barefoot friendly chaff recommendations

Kat

Kat

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I feed my mare speedibeet, m. Linseed, pro-hoof, and salt. She was fine on this over winter but has become really fussy since the grass has come through.

I tried changing things around and the only way I have managed to get her to eat was by using a tiny amount of beet and mixing it with a couple of handfuls of chaff.

The chaff I usef for this experiment was a free sample of mollichaff condition. I know this is too high sugar/starch to use long term but what are the alternatives.

I need an unmolassed chaff, preferably without alfalfa that is also palatable and appealing. Preferably I would like something cheap and easy to get hold of.

What can you recommend?
 
Simple Systems? I really liked the Timonthy Chop, although, I found it hard to get hold of locally & didn't use enough to warrant ordering online as was hit by P&P so switched to Dengie Good Doer, although this won't necessarily help you because of the alfalfa.
 
Simple systems and pure feeds are no good logistically. I can't store enough to make a decent order.

Should add she could stand to gain weight so it doesn't have to be low cal.
 
You could try Halley's. Both the just grass and Timothy hay chop are Alfalfa free.

I feed them both to my fussy barefoot mare.

Edit :- The minimum order is 2 bags so not a lot to store and it's free delivery too
 
Ideally I don't want to buy more than one bag at a time because she is being really fussy. She is eating a tiny amount and may well go off whatever it is by the end of the bag.
 
Top Chop Lite might be an option, I know it is oat straw mixed with alfalfa but the alfalfa element is nominal and it's a fairly short, soft oat straw chop which went down quite well with my mare, who went right off some of the coarser oat straw options. It also tends to be fairly widely available.
 
Kat said:
Ideally I don't want to buy more than one bag at a time because she is being really fussy. She is eating a tiny amount and may well go off whatever it is by the end of the bag.
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I'm currently having reasonable success if I make up the Speedibeet with warm water and a sprinkle of Cinamon. Mine's a right fussy madam too:D
 
Haven't tried cinnamon, have tried fenugreek though and it helped a bit but not much.

Do fussy types eat plain oat straw chaff ok or do I need to get something a bit more tasty?
 
Have a look at D&H Safe & Sound if you want something tasty.

It's supposed to be a complete feed, so is supplemented with vits/mins etc. It does have some molasses in, but a low level, and most importantly for me, has no alfalfa. It's mostly oat straw, with herbs and little nuggets in. Always smelled lush and everything fussy that tried it loved it :)

If you want absolutely no molasses, I use Graze-on, although the Top Spec one may be better as mix of grass types. I know flash dried grass is not ideal for barefoot, but he only gets a handful in each feed, and isn't that sensitive.

Halleys Timothy chop is fab too - but I found it a faff to order in, when I could get Graze-on locally for half the price.

Haven't come across anything that won't eat the Graze-on or the Timothy chop either :)
 
If I had room for a chaff cutter or to store straw to chop :rolleyes:

What are people's experiences with Mollichaff Calmer? How does the sugar compare with readigrass or graze on? I know she will eat that as she had it once when my delivery of pure feeds was delayed.
 
Will consider D&H safe and sound too. Think I need to do a comparison and then see what I can source locally.
 
Lego said:
Have a look at D&H Safe & Sound if you want something tasty.

It's supposed to be a complete feed, so is supplemented with vits/mins etc. It does have some molasses in, but a low level, and most importantly for me, has no alfalfa. It's mostly oat straw, with herbs and little nuggets in. Always smelled lush and everything fussy that tried it loved it :)
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I believe they changed the recipe recently and it now contains alfalfa - very annoying.
 
Think I will go to the feed store with this list and see what they stock. Think I will have to take a chance on something and hope she eats it.
 
Forage n fibre contains alfalfa and molglo.

So it looks as though it is graze on or readigrass from the suggestions above.

What about the mollichaff calmer? Anyone know the ingredients in that?
 
But does it contain alfalfa? If not then it might be better than graze on or readigrass. At the moment all the lower sugar alternatives contain alfalfa.
 
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