Low(est) calorie chaff?

B

Baileyhoss

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Bloody computer just wiped out my previous effort, so I'll try again - I'm just looking for a little bit of feeding advice.

B is a very good doer, but due to my holiday/christmas/ice he has done bugger all for the last couple of months, and despite being down to minumum rations he's still getting porkier & porkier.

He's on a fairly full haybar of haylege at night.
Hard feed is half a scoop of D&H alf alfa & 3/4 mug top spec balancer x 2 daily.
he's on all day turn out with nowt to eat due to the snow. Field mate normally gives them a bag of hayledge between the 3 of them, so that's not much.

I don't want to cut the bulk too much or he'll be standing at night with nothing. I also can't feed hay as we can't get it just now.

I normally keep his weight in check by cutting rations & increasing work, but he's already on minumum rations & I still can't ride.

I thought about substituting some of his haylege for a bucket of Hifi good doer and changing the alf alfa for the same to bulk out his balancer, but doesn't that still have molasses?

I can't seem to find any low energy, low calorie high fibre chaff, which isn't molassed? any ideas?


Protein Oil Fibre MineralEnergy
Hi Fi Lite 10 1.5 40 9 8
Alfa A Lite 13 2.5 27 10 9
Hi Fi Good Doer7 8.5 1.7 40 8
D&H Alf Alfa 15 2.5 30 9 10
readi grass 15 2 32 13
 
Off the top of my head I would have said Simple Systems Lucie Stalks or the new Top Spec Top Chop Lite.

Hope that helps
 
Good do-er is probably the lowest energy chaff available.

And cut down on rugs so he uses his own fat to keep warm instead of the rugs. If hes overweight i would use the bare minimum, nothing if its dry and just a LW turnout when wet/windy. Nothing in the stable. This is very effective for weight loss
 
Same as teddyt says, although good doer is low in energy its higher in sugar than the others;

SS Lucie Stalks as ISH_Mad suggests are good as no other ingredients just Alfalfa.

Swap haylege to soaked hay, you can give more then
 
Thanks teddy t - he's fully clipped, although it has grown in a bit. Even so, he's only in a 300 amigo and as we are in the north of scotland and have over a foot of snow, I couldn't live with myself reducing that any further.

Thanks ISH as well. I forgot to mention i have tried him on simple systems and he went off it. I have just looked on the top spec website - top chop lite sounds pretty good - i'm waiting on an advisor to call me back re' the nutritional content. Do you think it would be suitable as a partial haylege replacement?

F x
 
Ditto this, lucy stalk can be soaked to make them more palatable. They are supposed to be similar to straff chaff so very little feed value. I also use the RuffStuff, - that is just chopped mature grass so very hugh in fibre.

Quick beet and simple systems pura beet well soaked is actualy very low in sugar and makes a nice moist filling high fibre alternative. My companions are both non ridden and are extremely challenged in the girth region! They have soaked sugar beet and lucy stalks with no problems
 
Did some research recently not from a weight point of view but because my horse reacts to molasses.

Honeychop do a unmolassed straw chaff
http://www.honeychop.com/htm/chopped_oat_straw.htm
which you could use to bulk out something else. Not sure if they would eat it on it's own.
Top chop lite is an alfalfa/straw mix that is totally unmolassed though it has a little oil DE 7.5
Saracen are going to to bring out a new product soon called slim-chaff which will be very low in sugar 5 - 8 % which is comparable to unmolassed sugar beet not sure of the calories as it is not out yet.
 
I have kept a trim shettie and now have a Highland and an irish cob...both good do-ers...they both have ad-lib hay in the stable and field and ther are fed a scoop of ''Happy Hoof''.....with vits and mins twice a day. Its unmollassed and has little 'nuts' in it.

Both are in excellent condition.....not overweight or cresty. And neither are worked hard at all but get plenty of turnout.

http://www.spillers-feeds.com/en-gb/unit...res/happy-hoof/

ETA...the link
smile.gif
 
Alfalfa has a higher feed value than a straw based chaff and luciestalks are 2 mj/kg higher in energy than good do-er, so wouldnt be as good as good do-er to minimise weight gain.
 
why give him a feed at all - he would be absolutely fine on just haylage. If you must give him a hard feed then just the balancer and nothing else. And with teh haylage don't put it in a hay bar - put it inside 3 or four nets - one inside the other to make it last much much longer and then reduce the amount you give. I agree he needs feed going through him all the time to keep him warm but he doesn't need lots at one time so slowing his intake will work.
 
Actually, I think that is a lot of feed for pony. As bosworth said, why not cut out all the feed? Plenty of haylage as you can't get hay, and leave it at that. Haylage though is more fattening than hay.
 
I agree that that's quite a lot of feed, my girl who is a good doer literally gets a small handful of chaff and a tiny handful of nuts twice a day just so she doesn't feel left out when the others are being fed! She then has ad lib hay (which for her is only about 4 slices a day as she doesn't eat that much) which is spread between two small holed haynets over the day and a bit on the floor in the morning just to get her stretching down.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I have kept a trim shettie and now have a Highland and an irish cob...both good do-ers...they both have ad-lib hay in the stable and field and ther are fed a scoop of ''Happy Hoof''.....with vits and mins twice a day. Its unmollassed and has little 'nuts' in it.

Both are in excellent condition.....not overweight or cresty. And neither are worked hard at all but get plenty of turnout.

http://www.spillers-feeds.com/en-gb/unit...res/happy-hoof/

ETA...the link
smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

I think that Happy Hoof is infact mollassed, although only at a low level, about 8% sugar I believe.
 
Good doer is the lowest in cals DE of 7 but is mollassed
Top Spec top chaff lite is 7.5 and unmollassed.

The alfalfa that you are feeding has a DE of 10 which is the same as feeding pasture mix - if he is getting a balancer there is no need to feed the alfalfa as the balancer should give him the vitamins he needs. If you want to mix it with something so he has a small feed I would use good doer or if you want unmollassed try A&P fast fibre which when you add water swells up and becomes huge like sugar beet but low in cals and unmollassed,
 
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