Chaff recommendations?

S

Shilasdair

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Can anyone's horse recommend me a chaff with the following key characteristics;

Palatable
Low sugar, low in energy
Can be fed in larger amounts
Must not contain any grasses?

Thanks in advance
S :D
 
i am presuming alfalfa is not considered a grass as it is a legume. I feed dengie good doer - lowest energy i could find at DE 7 and though mollasses dengie told me it is a very light coating so low in sugar and you can feed as a hay replacer so can feed in large amounts. i have a fussy pony who will reject most horse treats and he will gooble up the good doer.

also top chop lite is sugar free but it does have oil on it - my pony ate this though was less keen as he does not like anything oily or that smells of oil.
 
I use an unmolassed chaff which is basically just chopped straw. It comes in a huge plain white bag and is manufactured by Leighs. I have also recently discovered Mollichaff's HiFi Alfa which is unmolassed, I am not entirely sure what else is in it but it looks like Dengie HiFi Lite without the molasses.The other one I have used is TopChop Lite, again I'm not sure about the grasses but it seems very palatable. Can you tell I have a youngster who is not a nice 'person' on molasses?

Just remembered HoneyChop do a plain chopped straw chaff too, haven't tried that one though - yet :)
 
I feed Stuarts Chaff, which is the nearest I can find to the old fashioned chaff of my youth! Horses polish it off, it also comes in a mint flavour. When I get my chaff cutter back in action I can relive my youth and build up my myscles again!
 
As far as I know (but correct me if I'm wrong), Alfa A Oil is unmolassed as I have something in my mind telling me that the molasses are removed before the oil is added.....
 
Thanks for your suggestions.
I'm going to try some of them with the horse who's suspected to be allergic to grass/es, but she does have strong opinions over what constitutes 'food' and what is to be trampled underhoof disdainfully.
S :D
 
I have the fussiest pony and will only eat some chaffs and even turns her nose up at some hay and haylage thats others eat, fingers crossed i find some nice yummy hay to keep us going all winter!

After a summer of refusing most chaffs, I am over the moon, she loves the new dengie Hi Fi mollass free chaff, it has mint and fenugreek added to it and some oil and she eats a whole schoop mixed with her food twice a day! She used to eat her food and leave the chaff but hoovers up everything, so defo a reccomendation from our pony!

Good Luck!!
 
Trying to avoid sugar is so difficult, I have a tb who stays nice and chilled and donkey like as long as I don't give him sugar.

As you want to feed larger amounts probably best to stay away from straight alfalfa chaffs such as alfa a oil and top chop alfa which are sugar free but high in protein.

That leaves the straw/alfalfa mixes so e.g Hi Fi molasses free, Top chop lite, horsehage hi fibre alfalfa all of which will have oil and some herbs added.

All the others including those aimed at fatties and laminitics have molasses in (bear in mind good doer is 8% sugar and hi fi lite is ^%) and Alot of the lite options may have something called molglo in it which is basically molasses and oil.

Some companies such as honeychop make a straight straw chaff with nothing added but they tend not to be that appetising and work best if added to something else to add fibre.

Applechaff is about 17% sugar so not so good if you are trying to avoid sugar and the other mollichaffs are about 15%

Incidentally is the horse allergic to all grasses or ryegrass? Horses do a timothy haylage which is good if you are trying to avoid ryegrass.
 
criso said:
Trying to avoid sugar is so difficult, I have a tb who stays nice and chilled and donkey like as long as I don't give him sugar.

As you want to feed larger amounts probably best to stay away from straight alfalfa chaffs such as alfa a oil and top chop alfa which are sugar free but high in protein.

That leaves the straw/alfalfa mixes so e.g Hi Fi molasses free, Top chop lite, horsehage hi fibre alfalfa all of which will have oil and some herbs added.

All the others including those aimed at fatties and laminitics have molasses in (bear in mind good doer is 8% sugar and hi fi lite is ^%) and Alot of the lite options may have something called molglo in it which is basically molasses and oil.

Some companies such as honeychop make a straight straw chaff with nothing added but they tend not to be that appetising and work best if added to something else to add fibre.

Applechaff is about 17% sugar so not so good if you are trying to avoid sugar and the other mollichaffs are about 15%

Incidentally is the horse allergic to all grasses or ryegrass? Horses do a timothy haylage which is good if you are trying to avoid ryegrass.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detailed info - I appreciate you taking the time to write that for me.
I don't know which specific grasses she is allergic to yet - she has to come off the Preds in order to be skin tested. And I thought if I can put her onto forages she has not had before, she can't have developed an allergy to them (yet :p). Timothy is a non starter as there is timothy in her current haylage, so it may be an allergen.
Low sugar is the ideal, but if she does like, for example, Applechaff, I could mix it with something lower in sugar gradually, thus getting her to eat both.
S :D
 
Shills - I never use chaff. Just put the feed in unmolassed beet and they'll be fine.

Apart from being a bit of a waste of money - many chaffs are pretty high in sugars - but more woryingly often contain anti fungal and mold inhibitors that some sensitive horses can react to.

imho it is something that has been market created and ain't really needed.
 
Mine went through an allergic phase and I did the whole food exclusion thing, rye grass was one of 15 triggers they found which is why I know the timothy haylage.

After all that it turned out not to be food related at all and was fixed by moving yards.

And sugarbeet even unmolassed turned him into the amazing airbourne TB
 
well pegasus chaff is just chopped straw really but if your looking for a low energy and sugar chaff i would go for
top spec = top chop light
dengie = hifi
or happy hoof
 
Applechaff low in sugar?!!! Its thick with mollasses! no wonder they like it! Sent my friends mare totally off her rocker.

I use Hi-Fi original but if you want a lower sugar one then go for the Hi-Fi lite.
I hear Dengie have brough out a range of unmolassessed chaffs now that may be worth trying?

Also happy hoof is nice, my cob mare cant get enough of it, but this is more of a complete feed than a chaff
x
 
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