Low sugar feed without oat straw!

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NinjaPony

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I'm looking for some feed recommendations...once again. I have a 14.2hh connie who has been out of work with breathing issues, and a retired 11.2hh welsh a. Both are currently fed Dengie Hifi Molasses free-handful for the welsh, 1 scoop twice a day for the connie. He normally drops off a bit in winter, but since moving onto adlib timothy haylage, looks great on his current feed.

However, the connie's breathing has been bad, and tests done over the summer show he is allergic to oats and maize. I have only just realised that the hifi contains some oat straw, and I want to swap onto something totally oat free to see if that helps. I need something I can mix his medicine into, that won't heat him up as he isn't in much work and won't be until his breathing improves. I feed linseed oil, cider vinegar and vits and mins already so it doesn't need to be 'balanced'.

In an ideal world I'd have them on the same feed, but my welsh is laminitis prone and on a diet, so happy to keep him on the hifi molasses free (he needs chaff for his medicine too!)

So does such a feed exist?! Trying to find something oat free for a tubby native seems to be impossible! Thank you in advance!
 
Unmollassed beet pulp - with or without grass pellets. When I had a dentally challenged old arab mare she pretty much lived on Equibeet plus Rowan and Barbary Ready Fibre Mash but I am struggling to get hold of Equibeet these days, Speedibeet is the same but much more expensive - depends how much you use, for one pony for daily feeds it isn't too bad
 
Our sugar intolerant horse is fine on grass chaff but grass pellets set him off (he gets a scabby, itchy rash). They're surprisingly high in sugar.

Just checked Fast Fibre and that's oat straw based unfortunately.

Saracen Re-Leve is low sugar but provides a fair few calories.
 
Agrobs aspero (9% sugar/starch), or wiesencobs. (9.73%)

or speedibeet (5%) would be my options. My fusspot wouldn't eat just speedibeet though :D, he used to get aspero but the lack of teeth meant a move to the cobs.

Oh Emerald green to a low sugar pellet too now. 'meadow magic' 9.5% but we didn't like it as much.
 
TBH if something contained over 10% sugar, when you take into account that it's probably only 10% of the horse's diet, that results in only 1% of the diet being sugars (or adding 1% to any sugars in forage or grass). You have to keep the overall diet in mind
 
JillA said:
TBH if something contained over 10% sugar, when you take into account that it's probably only 10% of the horse's diet, that results in only 1% of the diet being sugars (or adding 1% to any sugars in forage or grass). You have to keep the overall diet in mind
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actually for metabolic if you read dr kellon’s Research and the ecir pages it is ‘per meal’ that matters not the overall. Which is why the feeding guidance is there.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I've never used a feed that requires soaking before-it's a shame because he likes the hifi as it has some pellets too, but I think I need to rule it out. God knows I'm trying everything else!

I'm reluctant to feed copra or re-leve as he doesn't need the extra condition. If he does drop weight, I'll put him on alfa-a molasses free, which he has always done well on and is oat free, but he doesn't need the calories at the moment, as he's getting lots of timothy haylage.

Should point out that my connie isn't really laminitis prone/EMS, he was negative for Cushings a couple of months ago. It's more that I don't want him putting on any more weight at the moment.

Re pink mash, it seems to have micronised linseed in it? Does this mean you don't need to feed linseed oil too? Do they tend to eat it well? Do you find horses that are used to chaff/chop turn their noses up at a mash style feed?
 
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Thunderbrooks do a grass chaff which is pretty tasty according to my mare. I think they also do a herbal muesli which she appreciates! To be honest, I am not a fan of Thunderbrooks social media antics but their chaffs are good and very cost effective.
 
Dengie hifi senior is one thatDoes not contain not contain straw but it is 10% sugar it’s not what I call a conditioning feed though

Agrobs Leichtgenuss is a decent chaff
And cost effective

Id look at speedibeet as it’s one of the few soak feeds that you can make quite fluffy to tempt horses not used to soak feeds but agree that pink mash is definitely a good option too
 
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Thunderbrooks herbal chaff is lovely. It’s pricey but seems to last me ages even tho the bag is 15kg. Probably because is more fluffy than other chars.
 
Feeding is a minefield-I've gone down a rabbit hole looking at all the analytics!!

Thunderbrooks chaff is 4-9% sugar, 2% starch which is good, but then 12% protein and 9.5 D.E which is higher than his current feed. £15 for 15kg is also quite steep, it's not about money of course but his timothy haylage is costing an awful lot at the moment and that's the best use of money, feed wise.

I've heard that speedibeet can heat them up and put on condition which isn't really what I need right now, could be wrong though?

I didn't realise that the HiFi senior didn't have any oat straw in so thanks for that, 10% sugar is higher than I'd like, but its only 8.5 D.E, 10% protein and 1.6% starch...

Either way I think I'll end up keeping my little welsh on his own feed, he definitely can't have anything even slightly sugary or conditioning!

Re pink mash, my only concern is the soya hulls.I might get them to send me a sample in the post and see if he likes it.

Thinking I might switch him to the hifi senior when I buy feed this weekend, and then try him on the pink mash sample and consider swapping if he gets on with it. Either way I want him off the oat straw ASAP.

Thanks for all the advice-feeding is always a bit of a nightmare when special needs are involved...
 
you'll find something that works, I've learnt loads after the last few years.

Fwiw I wasn't suggesting the connie did have EMS or anything but I think for most natives they aren't bad guidelines to follow :)
re. pink mash I only hear of horses loving it, not tried on mr fussy though ;)
 
ester said:
you'll find something that works, I've learnt loads after the last few years.

Fwiw I wasn't suggesting the connie did have EMS or anything but I think for most natives they aren't bad guidelines to follow :)
re. pink mash I only hear of horses loving it, not tried on mr fussy though ;)
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Oh I know you weren't, and I agree-better safe than sorry. It's harder not having him in proper work, means I have to keep a closer eye on his weight than I normally do. I have been quite surprised just how many of the 'low calorie' options are heavily reliant on oat straw, it's the kind of thing that doesn't cross your mind until you find out that your horse can't have it and then you realise it's in basically everything...! Have ordered a pink mash sample to try.
 
Our secret this year was F's teeth have got bad enough that he looses some of the grass he attempts to eat..

There's a lot of NIS (nutritionally improved straw) about too. Yup definitely tend to start thinking about these things only when you need to! We can buy the meadow magic locally but apparently mum prefers the wiesencobs which we have to order specially so I leave it up to her!
 
Never heard of speedibeet hotting any horse up (correct me if im wrong!) but have heard of pink mash hotting up..my greedy pig likes both..no difference feed wise wether it’s a slop feed or chop feed, unless your connie is fussy. Also speedibeet mine came out of winter just right weight wise but pink mash he was a bit podgy!
 
ester said:
We can buy the meadow magic locally but apparently mum prefers the wiesencobs which we have to order specially so I leave it up to her!
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I was very excited when I saw the meadow magic lurking in the back of the feed shop. Its been the secret to getting my fussy fatso to eat her supplement. She goes mad for it, its cheap, soaks in a few minutes, relatively low sugar, starch and calories so i'm happy! She has it mixed with Pink Mash, and is also having a handful of grass and hay chaff mixed in, but I'll stop that once the bag runs out. It was one of our failed attempts to get her to eat. There were many of those!
 
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