Can You Overdose on Vitamins and Minerals?
My horse is fed one stubbs scoop of chaff, half a scoop of pony nuts, half a scoop of coarse mix and a feed balancer twice a day. He is only in light work and lives out at this time of the year on reasonable grazing plus he has a vitamin and mineral lick in his field. A friend at my yard suggested that I may be overdosing on vitamins and minerals, is this possible?
Although it is essential that your horse receives the vitamins and minerals that he needs on a daily basis to stay healthy, giving more of these vitamins and minerals than is actually necessary can actually do more harm than good. Most concentrate feeds will have vitamins and minerals added to them to ensure that they are fully balanced and will provide the correct levels of vitamins and minerals when fed at the recommended rates. It is a good idea to contact your feed manufacturer and check what quantities of feed you need to be giving to ensure that your horse's daily requirements for vitamins and minerals are being met. As your horse is already receiving a reasonable amount of concentrate feed you may well find that there is no need to supplement this any further. However, should you be feeding less than is recommended using a feed balancer or adding a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement to the feed will ensure your horse is getting everything he needs. This is preferable to a vitamin and mineral lick as you may find that your horse consumes lots of it in one go or that he does not use it on a daily basis neither of which are desirable.
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