Honeychop or Halleys oat straw chaff........

Supertrooper

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For anyone that uses these a couple of questions pls.....

- did you start using gradually, I want to use it as a hay replacer as pony is on a strict diet so he's only allowed this, balancer + grass.

- did you add water or feed it dry?

- is it a good idea to add salt to encourage drinking, he has a salt lick which he uses a lot and has access to plenty of fresh water.

Many thanks xx
 

katymay

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I bought some Halleys oat straw chop this year for my good doer and I'm not as impressed with it as I was last year, the chop is quite long so not easy to mix with other foods, my boy hates it! I've tried feeding it unsoaked, soaked in warm water, mixed with a bit of fast fibre and chaff but he won't eat it, he just throes a strop kicks the bucket over and tramples on it! I guess he isn't really that hungry! Was going to try and leave some in a bucket out in the field tonight to see if it gets touched, my feeling would be no! It's a Shane as have two bags going to waste but might use it as bedding :)
 

loz9

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I don't feed either of those, but feed this: http://www.efeed.co.uk/products/horse-feed/chaff/oat-chaff which is the same. I used to feed halleys, but found the efeed 1 cheaper when bought with other feeds.

I feed it as a partial hay replacer & did introduce gradually.
She has a large bucket dry to eat as & when.
I also use it as a chaff with all of my horses, & mix it in with their soaked balancer.
No idea on the salt as mine are fed it anyway along with having access to a salt lick.

Hope that helps!
 

MotherOfChickens

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I did feed the Honeychop plain straw chop for a while. It was in place of a bucket feed and they eventually stopped eating it. I do feed the Halleys straw/hay blox soaked but thats an expensive way to feed although they do love it! Why not mix hay and straw together?
 

Darkwater

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Not quite the same, but I feed Graze On Gold blend - It is straw mixed with a bit of grass and oil so they seem to find it more palatable and it isn't quite as dry. I use it as a hay replacer mixed with a bit of speedibeet for my old mare and she loves it. Just a thought but if you can really only feed oat straw, could you just feed bales of out straw rather than chop? I imagine it would work out cheaper?
 

Pearlsasinger

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My Draft mare was very overweight when I bought her. She immediately went on a diet. I have used both makes of chaff. I introduced it gradually but she got up to 2 bags per week, fed dry in a big trug, alongside her hay. She is now at a good weight and eating ad-lib hay. If the weather means that she has to stay in, she has oat straw chaff to nibble on. She cannot have long straw because she gets impaction colic. The others can nibble on their beds if they run out of hay but she has to have shavings.
 
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