Nutrina or Purina

[enjoytheride]

I currently feed my horses Strategy. I have for over 15 years and I’ve been happy with, however now that I have my own place I’m seeking to cut my budget while still providing the best nutrition. I have 3 arabians and one 17 hand TB. I have LOTS of grass but obviously not so much going into winter. All four have been fairly easy keepers all summer, I did up the TB’s hay and grain intake at the beginning of the month. Not because he needed it, but because he’s an unknown for me as far as caring for a horse that big and I didn’t want him to drop weight. At his owner’s home he was on ration balance and pasture.

Someone dropped off some bags of Nutrena Triumph 12% pellet and it’s much cheaper so I’m asking for reviews or comparisons. They also have a 14% pellet which would be comparable to the Strategy in protein. My main mare gets hot on corn products so something lower in corn would be great.

[JB]

Triumph is cheap because it’s a lower quality feed, lower than Strategy. And at 26% NSC, the 12% pelleted is not something I’d feed. The 14% is the same.

How much Strategy has each horse been getting?

IME, a horse who is in good weight on a ration balancer + pasture usually doesn’t need a regular feed for the Winter IF the quality of the hay is good enough. Triple Crown Lite is an option if you can get it, or any balancer + a couple pounds alfalfa pellets. Or, maybe just the lower end of the feeding rate for a quality feed.

[CL_Moonriver]

Personally, I prefer Triple Crown, but for whatever reason I can almost never find it around here and when I do, it’s often expired. And I’ve read too many horror stories about people ordering online and having it arrive moldy and such. So in practice, I usually feed Nutrena SafeChoice because I can reliably find it around here and it seems like a reasonably decent feed.

I have no experience with Purina. However, my mother used to raise and show dogs and she refused to feed Purina dog foods because she considered them low quality and they cut a lot of corners to achieve their guaranteed protein analysis. Because of that, I won’t feed Purina feeds to my horses. Although again, I don’t actually know much about Purina horse feeds. The low quality of their dog food turned me off to even considering it for my horses, though.

[Goforward]

I avoid both of those brands like the plague. I feed Hallway/KER and Triple Crown products. High quality feed is always worth the money. There are lots of ways to save money but feed isn’t where I would ever skimp.

[cutter99]

@CL Moonriver

I have no experience with Purina. However, my mother used to raise and show dogs and she refused to feed Purina dog foods because she considered them low quality and they cut a lot of corners to achieve their guaranteed protein analysis. Because of that, I won’t feed Purina feeds to my horses. Although again, I don’t actually know much about Purina horse feeds. The low quality of their dog food turned me off to even considering it for my horses, though.

Purina pet foods and Purina animal feeds are produced by two totally different companies and have been for many, many years. Two totally different entities.

[WNT]

They both offer feeds I would or would not feed. Nutrena’s Triumph line is comparable to Purina’s Impact feeds. Looks better as a budget line item, but you pay for it in the decrease in quality from their more premium offerings.

If the easy keepers are easy over the winter, consider Nutrena Empower Topline balancer or Purina Enrich Plus. They are ration balancers along the same vein as the Triple Crown product JB mentioned (in case you can’t get TC).

If the TB needs more calories, you can consider the Healthy Edge Strategy which has a little higher fat due to the addition of Amplify, a fat supplement blended with the feed. Or add some alfalfa pellets with his regular Strategy ration.

[clanter]

@cutter99

Purina pet foods and Purina animal feeds are produced by two totally different companies and have been for many, many years. Two totally different entities.

I have a relative who is Manager of Process Research for Purina Animal Nutrition which is owned by Land O’Lakes. He developed the processes and was award patients for the process used in Purina[SUP]®[/SUP] Amplify[SUP]®[/SUP] Supplement and Propel[SUP]®[/SUP]Energy Nugget

[RInurse_Rider]

I’ve tried the Nutrena Empower, the TC ration balancer and the Purina Enrich Plus. The Purina is the only one that actually smells appealing. My 3 will eat any of them. I use alfalfa pellets to add to the diet. I started doing this because I have one air fern, one easy keeper and one average keeper who refuses to eat more than 2 quarts of feed at a meal.

So I can give more calories with less volume for the picky girl and small amounts of feed to the piggy. All 3 can eat the same food instead of high-calorie complete feed for the picky girl. Economical too. Ration balancers aren’t marketed to harder keepers, but because they are so concentrated, if you feed at the upper end of the recommendations, it’s a lot of quality nutrition.

[JB]

@RInurse Rider

Ration balancers aren’t marketed to harder keepers, but because they are so concentrated, if you feed at the upper end of the recommendations, it’s a lot of quality nutrition.

Definitely not marketed towards harder keepers. You CAN use them as the base of feeding if you want to avoid grains (almost all are grain-free), and want to limit how many bins you dip into for feeding. But for the harder keeper, they are not the cheaper way to feed - regular fortified feeds usually are. I would still consider any horse who can be at a good weight on just the upper end of the feeding of any RB, to be a fairly easy keeper, since that upper end is in the 2-3lb range.