Is chaff bad for horses?

silv said:
Doesn't it tell you on the bag what is in it?
I agree what you say about the old fashioned chaff, that is all we have in NZ and have never heard of a problem, have fed lucerne chaff for years.
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You would be surprised at how many ingredients are only listed on websites, when you search for them, and not listed on the bags ...
 
Is there a reason for feeding chaff to avoid splashing/ulcers but not hay?
the riding school horses always had hay available in between lessons and I do the same with my horses. They get hay before exercise. (I can't give chaff to one anyway during to diastemas).
 
fidleyspromise said:
Is there a reason for feeding chaff to avoid splashing/ulcers but not hay?
the riding school horses always had hay available in between lessons and I do the same with my horses. They get hay before exercise. (I can't give chaff to one anyway during to diastemas).
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I always assumed either or was fine. It just depends what’s easiest for what I choose to feed.
 
fidleyspromise said:
Is there a reason for feeding chaff to avoid splashing/ulcers but not hay?
the riding school horses always had hay available in between lessons and I do the same with my horses. They get hay before exercise. (I can't give chaff to one anyway during to diastemas).
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I've never done it, mine are always just off grass or just out of their stables with plentiful hay before exercise.
 
Miss_Millie said:
It's Dr. Christina Fritz who says that chaff causes gut issues - apparently it's because of the small length of the forage - it isn't chewed adequately before being swallowed and then sits in the gut for a long time and can contribute to dysbiosis? She's German so I'm assuming that this is either based off of her own studies in Germany or studies we haven't necessarily heard of over here. I cut it out anyway as it seemed a waste of money for what it is and I only feed very small token feeds to my horses to carry balancer/oily herbs etc.
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I agree that chaff is cut too small.

The best chaff I ever had was when I had several bales of oaten hay and organised for a man to chop it all up on his old-fashioned chaff cutter. That was a long time ago, maybe 40 years or so.

If you compare chaff to hay (especially the chaff you buy), hay gets chewed a lot more and produces a lot of saliva. Saliva is good for the digestion; in fact chewing and the production of saliva is the first stage of digestion.

If I were wanting to use chaff for some reason such as clicker training (I've never done clicker training but that's irrelevant) I'd use lucerne chaff if my horse was super keen on it and it produced no ill effects. (Or none that I noticed.)

Regarding this business of feeding chaff to a horse before a ride (ETA: to prevent ulcers), I think this is nonsense unless he has had nothing to eat at all because it's a full on drought or bog and there's not a blade of grass in the paddock. (Edited again to add: in which case I would give him something to eat as soon as I went out to him - so certainly before a ride, that's a given.)

Sorry I'm in a bit of a rush and my words might be a little abrupt.

ETA: Over here we call it lucerne. In USA it's known as alfalfa.

Edited AGAIN to add: Just had the quickest of showers and want to say that I hadn't heard of chaff getting stuck in the teeth and that seems a good enough reason to offer thin carrot sticks instead of chaff for clicker training. Must dash.
 
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Miss_Millie said:
Similar to Rowreach, I don't feed chaff because there are too many fillers. As mentioned above, I don't really 'do' hard feeds other than in tiny quantities to feed minerals etc.
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It's been several years since I bought horse feed (no horse) (bliss in some ways) but our chaff is just chaff. Maybe there are others out there that I don't know about, the ones with molasses if they are still around. But if you buy 'chaff' then what you get is chaff, nothing else.

You can get lucerne chaff,
oaten chaff,
wheaten chaff,
'half and half' (I think that's what it's called. Apparently it's half oaten and half lucerne)
In these chaffs there is nothing but chaff.

ETA: Oh, I meant to ask what sort of fillers are used.
 
interestingly, i have one being treated for ulcers ATM-he has had extensive x rays,scans etc to try and find a pain cause but come up blank so assuming its not that.

he has ALWAYS had a chaff type feed (fatty) and fibre in front of him 24/7 BUT clearly this hasnt worked!!!!

he has been swapped to a mash type feed of soaked fibre cubes and bran with a bit of boiled linseed in, so a really oily gloopy sludge and seems to be doing better on this.

pre work instead of chaff he gets dry fibre cubes and ive noticed he really salivates a LOT more chomping those down than he ever did with chaff.

so i am not saying its THE RULE, but just that i may have one chaff doesnt seem to suit?????
 
AWinter said:
I suppose I’m more looking for evidence that the claim it causes ulcers is unfounded.
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I don’t have evidence but one of the big vets here for ulcers advised to avoid the very stalky chaff. Often that’s Alfa - but it’s not Alfa per se if that makes sense. The theory is that the stalky stuff could be abrasive to the stomach lining.
 
In the wild would they not choose to eat stalky plants, bark etc? Some chew wood that you’d assume would also be abrasive to the stomach but seems to be what they want to eat. Would they choose to eat such things if it hurt when they eat it? With horses I guess probably. 😂
 
Peglo said:
In the wild would they not choose to eat stalky plants, bark etc? Some chew wood that you’d assume would also be abrasive to the stomach but seems to be what they want to eat. Would they choose to eat such things if it hurt when they eat it? With horses I guess probably. 😂
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Who knows what the prevalence of ulcers is in the wild? Rhetorical question!

I don’t think it’s so much that stalky stuff causes lesions, it’s more that stalky stuff could aggravate lesions already present
 
I'm sure I've read somewhere about chop forming a better mat in their stomach to help prevent splashes than the longer stalked hay or something along those lines. I can see that the 'stalky' chaffs could be abrasive but find it hard to believe that a chaff that is just chaff (I use a grass only one) is worse than the mixes/ nuts/ mashes full of fillers etc.
 
I stopped feeding oat straw chop/chaff after my horse was diagnosed with ulcers. I have no idea if chaff/chop causes ulcers, but my horse has def been happier since I stopped feeding it. The ulcer treatment cleared up the ulcers, and discovering he had thin soles so had him shod, seems to have prevented their return. I think the ulcers were due to foot pain. How or if chaff/chop played a part in aggravating the ulcers, I don’t know. But I do think he chews longer, stalky hay much slower than oat chop, which he would just inhale…
 
Alfalfa chop can irritate some horses with ulcers, it’s not causing ulcers but it’s stalks can cause irritation to damaged stomachs
However alfalfa is high in calcium which makes it a good buffer and suitable for feeding horses with ulcers before even better if combined with oil.

There are numerous types of chop and some will suit some horses and not others .
It’s not a alfalfa bad straw good situation it’s about the right product for that horse in that situation
And yes horses with some dental issues are better without chop but that does not mean it’s a no no for all horses.
 
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