My hard keeper does well on approximately 2 1/2 pounds of Tribute Essential K and 2 1/2 pounds of K Finish daily. However, the NSC value of K Finish is very high at over 20%. Are there any better options out there to replace the K Finish? The high NSC value is very worrisome to me. My horse is also on 4 scoops of Cool Calories and a cup of flax per day.
IIRC TC Senior’s NSC is somewhere around 11%. Their fat content is 10%
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Thank you but looking for something with a higher fat content (K Finish is 25% fat) to feed with the Essential K ration balancer.
Oil? 100% fat, 0% NSC…
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Simkie, my horse won’t touch oil unless I go back to feeding him soaked alfalfa cubes. How much oil would he need to replace a pound of K Finish? And at 2 1/2 pounds of K Finish daily, do I even need to worry about the high NSC value? Thank you.
I wouldn’t worry about it if it’s not causing issues. Everyone makes a huge deal about it on these boards, but honestly, they get more sugar from the 20-30 lbs of hay vs 2 lbs of a fat supplement. I’ve had multiple top notch vets roll their eyes, and say a normal horse is fine with a higher NSC. Unless your horse has metabolic issues or Cushing’s, I would feed what kept him fat and shiny and not worry.
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What about Envision from Progressive?
It doesn’t list an NSC value, just says “controlled starch”, but maybe you can contact company and ask?
Envision is low NSC and you’d feed a lot less of it anyway.
Since K Finish is 25% fat and oil is 100%, you’d need 1/4 lb of oil to match 1 lb of K Finish. I don’t recall the mass to volume conversion offhand, though!
But no…unless you have a horse that is particularly sensitive to NSC, it probably doesn’t matter to feed a couple pounds of 20% + 
I think Cool Calories, HorseTech’s FB100, and other powder form fat supplements are low NSC.
I checked into this trying to get my horse off the high NSC rice bran but he won’t eat the powders. I wanted to see if the high NSC was increasing his spooking, but it didn’t make a difference.
Thanks everyone. I recall seeing somewhere that Envision is still about 20% NSC even though it is said to be low NSC. And at 26% fat I don’t see how I would be feeding much less of it than K Finish at 25% fat. I used to feed Omegatin (20% fat) but I can’t find the NSC value for it either. I think I will keep feeding what I currently am because he seems to be doing fine. I just wish there was a better option to add fat to a ration balancer without drowning it in oil or having to do a lot of powdered supplements like Cool Calories just to keep NSC low!
I just looked it up and according to https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/food-volume-to-weight one cup of oil weighs 7.9 oz or about 237g
For the sake of geekery/my own needs, with FB-100 with 1oz per scoop that’s about 8 scoops for a cup of oil. At $88.95 for a 25# bucket it’s $0.22/oz. compared to canola oil from Safeway at $0.07/oz usually.
That said how how much easier and more palatable it’d be to feed a dry fat supp! Prebagging for vacations would be a breeze. Might try it. I do love Horsetech!
Mild concern that it’s palm oil that isn’t always farmed sustainably… I wonder how to find out?
Email HorseTech - Rod is great about responding to questions. I believe they do pretty good quality control on their products, but I’m not sure about sustainability.
@Xanthoria, that’s an ounce by weight scoop and not an ounce by volume scoop on your dry fat? I actually expected the prilled fat to be even more $$ but admittedly haven’t looked at it in a long time! I remember paying ~$80 for 50 lbs but that was probably 10 years ago :eek:! Thankfully mine all do fine on oil and I don’t find it a hassle…I buy the big jugs from CostCo (something like 18$ for 40 lbs of oil?) and transfer into the nifty gallon containers with built in measure that Triple Crown sells for their rice bran oil.
One other option for you, @DFL … flax seed is 32% fat. It’s still something like 25% NSC, but at least you’re getting a bit of a bump in fat for that sugar, AND you get the omega 3s, which are also beneficial.
I agree excluding “fat”. So many issues arise from fat horses. A good weight, shiny etc yes. Pig, hunter fat- not a good plan.
Hmmm, I looked at the Horsetech site: “Each “slightly rounded” 48cc scoop will provide approximately one (1) ounce of fat.” https://horsetech.com/fb-100
Me too, on both counts!
I need to get a Costco membership…:yes:
Good idea. Rod is great.
But are they talking volume or weight? So confusing :lol: :lol:
If oil is about an ounce (weight) for an ounce (volume), prilled fat should be about half that so about half ounce (weight) for an ounce (volume).
A “rounded” 48 mL scoop is say 50 mLs of product? That’s 1.7 fluid ounces, so about 0.85 weight ounces if we’re going with the “it’s about half the density of oil” swag. So about 9.5 scoops to get to 8 oz of oil or $2.11 per 8 oz if you’re going with the 25 lb pail. CostCo oil is $0.225 for 8 ounces.
You gotta scale? Wanna measure up one of the “rounded” scoops of the dry fat and check my math? 
eta…oh, why am I doing all this math? The dry fat is sold by weight, duh. 25 lb bucket has 50 8 ounce servings in it, for a cost of $1.78 per 8 oz. So either it’s a little more dense than half oil, or a rounded scoop is a little more than 50 mLs! Still a bit of an ouch on price. :eek:
Since you’re already feeding Tribute, why not try Kalm N EZ pellets and continue with the Cool Calories? My elderly Cushings horse recently switched from TC Sr. (11% NSC) to that (14%) and is holding his weight well on 4 qts/day. Are you feeding the ration balancer because your horse won’t eat much?
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I contacted Progressive last fall to ask about the Envision, and they responded that it was a maximum of 15% NSC, and 2025 kcal per pound.
