I have a new horse moving in who has been eating PES. I was on the Purina site and, although I can find a chart of the nutrient composition, I can’ t actually find a list of the what’s in it. Can someone who feeds this let me know what the first 5 ingredients are or send me a pic of the tag? TIA
Depends on the market. It’s not a fixed formula feed. Best bet is to pull a tag from your feed store–just keep in mind the next batch may be different.
Fixed formula feeds aren’t necessarily better, there’s been a lot of clever marketing to try to sway people that way. I prefer a feed that adjusts it’s contents slightly according to analysis of the batch of oats or soy or etc.
You can get the contents off a bag in the feed store, or email Purina. The major ingredients are always the same, the exact formula might change according to the nutritional profile of each of those ingredients. For example, batches of soybeans are analyzed as they might be different nutritionally depending on location, growing season, etc. So more or less of something is added to meet the nutritional requirements. They’re never going to totally eliminate a main ingredient.
In Purina Senior the first ingredients are: Alfalfa, Wheat Middlings, Soybean Hulls, Ground Corn, Cane Molasses, Soybean Meal.
You can also try Purina Impact Professional Senior, it has no corn and has controlled starch and sugar. I feed the impact professional and I’m really happy with it. The impact line has no corn, lower starches and sugars, and is a more “modern” grain.
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Where are you located? Purina Canada is a lot different than the US Purina.
i feed Purina Sr but I’m in Canada so it is different up here. I love the grain by the way. Its been great for my ponies. I made the switch from Materfeeds to Purina about a year ago and noticed a huge difference and the ponies love it.
Here is the info from Purina Canada: https://equipurina.ca/documents/factSheets/35240_EV_senior_EN.pdf
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I have always used Purina feeds with excellent results. If the horse is doing well on it currently , I would continue to feed it and don’t worry about what is on the tag.
No matter what I have used feed wise over the years ( jr, sr, omolene, strategy , enrich plus) all my horses eat it from day 1 and never stop ( as happens with other feeds).
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I use Blue Seal (part of Kent Nutrition group) Sentinel Performance LS. It is cooked like Senior for digestibility but is high fat, high fiber and low starch/sugars. My horse is 25 and has no problems with hay but he gets extra calories and vitamins, minerals and trace nutrients. It’s about $18 for a 50 lb bag. He gets 3 lbs per day.
I prefer fixed formulas. The ingredients are specific and don’t change from bag to bag. A formula may be updated from time to time. Some horses have allergies or are sensitive to changes in ingredients. Each ingredient is tested but they don’t change even if prices fluctuate The LS has Soybean Hulls, Ground Beet Pulp, Wheat Middlings as the first 3 ingredients. Soybean hulls and soybean meal are listed separately The ingredients and nutritional profile are listed on the bag and website. If the formula isn’t fixed the ingredients are generic, such as “oats.” Ingredients are on a tag sewn to the bag and not available online. That can be a tipoff to a variable formula.
Blue Seal is marking its 150th anniversary this year having been established in Massachusetts. it has been produced in New England and is regarded as a local product.
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I’ve had a similar experience to candyappy. My horses eat EqSr well and do well on it. Purina is very good at making a consistently palatable feed at a reasonable price.
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At least the Purina Feeds we buy the date of production is not marked in some secret coding but clearly plainly stated which makes it very easy to see if the feed is fresh … which I expect since the mill is almost within eye sight for me
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I am in PA but the horse is coming from MI. We don’t feed Purina so I am trying to match it most closely to one of our feeds.
In Purina Senior the first ingredients are: Alfalfa, Wheat Middlings, Soybean Hulls, Ground Corn, Cane Molasses, Soybean Meal. Thank you for this.
OP, have a few bags shipped with the horse to accommodate the transition, we have had many horses brought in from distant places and always have transition hay or any special grains shipped with them to give us a switch over time
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He is coming with a few bags of feed. Thanks.
You can’t get Purina or you would rather not feed it??
Are you buying this horse or is it a new boarder?
No matter what I personally would do my best to keep a horse on a feed he is used to eating and one he likes. Especially if he is doing well on it.
Too many times people mess around trying different feeds and then the horse isn’t eating any of them.
Of course I prefer Purina so i am biased!
This I would disagree with, I wouldn’t want to feed 12 different feeds. I’d want to feed as few feeds as possible. I just so happen to feed Purina! If Purina isn’t an option period then another senior would be fine.
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I agree… I’ve never been to a boarding barn who carried every kind of feed to accommodate what they were fed before they arrived. If I didn’t feel my horse would do well on what the barn supplied, I supplied it myself.
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Totally agree. I offer a ration balancer, a basic feed and a Senior-type feed. I will also provide a fat supplement top dress for an extra charge (at cost). I transition new horses onto the barn feeds gradually, but there is really no need to buy each horse a separate feed just to maintain consistency. If there is a specific issue like allergies, sure! But that is rare.
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We don’t feed Purina which is why he will be switching to something else. He is a boarder horse and I am sure he will do just fine on the feed we use. I do my best as barn manager to match a horse’s current feed with the one of the different types of feed that we offer. However, I’ve never had to switch off of a feed that did not provide its ingredient list on its website either, thus my post for help. I find this to be odd. Again, thanks for everyone’s input.
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and real pain especially when the test results also include pine shavings along with about 30 other things… like wonder boy’s allergy test… makes you want to include an allergy test in a PPE
Oh no, not Socrates! yikes. well, he’s cute enough to make up for the trouble! My friend uses straw pellets as bedding, they might be good for him?
We use compressed straw pellets. They are cheaper than the pine pellets and work pretty much the same. We really like them.
Most feeds are either fixed ingredient, or not (meaning 1 or more generic ingredients, ie "forage products).
Not a lot of feeds are truly fixed formula. Triple Crown is one. And they DO guarantee the GA because they have very strict nutritional profile requirements for their major ingredients
You can get the contents off a bag in the feed store, or email Purina. The major ingredients are always the same,
They aren’t always the same. Here’s a side by side comparison of 2 different Strategy Professional Formula GX, one bought in NC, one bought in Ohio
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The upload looks a bit blurry to me, so in case it saves that way, the first 5 ingredients on the
- NC tag are wheat middlings, ground soybean hulls, cane molasses, dehydrated alfalfa, corn germ meal
- OH tag are processed grain by-products, grain products, molasses products, forage products, roughage products
Could it be that the generic products of the OH bag are what’s actually in the NC bag? Maybe, but you’ll never know, and will never know if that changes.
the exact formula might change according to the nutritional profile of each of those ingredients. For example, batches of soybeans are analyzed as they might be different nutritionally depending on location, growing season, etc. So more or less of something is added to meet the nutritional requirements. They’re never going to totally eliminate a main ingredient.
That’s how most fixed ingredient feeds work. But as above, there are some (because I’ll assume Triple Crown isn’t the only one, I seem to recall Seminole might be another) brands that are all or at least mostly fixed formula products.
In Purina Senior the first ingredients are: Alfalfa, Wheat Middlings, Soybean Hulls, Ground Corn, Cane Molasses, Soybean Meal.
Not guarnateed to be the same in a different region
