Oat straw as bedding and horses eating it......

[Supertrooper]

Do you worry basically? Friend wants to use it this year as it's so much cheaper than shavings and we can get it taken away easily by farmer.

Horse has been on it in a previous home and he did eat it but he obviously survived!

He's on rubber matting so will only have a quarter bed of straw anyway. I think I'm probably over worrying!

 

[curio]

i bed on rubber matting with a bucket of shavings in wee patch then wheat straw on top as this soaks up more wee only use about 2 flakes of straw a night and most is gone by morning and he is fine doesnt colic at all i walk in and sweep him out

 

[Cortez]

I actually feed mine staw along with hay, either clean barley straw or oat if I can get it, and they have been fine for the last 11 years.....Like any other feed, I'd start off with a small handfull in the box and gradually increase the amount until you have a full bed. What you don't want is for your horse to stuff himself with straw and get a colic. I find mine settle down and don't over-eat on it after a while, just nibble to take the edge off if they're peckish.

 

[Twinkle Twinkle]

I feed my girl half oat straw half hay

 

[Tnavas]

Oat straw is used, chopped up to make oat chaff so will not be a problem so long as they don't eat too much and get impacted colic.

AS Oat straw has no food value apart from roughage it won't add weight to a fatty. Cheaper than feeding hay!

 

[Foxhunter49]

It is wheat straw that is likely to cause impaction colic - oat is more digestible.

I have used oat straw for years.

 

[AdorableAlice]

With the harvest we have had after a dreadful summer, clean oat straw may be difficult to source.

 

[Waltzing Matilda]

U just have to make sure u introduce it gradually to the diet. It's like any other feed they r not used to! Ooh and plenty of access to water

 

[Rose Folly]

Oat straw should be fine. I've used it half-and-half for overly good doers in the past - and they like it!

A friend imported a Russian horse and, when she equired about his previous diet, was told that he had always been fed oat straw, never hay.

 

[HighFive]

A little bit of dishwashing liquid mixed with water and sprayed over the straw makes it un-palatable, if you don't want him eating large amounts.

By oaten straw, I assume it would be the same as oaten hay, probably just a lesser quality. Oaten hay is fed extensively over in Aus, it is excellent for weight gain and the horses love it!