Hi all! I’m new here. I am looking for advice on feeding my 19 year old WB gelding. He’s a big guy. 17.1 hands. He has DSLD behind but still gets around well in his pasture. He has access to free choice mixed grass hay 24x7 and has been eating Triple Crown low starch senior 2x a day, but I think his weight looks a little poor. Which Senior feed would be good for him without loading him up on too much sugar?
Most senior feeds are already low in starch and sugar. Triple Crown Senior Gold is lower NSC than either the regular Senior or the Low Starch. It’s also one of the highest calorie complete feeds out there at 1,800 Kcal per pound, so that might be a good place to start. You could also consider adding alfalfa, either hay or cubes/pellets.
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How much are you currently feeding?
I have an old gelding that I switched to Triple Crown Senior Gold earlier this year and the swap has been great! My horse is a picky eater and prefers the TC Senior Gold.
Has he been tested (recently) for PPID? I’d get on that first before you start throwing food at what might not be a food problem (yet).
What the state of his molars? Any quidding you’ve seen?
How many pounds of the Low Starch a day? Does he happily eat it all?
If this is just a calorie issue at this point, then TC Sr is about 100 cal/lb higher than the Low Starch, but TC Sr Gold is almost another 300 on top of that (so 400/lb more than the LS). TC Sr Gold is lower NSC than TC Sr, and both are lower than the LS (which, at 9.9% starch, isn’t really low starch)
I like Triple Crown Senior Gold …I also like adding Keyflows Pink Mash Condition (soaked)…other nice options are Keyflow Sensicare or Golden Oldies , Cavalor Fiberforce and also Tribute Seniority Low NSC
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Thank you for the responses everyone. I’ll try the TC Senior gold and see how he does on that.
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What quality is your hay? How are his teeth? Any signs of quidding? My aged gelding gets the best quality hay I can buy, still low sugar as he’s also got Cushing disease.
My guys also get soaked beet pulp, rice bran, low starch senior in the winter. I also add alfalfa as needed to keep them in good weight when there’s no grass.
I highly recommend some kind of soaked cube. My late senior grew to love (it took him a while) alfalfa-timothy cubes (he preferred them over straight alfalfa) though he always needed a little feed mixed in once they were soaked. I also have had a lot of success with fibre beet and still feed it daily today. Every horse I’ve had who hates soaked feed generally eats fibre beet. The peppermint oil/scent usually draws them in. I mix that with cubes and feed two soaked mashes/day to my younger TBs now. Anyway, just a couple of pounds of alfalfa can really help a lot.
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