Let's talk a moment about alfalfa pellets

[Chachie]

I currently feed Standley alfalfa pellets but am curious if the small pocket pet alfalfa pellets are basically the same, just smaller? Would the processing be any different?
I have a horse who is starting to refuse anything that is soaked and my rationale is that the MVP that we feed is about the same size as small animal alfalfa pellets so if they were the same as horse alfalfa pellets, maybe I could switch him to those without needing to soak them? The Standley pellets are pretty big and dense and I won’t feed the cubes anymore after a horse choked on them so I’m just kinda thinking outside of the box here, wondering if I could feed him small animal alfalfa pellets as long as they were strictly alfalfa and not rabbit or chinchilla feed.

Any thoughts on this?

[Abbie.S]

I don’t know about what types of feed you can get around PA, but I feed alfalfa pellets to my mare, usually Blue Seal, but there is at least one other brand I know of that does alfalfa pellets that are significantly smaller than those honking ones like what you’re feeding.

These you don’t have to soak, they are slightly bigger than any pelleted grain and easily chewed. Maybe it’s just a matter of you haven’t shopped around/checked out other brand’s alfalfa pellets? I don’t know about feeding a small animal brand, but I’m assuming you’re going to end up paying more per # or the packaging would be smaller and therefore end up being more expensive.

For what it’s worth, I know a horse who refuses ALL horse grain and has subsisted for the last 2 years on, wait for it, wait for it…chicken feed. So I doubt a small animal version of pelleted alfalfa would hurt. Just read the label.

[ReSomething]

Last I looked that stuff is expen$ive compared to the larger pellets. Purina horse chow used to be a primarily alfalfa pellet, well it was green, and it was small, the same size as extruded pellets you can find in TC SR, very easy for the horses to eat. Cost would be my only concern.

[Chachie]

The brands that we have here locally are pretty much just Standlee and Agway’s brand, which is about the same size as Standlee’s. I’m going to go buy grain this morning so I am going to check on smaller alfalfa pellets since they do sell small animal feed at my Agway.
I’m fortunate because my oldest daughter works for Petsmart so I am having her look into the price of small animal alfalfa when she goes into work later.

[GotMyPony]

My horse only gets 1 cup of Standlee Alfalfa pellets at “lunch” (gets him to come in from the pasture) and I feed them dry. Is there a reason you don’t want to do that? My horse loves them and has never had a problem with them dry. I will say that he eats out of a wide shallow bowl at ground level so the pellets are kind of dispersed, which may help to keep them from being bolted, if that’s your concern.

He does get his a.m. and p.m. feeds soaked (timothy pellets and beet pulp respectively) so the dry alfalfa is just to change it up a little.

[Texarkana]

When I first moved to TN from PA, the only place initially I could find that carried alfalfa pellets was TSC. This was before they began carrier Standlee products, and before Dumor started making alfalfa pellets.

I bought their Producer’s Pride brand alfalfa pellets, which was a smaller diameter pellet than what most feed stores carry. But I learned a valuable lesson-- check the ingredients!!! Many of the alfalfa pellets marketed for non-equine pets and livestock have fillers. A common filler is animal fat preserved with ethoxyquin!

[csaper58]

Check with manufacturer if there are added vitamins/minerals in the small animal feed, they will not be balanced for horses.

Why horse might not like soaked pellets… bad tasting water (if using a hose, let the water run for a few minutes to flush the stale water out of the hose), or pellets sit too long and start to go sour, or bucket smells.

[saje]

Unless something’s changed drastically, Blue Seal is available in the Cranberry area. I know of at least one large barn that feeds it. If I remember right, Trotter is an alfalfa based pellet that’s smallish and not too hard.