Palatability of Honeychop lite and healthy

[FieldOrnaments]

Hi, my mare is currently on box rest with laminitis and I'm currently looking for a high fibre, very low in digestible energy (<5mj/KG) and low sugar and starch (less than 5%) chaff to feed to bulk out her soaked hay (2kg soaked twice a day). I have tried Topchop Zero and Honey chop chopped oat straw without much success; I would rather not have to keep buying bags of feed, only to have to give it away to other horse owners in the local area because she will not eat it!

I am tempted by the look/description of Honeychop lite and healthy but was wondering if anyone had any experiences of how palatable it is, or recommendations for other suitable chaffs.

Thank you.

 

[Polos Mum]

Just a thought but does she need to eat it?

I have the top chop zero - mine will ignore it for days and days (they come in for 4-5 hours a day after exercise when I poo pick etc.) I am happy that they have something they could eat but choose not to.
Sometimes they will come in and eat it - then I know the grass is getting low.

If she has Lami presumably she has some excess weight, so is not eating it really a problem?

If she was really hungry she would eat (much like me and rice cakes, I would rather not eat than eat them when I rummage around the cupboard)

 

[Flowerofthefen]

My boys ate it to start with but soon went off it

 

[daydreamer]

I bought some at the weekend. My horse is eating it happily so far but he is a greedy thing!

 

[Otherwise]

Mine wasn't keen on it, would slowly nibble at it but leave half his feed.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Mine eat it if they have their Spillers balancer mixed in but aren’t that enamoured with it on its own unless there is nothing else on offer.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

She will eat Honeychop plain oat straw chaff if she is hungry! Ours do but they ignore it if there is enough grass.

 

[Surbie]

Mine eats it very happily, and has done for 18 months now, but I use it to eke out the handful of Veteran Lite that he gets to carry supplements.

 

[FieldOrnaments]

Unfortunately she is on wood shavings and is eating those instead, which I want to avoid, and I don't want her standing in with an empty belly for hours on end, so would like something I can just put a big trug of in one corner of the box so she can pick at it when the hay is gone. But she eats the shavings in preference to the Topshop.

 

[black and brown]

I've used it and my horse absolutely loves it, bowl licked clean every time!

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Why not give her some straw to eat instead? Far cheaper and commonly used for laminitics to bulk out the hay ration. I have my two on a track and leave piles of straw dotted around in equal quantities to their hay. If they aren’t hungry they don’t eat it.

 

[TPO]

Fat Cob loves it but then again he's so starved he also likes Top Chop zero

Agree with bulking hay with straw or leaving top chop zero out. If he's hungry he'll eat that over shavings.

 

[DizzyDoughnut]

Mine will eat it if there is nothing else available but they're not overly keen on it and will leave it to go and eat hay instead.

 

[maya2008]

Mine like Mollichaff lite mixed with a little speedibeet. All v low sugar and easy to hide bute in when necessary.

 

[vmac66]

Mine will eat if eventually, usually overnight when she's finished her hay.

 

[fairyclare]

Mine liked it, even the fussy one ate it - I have switched back to Thunderbrooks though as they needed a bit more.

 

[skint1]

I bought a bag for my fussy mare, on paper it should have worked, it looked and smelled lovely- sadly, it was not for the Queen of all Ireland my friends horse liked it though

 

[Sossigpoker]

My greedy cob ate it to start with and then went off it and wouldn't touch it.

 

[Bluewaves]

My cob eats it when he hasn't had much grass that day. i use it just so that his lordship doesn't have an empty tummy overnight after he's eaten his evening haylage.

 

[saddlesore]

My boy isn’t a fan, even though he’s muzzled 24/7 he would often leave his feed ?

 

[PurBee]

Unfortunately she is on wood shavings and is eating those instead, which I want to avoid, and I don't want her standing in with an empty belly for hours on end, so would like something I can just put a big trug of in one corner of the box so she can pick at it when the hay is gone. But she eats the shavings in preference to the Topshop.

Perhaps she doesnt like the dressings they do on topchopzero etc - my horses hate mint, its growing fresh in the fields, so would likely turn their noses up at anything with mint flavouring added.

I’d try getting hold of some organic barley straw bales and put flakes of that in the corner - gotta be more appetising than shavings!

 

[cauda equina]

Mine ate Honeychop L&H very happily

 

[winnie]

Mine eats it in preference to her haylage net! She wouldn't touch Top Spec zero at all. I would love to use oat straw but where the hell do you source it from?!

 

[FieldOrnaments]

Perhaps she doesnt like the dressings they do on topchopzero etc - my horses hate mint, its growing fresh in the fields, so would likely turn their noses up at anything with mint flavouring added.

I’d try getting hold of some organic barley straw bales and put flakes of that in the corner - gotta be more appetising than shavings!

That's what I was doing (she was bedded down on straw anyway) but my usual supplier hasn't been able to get any in recently - has switching to the shavings. Whilst arguably 'better' bedding for a laminitic who needs padding on her feet, of course it's a terrible worry over impaction colic now the silly mare has decided to eat it. I don't think she even likes the shavings, she's just decided she is starving to death! (But not starving enough to eat the Topchop, of course!)

 

[maya2008]

Our Shetland came home from loan with laminitis. Sound in-hand now, just waiting for x-rays as there was some rotation. Our vet stressed NOT to bed her on straw, because although most straw has a very low sugar/starch content, it can in some cases be as high as 17% - so you never know exactly what you’re getting.

We feed high fibre haylage (low sugar/starch) and double net as needed with small hole nets so there is always some available. Her bed is deep shavings. Since she came home and has been on this routine, she’s improved visibly every day.

 

[Barton Bounty]

My boy loves it, wouldnt eat it without a wee bit of water though

 

[Hallo2012]

mine both love it, the fatty and the skinny

 

[PurBee]

That's what I was doing (she was bedded down on straw anyway) but my usual supplier hasn't been able to get any in recently - has switching to the shavings. Whilst arguably 'better' bedding for a laminitic who needs padding on her feet, of course it's a terrible worry over impaction colic now the silly mare has decided to eat it. I don't think she even likes the shavings, she's just decided she is starving to death! (But not starving enough to eat the Topchop, of course!)

Shame about supply if she was happy to pick at her straw bed before, ive never heard of a horse eating shavings!

To find a feed under 5%MJ and 5% sugar is a challenge - the food stuffs of lowest energy are the ones where the sugar/nutrition/oils have been processed out of it and youre left with mainly fibre - like beetpulp, coconut copra, hemp and soy hulls.
These are all mainly just fibre and dont hold any supportive nutrition - best to add/soak these type of feeds in water to avoid digestive blockage.
Maya’s right that some straws can be high sugar - theres a wide variety in straws, ive seen tables of various straws tested swinging wildly with sugar values. The only way to know for sure your straw supply is low sugar, is get a batch in and get it tested by forageplus.

A late cut timothy haylage will have fermented the majority of sugars. Marksway Horsehage Timothy is 5% sugar but 8-10MJ energy. I feed this to mine and never had issues:

Ingredients
Typical Nutritional Analysis (on a dry matter basis):

• Protein 8 - 9%
• MAD Fibre* 35 - 37 %
• Calcium 0.4 – 0.6 %
• Energy 8 - 10MJ/kg
• Sugar <5%
• Starch 1 - 2%
• Dry Matter 60%

*MAD Fibre – Modified Acid Detergent Fibre (This is a measure of the digestible part of the total fibre in a feed)

 

[ownedbyaconnie]

Mine eats it (but she is a greedy pig)

 

[PurBee]

I didnt realise speedibeet was above 10mj! This is from the laminitis site as a guide.

Rowen Barbary Soft N Soak ReadyFibre Mash - sugar <2.5%, starch 5.0%, DE 7.5 MJ/kg
Agrobs Pre Alpin Wiesencobs - sugar 7.2%, starch 1.0%, DE 7.87 MJ/kg
Allen & Page Fast Fibre - sugar 2.5%, starch 5.0 %, DE 8.0 MJ/kg
Agrobs Pre Alpin Aspero - sugar 6.3%, starch <0.01%, DE 8.38 MJ/kg
Dengie HiFi Molasses Free - sugar 2.5%, starch 1.5%, DE 8.5 MJ/kg
Spillers Happy Hoof Molasses Free - sugar 1.25%, starch 1.5%, DE 8.8 MJ/kg
TopSpec FibrePlus Cubes - sugar 2.0% or less, starch 9.0%, DE 9 MJ/kg (NB total sugar and starch may exceed the recommended 10%)
Dengie Alfa-Beet - sugar 5%, starch 2%, DE 10.5 MJ/kg
Dengie Alfa-A Molasses Free - sugar 4.5%, starch 2.0%, DE 11.5 MJ/kg
Speedi-Beet - sugar 5%, starch 0%, DE 12 MJ/kg

https://www.thelaminitissite.org/diet.html