Is too much chaff bad for your horse?

[MileAMinute]

A couple of liveries at my yard feed their horses a bucket (as in a water bucket size) filled with Senior chaff at night, teamed with a hard feed of senior mix.
Me and a fellow livery were discussing whether this is ok - I know I would never risk it but I couldn't really come up with a 'proper' reason why.

I've never witnessed this before so wondered if any of you guys had any experiences?

 

[peanut]

So long as there is only a very small amount of hard feed, I can't see any problem. Lots of chaffs are sold as hay replacers.

 

[touchstone]

I feed huge buckets of Hi Fi lite as a partial hay replacer, it stops the horse getting bored and gives a bit of variety.

The only chaffs I wouldn't do this with are the heavily molassed ones.

 

[posie_honey]

we feed a oldie chaff as she can't chew long hay that well anymore she gets a big bucket twice a day plus A&P C&C and a veteran mix - shje does very well on it
hers is happy hoof - funnily enough we tried her on things like D&H every day chaff, apple chaff, different dengies ones etc and thats the one she likes the best?! she's really not keen on mollassed chaff

 

[MileAMinute]

Great, thanks for your input guys
It's not something I'd seen before so was quite curious.

 

[posie_honey]

ooh - another thing people do is feed redi-grass instead of hay - so you may see big buckets of that too at some yards

 

[MileAMinute]

ooh - another thing people do is feed redi-grass instead of hay - so you may see big buckets of that too at some yards

I've seen the Redi-grass in use, guess I'm just naive from being at tiny yards where the feeding isn't so broad spectrum!

 

[TGM]

It depends on the chaff really! Quite a few chaffs are marketed as being suitable for use as hay replacers and these types can be fed in large quantities. However, I wouldn't use bog standard heavily molassed straw chaffs in this way, because you would be feeding too much sugar. Likewise, you have to be careful about feeding alfalfa chaffs in huge quantities too, as can unbalance the mineral levels.

 

[Supertrooper]

It's never hurt our oldie - she gets a bucket of readigrass, a bucket of hifi senior, a bucket of fast fibre and finally a feed of hifi senior and a veteran mix (she has hardly any teeth) she loves it and we call it her pick + mix. She is a 37yr old Arab x welsh.

Our shire x cob gets 6 small slices of hay, a bucket of hifi lite and a feed of happy hoof plus carrots xx

 

[Ella19]

perfectly fine to do, you sometimes have to watch for choke for those that "bolt" their feed.

 

[star]

intrigued as to why you would not risk it? what is the risk?

it's a great way to feed provided you dont use the heavily molassed chaffs. i normally give them a big bucket of readigrass/hi-fi dampened down that they can pick at as an alternative to a haynet - feeding a variety of fibre is best for their guts.