from a bag that is fed by the scoop into their buckets, or feed that is senior feed as a replacement for all their nutritional needs — That really expensive Chaff-type feed.

I have 2 oldies. 27 and 28. They are on 3qts of senior pellets 1x/day and senior pellets w/ very wet speedy beet pulp total of 3+qts)1x. Plus 2 flakes of hay (either Orchard/Alfalfa or compressed Alfalfa, whichever they want.) at each meal This sounds like a lot, but, until last week, they were scarfing it all up. As of last week they have stopped eating any hay. I am worried. Their teeth were done 2 weeks ago. 1 horse has great teeth and one has marginal teeth.

Their pasture has lovely winter rye and they appear to graze a lot. Nothing has changed in the last week except for their refusal to eat hay (it is the same when they come in. Their hay is wasted and churned into the bedding.)

It is too soon to tell if they are losing weight, but I do not like this sudden change; I want to be proactive. [My horses in work get approx. the same feed and they are still loving their hay.]

Thank you.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@SharonA

The horse is 33. He gets to do whatever the hell he wants, and so does his owner.

I completely agree.

My awkward sense of humor often does not translate to a paragraph of text on a forum. I was marveling at picturing a lovely, delicate Arab out eating my rather large, big boned, goofy draft horse (easily twice the size/weight of an Arab) and it struck me as impressive and humorous. That evidently got lost in translation, which is my fault. My comments were not meant to imply that the feeding was wrong or anything of the sort. So my apologies to @Aamira if it came across that way. :o