Not digesting oats?

only_me

only_me

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Billys droppings are always spread all over the yard by the very helpful (not) chickens.
The reason they are doing this is that there is undigested oats in them - but he should be digesting them!
They are not whole oats but are rolled oats in his mix.

I should also add that he is on the poor side of good and should be putting on weight !

Any reasons why he isn't digesting them?
 
Not sure why he isn't digesting the oats, but even if he was believe me it will not stop the birds throwing them everywhere.
They do it for the insects that are attracted to the pooh.
 
If you're feeding a lot of hard feed in one go then chances are a lot of it won't be digested, as the system just can't cope.
 
Cut down on oats. Are plenty of nuts out there for gaining condition which would be more digestable, maybe supplement with one of those? If not on a feed balanced add one to optimise digestion. Had my old girl on bluechip pro for years, worked very well for her (elderly pba).
 
The rolled oats are in a conditioning mix :)

feed Is wet, he gets baileys no.1 as well

could be his feeds are too big, will see if I could fit a lunchtime one in :)
 
This would suggest to me that either a) he is not able to grind his food correctly and his teeth possibly need doing or b) he is eating his feed too quickly and needs the addition of some chop to slow down his chewing time.
 
a mare at our yard gets this! sometimes she has them in her poo and sometimes she doesnt. when she does the crows peck it to pieces!
 
CBFan said:
Cereals are harder for the equine digestive system to fully digest than fibre. Try a conditioning cube rather than the mix. Baileys No4 is great in my experience.
Click to expand...

Just because a feed is in cube form doesn't mean it does not contain cereals - Baileys No 4, for example, is wheat-based. That said, most cubes are slightly lower in cereals than the equivalent mix, just because a decent proportion of cereal grains are needed for the 'muesli' effect of the mix that owners like.

As for undigested oats, I had this problem with my old mare and found if the oats were thoroughly soaked before feeding (as opposed to merely dampened) then the oats were digested. I used to pop the oats in the same bucket as the soaking sugar beet.
 
They are probebly just the empty husks of the oats. Sometimes they do come out looking similar to when they went in but you'll find that the flour has gone.

You could reduce the quantity but would advise that you increase/add chaff to his feed so that he eats slower. He wil have to chew more with chaff in the feed.
 
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