I know this is random, but I’m looking for the perfect thing to hand-feed my horse. It needs to be low starch and puffy, like the size of a nickel or a large piece of dog food, and it has to be low starch/low sugar. Does anybody know just the perfect feed?
McCauley’s Alam maybe? One website says it is 9% starch 4% sugars, from a nutritionist @ McCauleys in 2008. Comes in regular pellets or large pellets that are pretty fluffy (I.e. not dense and hard).
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Sentinel LS is extruded with a large puffy dog food like pellet. I can’t turn up the NSC with a quick Google from my phone but know it’s out there SOMEwhere and pretty low?
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Thanks for that. From the pictures online, I would never have known that Sentinel is puffy. Chewy carries it, and I might try it.
Alam looks very promising, but I can’t find the ingredients online, and I don’t think it’s in my area. I’ve e-mailed the company.
Yep, it’s puffy enough that their 50# bags are bigger than “standard” 50# bags of grain.
Hay pellets or cubes might also be a good low NSC treat option for you?
Yes, I found some good LS large-pellet treats, but the pellets are hard. It takes him like 60 seconds to chew one pellet. I’d like to find something fluffier that he could eat quicker, and I’d like to find something sold by the pound rather than by the ounce. Oh, and, yes, I have good LS hay cubes, but they are large and I can only fit about 6 in my pocket and they also take forever for him to chew.
My guys are pretty fond of these. They are roughly dry dog food size and texture. https://www.chewy.com/buckeye-nutrition-all-natural/dp/136837
Thank you. Those look just right but probably aren’t safe for my IR horse. I guess it depends on how much air is whipped in.
I haven’t see these in person but maybe they would work? https://www.purinamills.com/horse-feed/products/detail/purina-carb-conscious-horse-treats
Roasted, in-the-shell peanuts are a great treat for the IR/metabolic horse. Fat n fiber all in one. 
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I wish I could convince my horses that peanuts are a horse treat. So convenient and easy to get and bonus ,they are a human treat too. Even my horse that will eat almost anything will not eat them.
Thanks for the peanut idea. I will try that. I’ve also used whole, plain almonds, which were well received.
I’m also going to get some of the Purina Carb Conscious treats today. I’ve ordered a bag of Sentinel low-starch. Also Stabul 1 Nuggets are perfect and available from Chewy’s (if anyone else is also shopping); but I can’t afford them for clicker training. You go through a lot of treats.
Anyway, I’ll have a lot of different things to try.
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My horse loves peanuts!
I really like the peanuts for clicker training. They are light weight and relatively clean
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Another sugar-free option, are Herballs by Hilton Herbs USA. I’ve yet to find a horse that didn’t like 'em!
My horse rejected peanuts in shells today.
Yes, the Herballs look great, but they’re so expensive.
I got some Purina Carb Control treats. They are a nice size, but not fluffy. (They are a large pellet, not extruded.)
I wonder if something like cheese balls would work.
https://www.boxed.com/product/3721/utz-white-cheddar-snow-balls-27-oz
25 balls is only 3 grams of sugar.
Might be worth a shot? Kind of a weird choice but might be a hit.
The size and shape is perfect, but the starch and fat would be off the charts.
Have you looked at the label?
25 balls is 14 grams carbs, 3 of which is sugar. They’re so airy, there’s really not much of anything in them. 3 grams of sugar is SO little.
Well, I appreciate the idea. You sent me on a search. There is apparently an entire “puff“ industry. Articles claim that the corn puffs originated as animal feed.
There are keto puff snacks and baby puff snacks. There are recipes for homemade puffed snacks. You can even buy extrusion machines for home use. That made me fantasize about grinding up cubes and trying to puff them. But no. LOL
But I can’t imagine any of this being my solution. The keto puffed snacks which are probably OK for an IR horse are like $10 an ounce.
