Mollichaff - am I an idiot?

dwi

dwi

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Lil came to me on Happy Hoof and I kept her on it at first as she was overweight. Once she'd lost the weight I thought I'd put her on a normal chaff rather than a diet one so she's been tried on Mollichaff for a week.

Tonight she was as high as a kite. Now she is in season but I'm wondering if the Mollichaff is too sugary for her. The rearing was a little more enthusiastic than I'd like!

If I stop feeding Mollichaff what would people recommend for an average doer who just needs a small feed to carry her supplements?
 
Eeeek, I was thinking of trying it too but the Mollichaff calmer. You could try Dengi Hifi, lasts me weeks as I dont feed a lot either.
 
Mollichaff is more of a complete food, sure she's not getting too many calories? Mine likes mollichaff calmer with naf oestress, but tbh, they're all being twonks at the mo, what with spring grass and seasons and that.
 
She's literally only having a handful to put her supplements in. I kind of thought that in such small quantities it wouldn't blow her brains.
 
Could be other things - the spring grass is through. Easy to test, take her off it and see if it helps.

Mollichaff is just a molassed chaff and is about 15% sugar so would be higher than Happy hoof and she may be reacting to that. The Mollichaff calmer however is a complete feed and much lower in sugar though not completely sugar free i don't think.
Hi Fi lite is lower though still contains some molasses extract, Top Chop lite is sugar free but does work out more expensive however both contain alfalfa which some horses react to.
I used the top chop (alfa not lite) and it has mint added which helps with carrying supplements
 
Original. She doesn't need to be on a diet or to put on weight, doesn't have any health problems, just is a bit if a fruit loop. Probably should have tried her on the calmer but local feed store doesn't stock it. She needed something abit more than the Happy Hoof so Mollichaff seemed like a good idea at the time...
 
My ponies went fizzy on original, swapped to herbal and problems sorted,
Infact my 16.2 5yo is on just herbal and baileys lo cal balancer
If you feed happy hoof/safe and sound then there's no need to feed a balancer as it is already in the chaff :)
 
Given your mare is only getting enough to hold her supps I doubt she's getting enough of the chaff to account for the behaviour.
Hysterical scaremongering over sugar content is ridiculous........it would be relevant were she on huge amounts, but there's as much sugar in a couple of mouthfuls of grass as there is in the meagre amount of mollichaff she gets in her feed.
 
monkeybum13 said:
If you feed happy hoof/safe and sound then there's no need to feed a balancer as it is already in the chaff :)
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Actually, that is only the case if you feed the recommended amount of Happy Hoof or Safe and Sound - if you give just a handful then it will not supply full amount of vit/mins.
 
sleepingdragon10 said:
Given your mare is only getting enough to hold her supps I doubt she's getting enough of the chaff to account for the behaviour.
Hysterical scaremongering over sugar content is ridiculous........it would be relevant were she on huge amounts, but there's as much sugar in a couple of mouthfuls of grass as there is in the meagre amount of mollichaff she gets in her feed.
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Thanks, that was kind of what I thought but then you hear what other people are saying and you start to wonder... She's literally getting one handful morning and evening to take her calmer, vits and garlic. I also think its nice to give a horse something when they come in so that they aren't just coming in to be ridden. I can swap her back onto Happy Hoof but don't want to throw away a whole bag full if its not doing any harm.

Does it seem more likely that her extra high spirits are due to the growth spurt in the grass rather than anything I've done? The grass is definitely coming through so we've fenced their field in half so that they don't eat too much and we can start resting the poached area by the gate.
 
Mine are both on Mollichaff Herbal and i've had no adverse effects - not even from super-highly-strung warmblood boy!! Prob just having a naughty day or spring grass like the others say!
 
dwi said:
Thanks, that was kind of what I thought but then you hear what other people are saying and you start to wonder... She's literally getting one handful morning and evening to take her calmer, vits and garlic. I also think its nice to give a horse something when they come in so that they aren't just coming in to be ridden. I can swap her back onto Happy Hoof but don't want to throw away a whole bag full if its not doing any harm.

Does it seem more likely that her extra high spirits are due to the growth spurt in the grass rather than anything I've done? The grass is definitely coming through so we've fenced their field in half so that they don't eat too much and we can start resting the poached area by the gate.
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No worries hun :)

If it helps, my boy is being a grade a plonker atm, and he's only on an handful of chaff plus vits/mins. The grass is definitely making him feel well.....bucking and farting on the lunge etc, silly sod.

You're honestly not giving her enough of the chaff to adversely affect her.

x
 
sleepingdragon10 said:
Given your mare is only getting enough to hold her supps I doubt she's getting enough of the chaff to account for the behaviour.
Hysterical scaremongering over sugar content is ridiculous........it would be relevant were she on huge amounts, but there's as much sugar in a couple of mouthfuls of grass as there is in the meagre amount of mollichaff she gets in her feed.
Click to expand...

Actually for a few horses, even that tiny amount is too much. I had a TBxWelsh D mare who was within days of being pts because of her behaviour, when we happened to take her off hard feed and her behaviour changed completely. We later found that she couldn't tolerate ANY molasses at all. Funnily enough Spring grass did not affect her behaviour noticeably. We kept her for another 12 years and she never could tolerate even a tiny amount.

IMO there isn't much point paying for a calmer, without checking if the feed the horse is having is causing the behaviour.
 
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