It’s not about the amount of fat as a %. It’s about total calories. 99% fat isn’t a lot if the serving is 2oz - that’s 510 calories. Going through 8oz of CC to get to the 2000 calories is going to be a lot more $$ than most oils.
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I do clicker training. Some days I might go through half a pound of extruded feed (2 cups) as we work on a new trick. It really has no impact in her weight or overall diet.
I also can’t see making solid oil treats.
I would look first at the quality and nutrition of your hay and make sure you have an appropriate vitamin mineral supplement or ration balancer. Then you can see if he will tolerate a high fat low nsc concentrate either a commercial cool calories type feed or beet pulp/alfalfa cube mash with vegetable oil added
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Agreed. You’d be better off feeding a 3rd ration of senior feed than trying to get those calories by Cool Calories or horse treats. Oil can work, but it can be messy. But coconut oil is expensive. I can’t imagine using that for anything except possibly medicating a super picky eater that needed some type of medication.
Unless the horse simply cannot/will not eat any more hay, it might be the easiest and cheapest way to get more calories into it.
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Horse can lose weight in a heartbeat, it seems, and gain it with glacial slowness. ;(
That means your goal of “getting weight on him fast” is likely not going to be met.
I’d start with the best quality hay you can get (with guaranteed nutritional profile). That’s likely going to mean an alfalfa mix. Feed it generously. This might be a time for free feeding hay.
Add to that a good quality grain ration. Feed him in a flat feeder and put the feeder on something that will “catch” the grain as it falls and give him a chance for a “second harvest” of what he drops. A piece of stall matting might work for this. If he is stall kept sweep off any bedding before you feed. You could also do this if he’s fed outside.
Oil can be messy but for adding calories it’s tough to beat. Canola oil has almost 2000 cal. per cup. Break that up into three feedings and you’ve just supplied 10% of the total, daily caloric intake.
The more feedings you can do the better the feed will be absorbed.
Extra feed in a stalled horse means a fat horse. Extra feed in a working horse means a conditioned and fit horse. But work means even more calories. Just the way of things. 
Good luck in your project; it’s going to take some time to get where you want to be. But remember Alois Podhajsky’s mantra: I have time! 
G.
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Assuming 1lb for even 3c, then 2c is 2/3lb, and given maybe 1400 cal, that’s a bit under 1000 calories, so not a huge amount. 2000 calories can start to make a difference though, especially for a bit smaller horse. And an extruded feed is likely a lot lighter than that, so ever fewer calories.
Thank you everyone, that was really helpful! I’m going to describe his feeding routine below:
At approximately 7AM he get 1/4 of a bale of grass hay, 1.5 scoops of a local sweet feed.
At approximately 6PM he get 1/4 of a bale, 3 scoops of the same local sweet feed, and Dumor weight booster supplement.
I have increased the amount of hay he gets to the amount of above, that’s usually all he’ll eat for hay. He doesn’t get grass.
Good quality hay in my area can be hard to come by and it’s really expensive.
How much weight is that in pounds? I have small bales in the barn right now that vary in weight from 30# to 75#. “Bale” is a meaningless unit of measurement. “Scoop” is nearly as meaningless. How big is your scoop?
Sweet feed is usually pretty crappy for what you need. Is there any particular reason you’re using that instead of a higher quality, higher fat, higher calorie, lower NSC feed that would be better suited for weight gain?
You might consider that the low volume of hay and high volume of sweet feed is bothering his belly and causing stomach ulcers, hind gut ulcers, or both. He may eat more hay and gain more weight if he’s treated for those, but you would also need to offer more hay and get him off the sweet feed.
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OP I’m not trying to be mean but feed the horse some TC senior rather than the crap all livestock feed you currently buy.
For reference
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how big are your bales? 35lb? 55lb? 70? 100? IN other words - how much weight of hay do you feed?
How big is your scoop? 3qt? Either way, “local sweet feed” is likely the root of the lack of weight gain. Get a good quality feed, feed less of it, and see better results.
He’ll likely pick up his hay consumption too. Meals high in sugar cause an uptick in the hormone leptin, which is the one which tells the animal he’s full. So, he’s likely not eating enough hay either, especially if the bale is only 40-50lb, then he’s only eating 20-25lb - not too bad, but not enough.
Good hay is cheaper than dumping a lot of cheap hard feed into them, for a lot of reasons beyond just weight.
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He needs more hay.
I have trouble getting good hay too; but really, that’s what you need. Can you get alfalfa hay? Most horses will eat enough GOOD hay but not necessarily more bad hay.
Unless you’re feeding huge bales, that’s not very much hay at all. I’d be looking to source better hay - in the end it pays off even if more expensive. Less waste (because horses won’t eat the weeds unless starving), and pound for pound it is cheaper than grain.
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I have a 4yr old OTTB that has a really hard time putting on weight. He is on 4# Purina Ultimium, 4# Alam, 2# Purina Amplify for his AM and PM feed. He also gets 2-3 flakes of timothy and 2-3 flakes of alfalfa per day. I am convinced that he has an empty leg! I tried him on Cool Calories but he would not eat it. His coat looks great and my vet is befuddled at why he will not gain more weight. We have scoped and run numerous blood tests to no avail. He is just a lanky TB that needs to grow into himself. My current barn feeds Ultium at no extra charge but I really like Pro Force Fiber so you might try that feed for your horse. It is high fat, high fiber but it is also easily digestible.
We’ll go with “hay” instead of “gay.” So in this post, you say he gets no grain, but then later on you say he gets sweet feed. Which is it?
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Let’s make some guesses here for illustrative purposes.
20# grass a day assuming 40# bales
9# of local sweet feed a day assuming 2 quart scoop and roughly 1#/quart
2 oz of the Dumor stuff
Let’s go with 1500 kcal/lb for the sweet feed (source)
800 kcal/lb for the hay (source)
The Dumor is 40% fat, so maybe 200 kcal in that 2 oz.
Hay: 20# * 800 = 16,000
Grain: 9# * 1500 = 13,500
Supplement: 200
If this horse is actually getting nearly 30000 kcal/day, he should be gaining, but it will take some time. And geez, 9#s of sweet feed a day is a whole lot, wow. :eek: Something like TC Senior or Ultium would be a better option.
But, if as you posted earlier @sarah.woodard16, he’s only getting 20#s of hay a day and the Dumor weight builder, that 16,000 kcal/day is pretty much a starvation diet unless the horse is an easy keeper. It’s certainly not a GAINING diet for a thin horse.
The 16,000 kcal for hay noted here may also be high, since you say good quality hay is hard to come by and expensive. Does that mean his hay isn’t good quality? If it’s not, then he’s not getting 800 kcal/#. How much less is dependent on your hay. Have you had it tested? It’s not costly and the info gained is very useful. He’ll also get fewer calories if he’s not actually eating the 20#s he’s given. How much is he wasting?
If you only recently–as in over the course of this thread–went from zero grain to 9# of sweet feed a day, it’s going to take some time to see any results from that (and hopefully you are keeping a close eye on the horse, because colic is a real concern with such a fast diet change. He may also get high as a kite from all that sugar.) And how much grain is he not eating? You said he was a messy eater. How much does he spill and not consume? You can subtract those calories, too.
It’s also quite striking just how worthless 2 oz of pretty much ANYTHING is to something as large as a horse. Even 2 oz of 100% fat is only ~500 kcal. For an animal that needs 20,000+ kcal in a day, it’s just not much of a dent. The same goes for anything fed in small amounts, like treats.
Edited to add:
From another thread, it looks like you’re feeding the Producer’s Pride Sweet Feed from TSC? Tough to find out much info on that one, but it’s generally regarded as a pretty low quality feed, and in the comments on the TSC page, kcal content is stated at 1000-1100 kcal/#. That changes the above to:
Hay: 20# * 800 = 16,000
Grain: 9# * 1000 = 9,000
Supplement: 200
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Sorry for all of the typos I’ve made, I should read what I type before I post it. FYI, 1 scoop of grain is roughly 3 pounds and my bakes are about 30 pounds an good hay (but it took a lot of searching to find it) What are your thoughts on Blue Seal Sentinel grain? I’ve been hearing a lot about it. If it’s good then what would you recommend I feed (amount wise) of the following:
Alfafa pellets (willing to feed a good amount of these)
blue seal sentinel grain
and his hay as stated above which I can’t really change. Thanks.
15 pounds of hay a day is just not enough. Unless you’re paying truly astronomical rates for hay (are you in Hawaii, or southern Florida?), it will be less expensive to provide the horse the calories he needs with more hay.
Grain meals should be limited to about six pounds at a time. Horses have small stomachs and that’s about where they max out.
Sentinel is a fine feed–lots of people like the LS for their hard keepers–but keep in mind that it’s a really LIGHT feed, so weigh it out. Personally, it made my horses lunatics and they struggled with the volume needed…but it works for many and is much higher quality than what you’re feeding now.
If you post your general location, people here may be able to help you find good hay at a good price.
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Yes the rates for hay is crazy and although it would be helpful, I’m not comfortable with sharing my location. Would you mind providing a link for the grain the you most recommend? If it’s not to much trouble. I would prefer to find a grain that isn’t super expensive and that won’t get used up to quickly either. And of course, that’s good for weight gain.
Sarah- I would really encourage you to read up on basic equine nutrition- there are lots of good articles on line. You can get excellent advice here, but you need to educate yourself a bit as well.
Good quality forage (ie hay) is the most important part of a horse’s diet, and you will run into problems if you skimp there. If you can’t find and store good hay, how about a timothy/alfalfa cube to supplement? Weigh to get an idea of how much you are giving, and soak them first to avoid choke.
Different feeds are available in different locations. Asking your vet might be best as they would be knowledgeable about what is available locally. I am concerned that you want an inexpensive feed that “won’t get used up quickly”. This is food, and your horse needs what he needs. Don’t give him junk food any more than you would to a child.
Also, that is a lot of sweet feed with very little forage to last 12 hours between feeds with no turnout. Can you add a third hay feeding?
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Your priorities for feeding your horse are all wrong. Good luck with that!
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Purina Ultium is the highest kcal/lb feed widely available.
But, again–it is generally less expensive to feed the horse enough hay. If you’re only feeding 15# of hay a day, you’ll need to feed a considerable amount of concentrate, and risk health issues, which are also costly to treat.
Horses are designed to eat forage. Trying to work against that is expensive.
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Yes, 15# of hay…that’s a diet, not a weight gain strategy. My TB mare would starve to death on that and she’s retired. When I got her and she was extremely thin and nursing a foal, I was going through almost a bale/day for her plus alfalfa, plus concentrates. If your horse will eat more hay - that’s what they need.
What do you pay for a 30# bale of hay?
Ask around about suppliers, ask your vet, your farrier, neighbors. Check Craigslist, etc. If you need weight gain, there really isn’t a solution that will work if hay is not part of that equation.
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