Wanted to ask if anyone feeds alfalfa cubes (like sold at TSC) to their minis as treats. I have two little girls and wanted to know if this is a good supplement / treat / something to be avoided all together.
I have in the past...but as a supplement to the grass hay they were getting. The cubes are hard and too big for them so I had to break them up into pieces and filled feed pans with them. For treats I give mine the Dumor horse treats...I break them into 3rds and mine particularly like the oatmeal raisin even though I have given them the carrot flavored and the molasses.
I agree...it's pretty much a pain imo. I had to take a hammer & break them into little pieces otherwise my nigerians wouldn't even touch them. You might be better off just buying a bale of alfalfa hay & giving them a handful as a treat once in a while.
I've used the cubes with my minis when i couldn't get alfalfa hay, and i plan to use them this winter to extend the hay i've bought, b/c i don't think it will last otherwise. I've done the breaking up part, and it's fine if you want to use it as treats, b/c its just a bit at a time. When i've wanted to feed them the cubes as a 'meal' i put them in a single layer in a pan, and cover with water - in winter, warm water is appreciated - and let them soak for a bit (10-15 minutes maybe? I don't usually time it b/c i feed the other animals and come back to it later) then you can either give it right to them or break it up yourself first. I tried the pellets, and mine weren't really fond of them, i had to mix with other grain, and they tried to sort thru and dumped stuff everywhere.
The breaking of the cubes is the fun part. They girls seem to enjoy the chewing of the smaller pieces.
We don't use the cubes like everyone has said they are too hard. So we have various types of horse treats especially the smaller sized ones (nuggets). Ours prefer carrot or molasses flavored. Since we have our two mares I pick up a few bags of horse treats once a month at TSC. Sometimes I will use the alfalfa pellets as part of their once a week breakfast. As I mentioned in another thread with the sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds plus some organic kelp supplement. The combination depends on how they look.