Do you always feed chaff?

Yes, my mare gets chaff all year round in varying quantities as she only needs a good rough chop hi fibre feed to keep her going as she is a cob and does not require much. She also gets some hi-fibre nuts plus her supplements, all lami approved :D

I personally believe alot of horses could happily live off a good chaff :D
 
Yes, we feed nearly 100% fibre diet. At the end of the day that is what horses are designed to eat and ours look fantastic on it xx
 
I have always fed chaff, I'm just curious as my instructor said she would NEVER consider feeding without chaff but I know loads of ponies that are just fed mix on it's own. So if you were feeding it purely for the extra fibre, would you ever consider changing it for sugarbeet/speedibeet?
 
I use it most of the time but not always.

Some horses who are picky eaters can be put off by a huge bowl of feed and are better off just having their concentrates.
at work when we had advanced/4**** eventers they were fed enough concentrate that again we didn't add chaff as no need to give them bigger feeds.

Imo if a horse is getting more than a scoop of mix/nuts in each feed I don't use chaff as the horse's stomach is so small I don't want the chaff to push the expensive food straight through!
 
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I don't always use chaff either, although it has its uses. As others have said, it is great for horses that bolt their feed, also useful when good doers are having a token feed when others are fed, as a low calorie coarse chaff takes some time to chew.

However, if the horses have adlib hay, and their diet is something like a fibre-based cube and/or beet, and they don't bolt their feed, then I feel they don't have to have chaff as well. In fact, with some poor doers, fussy feeders or slow eaters it may be advantageous to leave it out, as some horses just find it too much like hard work to eat it!
 
I feed chaff in varying amounts. Was advised by a nutritionist that if horse can cope with it, then it is always good to add long stem fibre to feed.

I am just removing the conditioning cubes from her diet as she has moved on to haylage and has gained a good amount of weight. So am going to give her a 100% fibre only diet. I am using Fibergy at the moment and she copes well with this and it has a high fibre and oil content. Great for slow release energy.
 
nemo_ said:
So if you were feeding it purely for the extra fibre, would you ever consider changing it for sugarbeet/speedibeet?
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It depends really, on what you want the fibre for! If you want fibre to keep the gut moving and to provide calories in another form other than cereals then beet is great, assuming the horse is getting plenty of hay and grazing to keep them occupied. If you want fibre to keep a horse occupied (perhaps when stabled, short of grazing etc) or to slow down feed consumption then a more 'chewy' feed like chaff or hay is better.
 
I have two air to fat converters and they get a scoop of chaff each a day purely to get their supplements into them. One is a baby on garlic and seaweed, the other is a veteran on biotin and brewer's yeast. But not getting nuts etc, doesn't do them any harm and a fibre based diet makes it much easier to control their weight. Plus the little exmoor would probably go insane on rich hard feed! There are plenty of people on our yard though with finer types of horse that are also fussy eaters and they don't always feed chaff. Again, as with so many questions on here, it really depends on your animal. As long as there is plenty of forage on offer, I don't think 'chaff with every meal' needs to be a hard and fast rule.
 
QR: Havent read thread, sorry but no, as it gives my horse the squits. Yes to the ponies as it slows them up a bit, except no to the old retired boy as it gets in his dentures ;)
 
just now when i cant ride all my boy gets is alfa a & hifi (both mollasses free) my youngster gets the same as he is on just now they both get speedi beet added to the chaff and their minerals too & they look fab on it, even when in work he only gets 1/2 round scoop per day of pasture mix and has more than enough energy!
 
My TB is getting some three times a day and other bits and pieces with ad lib haylage. My cob I've had to cut down on haylage as it makes her very loose so she is now getting lots of chaff to slow her down, help her digestion and as a part replacement for haylage.
 
No. My horse eats his feed quite slowly and I don't want him to eat any slower! He gets plenty of fibre in his diet as he's on ad-lib hay. I used to feed it to a horse I had who bolted his food.
 
I dont feed it when the horses are out. They just get their balancer.

In winter when I'm feeding sugar beet along side cubes, pellets or mix I like to add chaff to keep the feed texture 'open'. Otherwise they often end up with a hard flat patty at the bottom of their corner feeders. :rolleyes:
 
My tb gets D&H Just grass which is freeze dried grass. I prefer to feed this as it has a higher nutritional value, slows her down and i find it easier to introduce her to spring grass when we get field turnout again :D It also keeps the weight on her nicely!
x
 
No my mare has 1 scoop of mix plus 1/2 scoop of beet divided into 2 feeds, she is out all year on either good grass or has hay ad lib so I dont feel I need to buy chaff for her as well.
 
In the winter and the middle of the summer, my boys get 1/2 a scoop of chaff everyday with their balancer. In Spring and Autumn, they just get their balancer, as they are both good doers and when the grass is growing, they don't need any extra feed!
 
Like Indiat I used chaff to get the vitamin supplements down them but this year I've tried Mollichaff Veteran and have found that it is keeping weight on my old horse even though I only give him one scoop per day with beet - it smells nice too.
 
Dee is always feed chaff and pony nuts. She's a good doer so doesn't get alot but she always has chaff. I wouldn't ever feed her just pony nuts. I would be too scared she would bolt it and choke! :o

I always think a good chaff should be the base of any feed. And then anything else should just be additional to the chaff! Think chaff is fab for the good doers who just need a little something when everyone else is being fed too! :)
 
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