 Regular
Posts: 69
  Location: Kansas / South Dakota | I have a mare who seems to be VERY sensitive to NSC starch/sugar levels. I had the best luck with her on Bluebonnet Total Advantage, but it is no longer an option in my area and I would prefer a local distributor vs going with Chewy if at all possible. She is not doing well on Triple Crown Senior AT ALL - I am considering going to straight alfalfa cubes/pellets. Is there another somewhat natural option that you might suggest?? |
 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
              Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Two Nickels - 2020-03-16 1:26 PM
I have a mare who seems to be VERY sensitive to NSC starch/sugar levels. I had the best luck with her on Bluebonnet Total Advantage, but it is no longer an option in my area and I would prefer a local distributor vs going with Chewy if at all possible.
She is not doing well on Triple Crown Senior AT ALL - I am considering going to straight alfalfa cubes/pellets. Is there another somewhat natural option that you might suggest??
Have you tryed Triple Crown Lite? Is all BlueBonnet feeds not available to you? |
 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
              Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | On never mine I found your other thread, I'll bump it up because theres alot of good posts on it, maybe you missed them. |
Expert
Posts: 1694
      Location: Willows, CA | If the goal is to lower total NSC contribution to the diet, there are a number of ways to do that. All grain based feeds are going to be high in NSC, and recommended feed rates are generally high also. That is not a good combination. Grain free, high natural vegetable fat feeds are lower in NSC than grain based feeds, and are 2.5 times more energy dense than the starch and sugars found in grain. Also, recommended feed rates are much lower. That makes higher fat feeds a better match for horses needing more energy than just the roughage can provide that are very sensitive to high total NSC contributed to the diet each day. High fiber (read most Senior type) feeds are lower in NSC in the listed guaranteed analysis, but fed at much higher feed rates, and may actually contribute more total grams of NSC to the diet each day. Here is an example. Straight Stabilized Rice Bran has an NSC of about 20%, and is fed at around one pound per day. The total contribution from that would be 90 grams of NSC per day in the diet. A Senior feed that is 11% NSC, but fed at four pounds per day would contribute 199 grams of NSC per day. So the grain free, higher natural vegetable fat feeds may well be a better fit for your NSC sensitive horse. Hay is another consideration. Many people do not realize that grass hays tend to be much higher in total NSC than alfalfa. If you are in an area where you can safely replace part of the grass hay in the diet with some alfalfa, a NSC sensitive horse can benefit. In addition, gettng grain based feed out of the diet and adding some alfalfa to the roughage part of that diet can make a big difference in horses that are ulcer prone. |