Re: RE: Re: Purina Complete Advantage

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> > I thought I saw on the package that it is a complete feed.  I searched
the
> > website  (incidently Purina Mills is being reorganized under Chapter
11),
> > the website is being reconstructed so I called to confirm.  They said
that
> > it WAS a complete feed and that the roughage was beet pulp.

Nevertheless, I wouldn't feed it without at least 1 lb of long stem hay per
100 lbs of body weight.


> reason I ask, seems the majority of Purina feeds seem to be high on
> molasses, except for the
> Horse Chow, which is ALFALFA based.

Probably not that high---most feeds that have any molasses have 5% content
to decrease dustiness, increase pelleting, etc, and you can't go very much
higher than that, or you'll grow mold.  In any case, it's not enough
molasses to get excited about.


>
> Complete Advantage and Purina Athlete seem to be the only feed I would be
> remotely interested, and I can do better by buying bags of beet pulp;
> vegetable oils, and the much cheaper cost-wise Manna-pro feeds I can get
at
> Walmart for $5 a bag (they have complete pellets based on grass hays, and
> complete pellets based on alfalfa hays, a nice sweet feed for occasions
that
> is more grain and pellets than really sweet, Manna senior, etc., etc.


True, mixing commodities is somewhat cheaper.


>
> And.......here is a question I have always wanted to ask.............their
> dog foods are "grocery store"
> quality (so so), and not the quality of Iams, or Science Diet, so why
would
> their bagged horse foods be anything much to rave about?

Different company, different formulation strategy.  Ralston Purina who makes
the dog food is not the same as Purina Mills, the horse feed company, just
licensed under the name.  And Ralston Purina does make a premium line of
dog/cat feed that's quite good.  The grocery store line just targets a
different market.


>
> What I seem to end up doing these days is bags and bags of beet pulp, then
> added a 10% protein manna-pro pellet, maybe some manna senior, maybe some
of
> their 'sweet feed" called Wagon train; salt, veg. oil, and something like
> Select II or Accell.  Other thing I didn't like about the Purina feeds is
> that so many of them were too high on the protein scale for me.

Yes, but remember that feeding a "16% protein" supplement feed doesn't mean
your total diet is 16%.  If you're feeding it with 8% CP grass hay, than
your total crude protein of your ration is probably closer to 10%, depending
on amounts of each you're feeding.  If you're feeding a 16% grain mix with a
20% CP alfalfa, then, yes, your ration is way too high protein, but then
your problem isn't with the grain mix. :-)  Complete Advantage is 12.5%
protein, which is pretty moderate.  The Omolene 300 is 16% CP, but the
overall ration I feed is 12% because of the grass hay I provide that
mediates the overall protein levels (which, btw, is to a broodmare, not a
performance horse, but isn't that different).

Susan G
>
> Karen
>
>