Ideas for eating less tasty supplement?

[sarahjdot]

Hi - My 2 horses are on bermuda grass hay - free feed with PortaGrazers - I give them salt and Simplifly with about 2 cups of bermuda pellets and 1/2 a cup of rice bran. For vitamins and other support, I have used smartpak supplements (SmartVite, and others), Standard Process Mobility and GI Support, and most recently Platinum Performance GI support.

I thought I would switch to DailyWerks LD since it has biotin, more vitamins and minerals, and that little bit of joint supporting products all in one. I am going to go back to the Standard Process GI because my mare is making ears at me when cinching - when she was on the SP GI she had stopped doing that. Related or not? unclear of course!

So, plan will be salt, Simplifly, SP GI, and DailyWerks. However, last night I gave them one scoop of the DailyWerks with the other stuff and my mare walked away from it, and the gelding was checking out both buckets though ultimately ate his. The mini who doesn’t get the same stuff then hit the mare’s bucket with his head over and over to knock her food out of there and ate it. He doesn’t need $$ of supplements! Ha. The mare and gelding usually eat immediately and lick the buckets.

So question - ideas on how to get them to eat it maybe? I don’t want to give up - I did try a little water last night, didn’t help much. Thanks!

[Dani]

My picky boy LOVES cinnamon! I puff a decent amount in and wet everything down and stir well. That gets him to lick the feeder clean every time! I’ve seen some use peppermint oil, fenugreek, or other herbs/spices to flavor feeds.

[SharonA]

It’s pricey, but Stabul 1 sells crumbles (crumbles of its low-starch feed) that I have used as top-dressing. Really tasty for the two horses I have used it for.

https://shop.nuzufeed.com/products/stabul-crumbs-5lb

[trubandloki]

A drizzle of molasses will likely work.

Once you get them eating it you can lower the amount of molasses until they are eating it plain (or eating it with minimal add on).

[mmeqcenter]

Molasses or applesauce might work

[pony4me]

Sprinkle some cherry jello powder on the feed. Usually the grocery story generic is under $.50 per package and lasts a long time. My picky pony will eat any feed and supplement if the jello powder is on it.

[greywithchrome]

I just had this problem and wanted to avoid extra calories (molasses and the like) so I ended up purchasing raspberry powder off of Amazon. Works like a charm! And its very potent so you don’t need to use much.

[CindyCRNA]

I make my 2 a daily mash of beet pulp and alfalfa cubes and I can put anything in it and they eat it because they love it so much!