do you feed the recommended amounts of chaff

[treacle_beastie]

So I was just looking at dengie healthy tummy as an alternative to feeding hi fi molasses free and vits and mins as she is very grumpy and was concerned about ulcers but in order to get the right amount of vits and mins I would need to feed 5 scoops a day.

I currently feed one and that goes down to half in the spring/summer!

Do you feed this amount?

 

[katie_southwest]

No I feed one handful!!! If I fed my mare as much as it says on the bag she would explode I feed one handful of chaff with lo cal balancer.

 

[Fintan]

I never feed chaff because I don`t spend money for somebody cutting hay in small bits and repacking it in nice bags.

Chaff is forage and hay is forage.

 

[McW]

No not ever

 

[Milkmaid]

Healthy tummy is more than just 'chaff'. It is a energy dense complete fibre feed?
Most people add a bit of 'chaff' to the concentrate ration to encourage chewing

 

[Sprocket123]

No I dont, cobs get a scoop am & pm, tb has 1 scoop with copra

 

[Fintan]

Hm,

it is based on Alfalfa. The acid buffering agent in Alfalfa is calcium. So far it sounds good.

But we have to consider in that Alfalfa (Lucerne) does contain massive amounts of calcium.

Did you ever think about the ratio calcium - phosphorus - magnesium in a horse diet? Calcium - Phosphorous should be about 2:1 to 2.5:1

Some Alfalfa does contain up to 17 gram of calcium per KG.

Feeding to much of it can / will destroy the ratio Calcium - Phosphorous.

An overamount of Calcium will also supress the uptake of Iron, Copper, Zink and Manganese, all essential in the diet.

Alfalfa is also a great donor of phytic acid or phytate which is an inhibitor for the uptake of zinc.

So it might be sensible to ask for the total amount of calcium per KG in this feed (apart from the phytic acid).

Otherwise it can happen that the benefit of stomach calming will lead to other problems like a lack of these essential trace elements and minerals.

As well Alfalfa is sometimes very strong in protein which is far more a building block than a energy source.
This can keep liver and kidneys busy with the "Detox process" Urea a by product of the protein digestion has to be flushed out.

With this you will also have a bigger loss of essential trace elements and also water solutable Vitamins like B vitamins.

Its not all gold what is glossy.

Feeding beetpulp has the same benefits to stomach and gut but far, far less possible side effects.

 

[treacle_beastie]

I think ill stick with my rations, she also gets a scoop of fast fibre ans magnesium calmer!