I’ve been searching and really haven’t found anything aside from Crypto Aero, which obviously is NOT low starch. Does anyone know of anything that I may be overlooking??
Did you look at www.seminolefeed.com ?
You can call and ask them if a custom mix is possible.
What beet pulp feeds are available to you?
If you Google chronofhorse soy free feeds lots of links to other treads come up.
Soy free is very hard to find. I use Crypto Aero, but you do have to supplement it. The supplement I use can be used as the “grain” itself: it is Omega Grande and is flax and rice bran based and low in starch. I use alfalfa for protein, but you don’t need to supplement protein if your hay is good enough (ours is not). You could also feed soaked alfalfa pellets, with ride bran/flax in it. Sunflower seeds and split peas are also good and lower in starch. Platinum will make a special order soy free version as well. If you have really good hay and a vitamin mineral supplement, there is rellly no need to give a hard feed.
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I’ve been looking for the same thing. It seems to be a bit of a unicorn. Coolstance is a possibility, although you do still have to use a vitamin/mineral supplement with it. Also, my horses will eat it but are not crazy about it. I also think it’s weird to feed coconut to horses, but I guess it’s not so different from beet pulp - which horses would never eat in the wild, either.
I feed a mix of Cool Stance, beet pulp + alfalfa pellets = no starch at all - basically just forage.
But I add Triple Crown Lite + a mineral supplement. Very low starch altogether but the Lite does contain soybean…
…however the Triple Crown ‘Naturals’ has NO soybean but does have oats so the NSC is listed at 21%.
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EquiPride: http://sweetpro.com/horse-equipride_equilix-ingredients.html
I feed it straight since my draft-x mares are easy keepers. For the harder keeper or those need more calories for hard work, mix with plain/soaked beet pulp or oats.
What is the actual need? As in, how much feed does the horse require?
You can make your own mix, and there are 2 soy-free ration balancers - TDI-10 and M-10 - but they are better suited for alfalfa-based diets, meaning, you’d want to add lysine and methionine, or use with enough alfalfa hay/pellets to up the protein and those amino acids.
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I agree that for a soy-free diet, it is easier to assemble individual ingredients (depending on what your horse needs).
Some possible ingredients could be:
Vit/Min supplement or soy-free ration balancer
Alfalfa or timothy pellets
Beet pulp
Coolstance
Renew Gold
Rice Bran
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Do note that whatever supplements you add/feed you choose, consider the hay you are also feeding. Many hays have mineral imbalances- and mineral toxicity is a concern if your complete feed/ration balancer supplement doesn’t jive with the hay. It’s hard to make a good recommendation without knowing what else you feed your horse. But there are some good suggestions here- Beet pulp, alfalfa pellets. Coolstance is great, but is high in Omega 6 so can be inflammatory. I prefer adding Camelina Oil or Chia Seeds instead, which has a more balanced and beneficial Omega and 6 balance (and creates quite the “bloom”- see pic of my horse). Also I don’t agree with some of the comments here about bran- rice bran is great for performance horses but is very high in starch so is not appropriate for insulin resistant, PPID, or PSSM horses.
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Just curious, what’s bad about the soy in horse feeds?
“what’s bad about the soy”?
Well, some horses seem to be sensitive to soy (I have seen it particularly in mares) and do better with weight and attitude on a soy-less diet.
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"Dr. McCoy: Stabilized rice bran contains lower levels of starch and sugar compared to typical grain-based feeds"
I always thought it was lower in starch…
The NSC of rice bran is 16.4-33.8%, with an average of 25.1%. Its ‘low sugar & starch’ when compared to some feeds, but its not a true low sugar & starch feed. The stabilization is just a heat & pressure process that inactivates the lipase enzyme, without affecting the nutrition.
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It’s true that rice bran is not particularly low in starch. But if you need calories and fat at a good price, it can be helpful. I was able to feed it to my PSSM mare (in limited quantities and as part of a whole foods diet that was overall low in NSC).
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Adding to above, she is on a straight Timothy hay, with a vitamin/mineral supplement (because I don’t feed her the recommended amount per weight), a hoof supplement, camellina oil, and Actiflex 4000.
My air fern mare gets only about 5 cups (that is level 8 ounce cups) of Crypto Aero (plus about two level cups of Omega Grande) per day. PLUS, she is getting 2 flakes of alfalfa with her grass hay. Before the switch, she was getting 3 pounds per day of Progressive Nutrition grass ration balancer and less grass hay, and she is definitely leaner on the soy free diet. She has lost the water bloat she had, skin issues, and low energy. The only negative to the soy free was that the soy was suppressing her hormones, so I now have a real MARE. If we are no longer able to source the Crypto Aero, I found a local mill that makes a soy free corn free organic mix (whole oats, split peas, flax and I forget what else) or I would simply feed her soaked alfalfa pellets with Omega Grande. I would say that it took about six months to see the full benefits of the soy free diet.
I did find it extremely difficult to find soy free products. Even Platinum Performance has soy oil in it, although they will custom make you a soy free formula. Cavelor uses the soy hulls.
FWIW, I feed my PSSM mare Seminole Dynasport, plus select supplements (including ALCAR) and hay/turnout. She is doing very well. She actually improved in weight and condition from her soy-free, whole foods diet when I switched her to this feed regimen.
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I also recently spent a great deal of time looking for a soy free, low starch food. I’ve got an easy keeper QH who has developed diarrhea on his previous TC 30% or Seminole Equalizer or TC Sr. I don’t know if the problem is soy or something else - just guessing here. My other boy is formerly IR, so I don’t feel good about feeding soy to him either, and he definitely needs low starch. I’ve ended up feeding beet pulp. Neither one of them needs very much. Not fancy but it’s working.
One of the boys is on Platinum Performance Wellness for his vitamins and minerals. He is also on Platinum Refresh for anhidrosis. The formerly IR boy is on High Point Grass balancer. Both are doing very well with this program.
So how does one know if Soy is a problem? I’ve had my easy keeper on TC30% and this spring we are treating him as IR as he blew up in just a few shorts weeks and regained all the weight we had worked off over winter… He only gets 1 lb per day, is that really enough to say it is an issue if he isn’t losing weight with a muzzle, and IR treatment (Thyro-L, Mg, etc).
