Feeding straw

[Vermeer]

Planning to give my Cushing's mare some oat straw to pick at through the day, along with her haynet.

What is best, long straw or chopped (honeychop etc) - am thinking bales must be more economical but there seems to be a worry that there is more risk of impaction colic when feeding long straw... And there are others who feed it that have never had any problems! So unsure what to do really. Also, what ratio do you feed at?

Thanks

 

[MuddyMonster]

I just feed regular bales of straw.

Mine gets his weighed and soaked ration of hay and then a haybar of straw to eat if he gets hungry. I don't weigh the straw so not 100% sure of ratio's but probably between 80/70% soaked hay to 20/30% at a guess.

Never had any issues with it.

 

[Surbie]

My horse was fed long straw in a 50/50 mix with hay and had impaction colic. It's on his vet notes from a previous owner. However others at the same yard had the same mix and had no issues at all (other than acute disappointment when they came in).

Now I give him a couple of dampened stubbs scoops of honeychop oat straw at night and those have been unproblematic.

 

[Birker2020]

I would never give straw for the reason Surbie says. Apparently there is also a possible link to gastric ulcers by feeding straw due to its coarse nature.
Oat straw tends to be the most palatable for horses but also has the highest potential for causing digestive issues. Wheat straw is less appealing to horses and is less likely to cause digestive problems, but it is also less absorbent as bedding. https://www.foxdenequine.com/blogs/equine-nutrition/is-it-safe-for-horses-to-eat-straw-bedding#:~:text=Oat straw tends to be,also less absorbent as bedding.

 

[MuddyMonster]

I would never give straw for the reason Surbie says.

I don't think 'never' is always helpful in conversations like these.

I don't think anyone sets out wanting to feed straw but when you have metabolic/laminitics/good doers, there is sometimes little option.

Yes, it comes with some risk but often the alternative is knowing allocated rations of hay simply won't last long overnight and they'd be without any forage for long periods of time - even when the hay is in tough teeny, tiny holed haynets (and before anyone says it, yes, there's a risk to that too). There's a thread running atm about how it's (IMO quite rightly) unacceptable to leave a horse overnight without forage due to ulcer risks, so you can't win or eliminate all risks no matter what you do.

I do feed a digestive support supplement & leave more water in the stable than I otherwise would just in case it helps to eliminate some of the risk, but I'd probably still feed that anyway.

Mine wolf's down straw based chaff just because it's there and in a bucket and I'd have the same problem as my above paragraph, just delayed by an hour or two if I'm lucky (I'm glad it helps Surbie though). The straw is much less appealing so he'll only eat it if actually hungry - possibly because it's not in a bucket so has less novelty value.

It's about balancing the risks for the best outcome for the horse or pony in front of you. Often someone's 'I'd never do that' view of a management technique is another's 'my horse or pony is alive and thriving because of it' - feeding straw is definitely the latter for me.

 

[Titchy Reindeer]

I don't actively feed straw and my two mainly live out now they're at home, but they both have large straw beds when they come in that they can pick through whenever they want. Little Madam has spent most her life living on a straw bed as have all the other horses at the riding stables and they've lost very few horses to colic over the years with no way of knowing if it was down to the straw or not (two that I can think of and one of them a long time ago). However, they do put down straw twice a day every day and anecdotally it appears that some stables that don't straw over the weekend for example get more incidences of colic on a Monday evening after the horses got fresh straw again in the morning.

 

[ycbm]

I have fed both long term on demand for many horses over the years and never had an issue with long or short chop. Baled long was a lot cheaper.

I've been at riding schools and in big livery yards with lots and lots of horses bedded on straw and I'm not aware of any case of colic caused by it. Mass use of alternative bedding from straw is a relatively recent thing, ime.

 

[honetpot]

I feed staw in round bales, some prefer it to hay, so its netted, they also have 24/7 acess to hay in round bales. I have fed them this for twenty plus years. Apart from the fact they are never hungry so there is no squabbling, straw is often a lot less dusty than hay and a consistant quality, and I have never had any gut problems with it at all. I always make sure there is plenty of water, and moniter droppings.
A round bale of straw off the field is often under £15, what they pull out as they like to pick through it, is used as bedding, so I am not buying bedding either.

 

[Ratface]

Old Horse has been on a straw bed for the last ten years. Occasionally, he will nose through it looking for any corn that's in it. He has a huge haynet of homemade hay, and two bucket feeds a day, again, very basic content. He has a large container of fresh water every day. He's in at night and out in the day, unless the weather is dire.
So far, so good.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

I have often had to resort to either feeding just straw or eeking out low supplies of hay by mixing together when hay was difficult to source. I have also fed it when the only hay available is rank, damp and disgusting! I have never had a problem, I think so long as you allow free access to water and check for droppings just in case it should be OK. My donkeys of course would far rather have straw, much more natural diet for them.

 

[Cortez]

I’ve only ever had one horse who couldn’t be on a straw bed (all the rest are), and that was because he would wolf the lot down and be standing on a bare floor every morning. He did the same with pelleted straw bedding. He never coliced though, greedy sod. Mine would always have a nibble if they were peckish, and they were fed a weighed hay ration that was FAR less than most people in the UK seem to do.

 

[rabatsa]

I feed ad lib barley straw and give hay twice a day. The only colic has been due to reduced water intake in frosty weather. This was when feeding a lot more hay.

 

[Needtoretire]

I would never give straw for the reason Surbie says. Apparently there is also a possible link to gastric ulcers by feeding straw due to its coarse nature.
Oat straw tends to be the most palatable for horses but also has the highest potential for causing digestive issues. Wheat straw is less appealing to horses and is less likely to cause digestive problems, but it is also less absorbent as bedding. https://www.foxdenequine.com/blogs/equine-nutrition/is-it-safe-for-horses-to-eat-straw-bedding#:~:text=Oat straw tends to be,also less absorbent as bedding.

A leading UK equine hospital advised me to feed barley straw 40% thoroughly mixed with meadow hay 60%, dunked in a trug of water for 30 mins. This was for a horse with a history of gas colic, displaced colon and ulcers.

Said horse has now been problem free for 14 months. Long fibre keeps the colon full and weighted down to prevent displacement (colon displacement is common in deep bodied horses), by keeping the colon relatively full of fibre ensures gases are mopped up and farted out rather than trapped. One of the main drivers for ulcers is an empty stomach from lack of fibre. It is essential that any horse eating straw drinks enough fluid and I would advise anyone feeding straw to monitor water intake and if necessary put more fluid into the horse if the horse is not drinking enough.

 

[Fjord]

I bought some lovely soft barley straw for Bobbi as she needed something to bulk out her hay with fewer calories. She refused to eat it, preferring the farmer's rough wheat straw. She was often fed a mix of straw and hay, and sometimes had a straw net in addition to her haynet in case she got hungry overnight.

 

[SEL]

My Appy would happily eat her bed of straw overnight and never had a problem with colic and I think it helped with ulcers. Didn't help with her weight though - she's just a pig.

I've got two friends who mix it with hay for their good doers without issue.

 

[Surbie]

I don't think 'never' is always helpful in conversations like these.

I don't think anyone sets out wanting to feed straw but when you have metabolic/laminitics/good doers, there is sometimes little option.

Yes, it comes with some risk but often the alternative is knowing allocated rations of hay simply won't last long overnight and they'd be without any forage for long periods of time - even when the hay is in tough teeny, tiny holed haynets (and before anyone says it, yes, there's a risk to that too). There's a thread running atm about how it's (IMO quite rightly) unacceptable to leave a horse overnight without forage due to ulcer risks, so you can't win or eliminate all risks no matter what you do.

I do feed a digestive support supplement & leave more water in the stable than I otherwise would just in case it helps to eliminate some of the risk, but I'd probably still feed that anyway.

Mine wolf's down straw based chaff just because it's there and in a bucket and I'd have the same problem as my above paragraph, just delayed by an hour or two if I'm lucky (I'm glad it helps Surbie though). The straw is much less appealing so he'll only eat it if actually hungry - possibly because it's not in a bucket so has less novelty value.

It's about balancing the risks for the best outcome for the horse or pony in front of you. Often someone's 'I'd never do that' view of a management technique is another's 'my horse or pony is alive and thriving because of it' - feeding straw is definitely the latter for me.

I honestly couldn't agree more with what you've said - particularly your first and last 2 sentences.

I did say that others on the same yard as my horse who were fed the same diet (one Highland and one very fat and angry Comtois) had zero issues.

I wonder whether mine had enough access to water or whether there were other issues with the straw mix. He does have an off button, but it takes a while to reach and perhaps could have eaten even the straw too fast. Who knows - it was a year prior to me meeting him and I just don't want to risk it now. Glad to know Archie is in the minority though.

 

[Vermeer]

Thanks for the fantastic answers all

 

[AppyLover1996]

My part Appy is a total glutinous pig when it comes to a straw bed and will happily trough the lot - however my yearling who is currently stabled on lovely deep straw won't touch the stuff. If my part Appy wasn't such a pig I'd have him on straw as I love making comfy big beds for them all.....

In terms of mix, I've heard anywhere from 20% to 60% dependant on what you want to achieve

 

[maya2008]

My natives rely on it to keep them warm through the winter (and because on a pure hay diet they would become obese!) - feed 50:50 hay/straw to them all. EMS pony gets mostly straw, with a handful of low sugar haylage. I feed whatever small bale straw our local supplier has in - wheat or barley usually. All beds for those that come in are straw also, no one ends up with empty tummies after finishing a net that way.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

My Draft mare colicked when fed long strawbut did very well on plain oat straw chaff.

 

[paddy555]

My Draft mare colicked when fed long strawbut did very well on plain oat straw chaff.

when feeding things like honeychop ie leaving some overnight as a back up in case they are hungry, do you damp it?

 

[Glitterandrainbows]

Of the back of this thread I’ve stopped feeding the straw and got some oat straw chaff, she’s out muzzled during the day and I don’t want her running out of her soaked hay so I’ll give her a big bucket full would half/a quarter of a water bucket be too much do you all think? Not worried about throwing it on the mick heap worries about it causing problems if she over eats?