Can someone recommend a palatable copper and zinc supplement with no iron? I can’t get my horse to eat the poly copper and poly zinc granules by Uckele – he’s just NOT having it and it is causing him to leave behind some of his feed because it is “tainted” with the supplement.
Does the horse have any special diet restrictions? What does he eat pellets, grain, or other?
Can you add molasses or honey? Or find a brand off real stevia and try adding that. Do not use fake stevia or artificial sweeteners flavored with stevia.
If sweeteners are not doable, I would check with Uckele and HorseTech and see if they make a custom blend in pellet form, or try flavors…
HorseTech has Aperti. It comes in apple or peppermint.
Uckele has Equi Sweet. It comes in banana, peppermint or molasses with no sugar added. They also have a Cocosoya Oil that many horses love.
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How low have you started the dose? I agree they can be pretty “toxic” to some horses :lol:
Don’t those 2 come in a pelleted form? Without checking I’m not sure, but if they do, they’d be at least a little more palatable since I’m sure something decent tasting would be used as a binder.
What are you mixing these in with? I use an alfalfa pellet base (soaked, so they spread out their goodness, and mix well with any powders), and that has always done a good job as a taste cover-up.
Horse doesn’t like wet food but ok with oil. Not a fan of hay cubes. So, he will not eat wet beet pulp or soaked hay cubes, but he likes grain or pellets to which oil has been added. He doesn’t have diet restrictions (other than self-imposed ones!).
He likes most treats and flavors.
I board at a large barn - the barn will feed smartpaks or supps made up into baggies. He has been getting a baggie with ground flax and smartpak salt pellets. I added to his 2x a day baggies 1/2 the recommended dose of copper and zinc (I took the daily dose, split it in half, and then split it again between the 2x a day baggies) and believe it or not, he said NO to this tiny amount of supplement. I tried throwing in a handful of sweet feed but still NO.
The baggie set up is, I think, a big part of the issue and the limiting factor as far as adding flavors and textures to make it tastier. I think if I could add oil and molasses and mix with grain, he might eat it. But oil and molasses in a baggie in 90+ degree heat and humidity isn’t going to fly at my barn. Or even molasses/oil in a bag at all, no matter what the weather.
I only see him/ride 4 times a week right now. Would it be bad to feed the equivalent of 7 days in 4 days so I can create a special mix and feed by hand when I see him? How important is it to get this kind of supp every day vs 4 days a week? I would think it would be fine as it isn’t medicine.
See if he likes fennel seed (I supplement with this for a gassy horse). It has a STRONG smell – like licorice – and it may mask the iron/copper flavor???. Every horse I’ve offered fennel has loved it. I feed 2 TB of fennel seed or 1 TB of ground fennel. You may have some in your spice/herb cabinet.
Interesting! I have heard horses like fenugreek, anise etc but have never offered it to mine and it never occurred to me to use it this way. I hope it works since it is dry and can be easily added to the baggies. I know I don’t have it at home. Which do you think smells strongest - whole seeds or powder/ground?
Why are you supplementing zinc and copper but trying to avoid iron?
If your horse has no dietary restrictions, why not give him a balanced, palatable supplement?
Have you tasted the zinc and copper? Lick your finger, touch the product and taste the bit that sticks to his finger. What flavor do you think will conceal it?
I’m in an area with high levels of iron in the forage, soil and water. I have a dark horse who bleaches badly in the summer and whose forelock and tail “rusts” - I’ve heard excess iron can interfere with copper absorption, and lack of copper can contribute to bleaching and skin/foot health issues, but that copper shouldn’t be supplemented without zinc. I ran this all by my vet. He gave his OK to supplement the recommended levels of Uckele’s copper and zinc (although he did not promote/recommend supplemetation - he just said it would not be harmful).
My preference would be to simply reduce iron, rather than supplement copper/zinc, but it isn’t possible.
So - I am not brave enough to taste the supplement, but I did take a good whiff and it does smell nasty!
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All owners should try to avoid as much added iron as possible. They get more then enough from their forage, with few exceptions.
High iron leads to a (usually ) large imbalance with copper and zinc, so adding those 2 brings things into more balance. It’s just not possible to reduce the iron in the forage.
It’s also a sad unfortunately reality that all feeds that I’ve looked at, and almost all v/m supplements, add iron, which is ridiculous. And often high amounts. So even if they add fe/cu/zn in a balance, it doesn’t at all balance the rest of the diet, it just doesn’t unbalance it more.
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Uckele offers their copper and zinc supplements in pelleted form - it’s what I give my prone to bleaching black mare. Just checked the supplements page, keep scrolling down and you’ll find it – it comes in bagged form. Pretty palatable, at least IME 
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I don’t know if this would have enough for you, but Uckele’s Equi-VM doesn’t have iron, does have copper and zinc, and seems palatable. Smells pretty good. Low volume (as far as a vit/min supplement goes.) Might be worth checking out…although when I was in a very high iron area, I also did the poly copper and poly zinc. :-/ (My horses were “WTF are you feeding me?” for a day or so, but then started cleaning up the Cu/Zn no problems.)
Horse tech might be able to whip up something yummy for you? Their poly copper and poly zinc is identical, as far as I could tell, to the Uckele stuff, but they’re so good about custom mixes. They might have some ideas!
I use the pellet version No issues with eating…
What about California Trace?
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My horse didn’t like the Uckele v/m supp but did eat the copper and zinc, strangely–he is super picky. Since you are feeding flax already, I’d get HorseTech to mix you up something with their flax and one of the flavorings. I have a custom HT supp that contains copper and zinc among other things, and definitely no toxic smells like the straight stuff.
I’m not sure how I got this far without knowing that Horse Tech existed or that they’d do custom supps. Checking it out
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It it will not throw your other mineral ratios out of whack, you could try California Trace or Trace Plus pellets. Neither of them has any added iron. I’ve fed both supplements in the past, and no horse ever disliked or refused to eat it.
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My horses are presently refusing their new poly copper, poly zinc, and poly manganese supplements as well, so it’s kind of nice to know that someone else is having the same issue. i ordered, and tried, the pelleted form (zinc and copper) and they also refused them. since i’m the food taster, i;ve tasted all of them and they taste horrible, including the pellets bllkk… i’ve decided to introduce the least noxious first, and very slowly work my way up to the needed dose. they do sometimes eat some of it if they are in their stalls all day and they run out of hay, but usually there’s still some in there, and that’s with soaked beep pulp, apple sauce, cinnamon…don’t forget to share if you find a solution that works. now i’m adding alfalfa cubes and they ate the manganese… i too will look into horsetech…someone would make a mint if they came up with a palatable copper zinc supplements without lots of sugars.
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The powder has a stronger smell.
Ok I’m going to try to see if I can mask or improve the flavor with strong smelling seeds. I’m doing a taste test to see what he loves the most. Offered him some Anise seeds and he perked up and snarfed them out of my hand. Trying fenugreek and fennel next. I think fenugreek is possibly the strongest smelling. Once I figure out the strongest smelling / most preferred, I’ll mix the powder with the supps and let you know it I have any success.
Interested to see how it works out. He gets very offended when offered something “nasty”. He cant just refuse it or spit it out. He has to dramatically retreat to the back of his stall and put his head in the corner and pout while keeping one eye turned on me, or some equally super dramatic behavior.
Update! We have success! I never got around to trying fenugreek, and I couldn’t easily find powdered anise, so I tried a mix of fennel seeds and fennel powder and he ate it!
So this is exactly what he’s getting in his supplement baggie (fed 2x a day with his pellets):
1/2 c. Omega Horseshine
1/2 smartpak well of Smartsalt pellets
1/4 tsp. granulated zinc from Uckele
1/4 tsp. granulated copper from Uckele
1 tsp. powered fennel
1 tsp. fennel seeds
I tested by giving him a little of his regular feed (1/2 pound) with his baggie and he snarfed it up no probs.
If anyone reading this thinks it is odd that such tiny amounts of the minerals could put him off, all I can say is you’ve got to smell it. Both copper and zinc are so powerfully nasty.
Thanks everyone!!
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Why not just try the pelleted version? Uckele sells it and it’s quite palatable - my mare is also picky about powders, and the copper and zinc supplements are pretty grainy and nasty tasting.
