Those that dont feed chaff or have a horse that dislikes Alfa a oil??

GLEEK

GLEEK

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Hi I think that my mare doesnt really like alfa a oil that much or chaff im not to sure. I have had her on 3 feeds a day to try and get weight on her however she hasnt been finishing her feeds. She has Alfa a oil with speedi beet, Baileys No4 and super conditioning flakes also with ad lib hay.

Today i ran out of chaff and i forgot to call in to get some. So i thought for one feed she would cope with out the chaff. She ate the quickest in a long time polished off her feed which she hasnt done for a while. So i am now thinking to either cut the chaff right down to a tiny amount or cut it out all together.

Would i have to feed anything else instead of chaff? Im not to sure if its the texture of the alfa oil and to try maybe a hay based chaff so it is much softer and not as coarse as the alfa oil. Does anyone else have a similar problem?

Thanks for any help
 
You don't need to feed a chaff at all - I don't!

You could try her with Alfalfa Pellets that you soak or feed Fibrebeet or Alphabeet instead of the speedibeet as they are both a combination of Alfalfa and Beet
 
Im on my 3rd bag of it now (i think) i used to feed mollichop but i changed it as many people had been reccomending Alfa a oil for weight gain. Annoyingly i have just opened a new bag tonight. I think i will go back to mollichop i will just maybe reduce the amount of alfa oil i am feeding.

Sorry not mollichop i mean molliechaff
 
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When I was in America nobody fed any sort of chaff, I think Englands obsession with chaff is that the quality of forrage that we feed is not that high so we suppliment it with high quality chopped forrage. As long as the horse is recieving good quality hay and he does not bolt his feed down it is fine to remove his chaff. A large feed with chaff may have just been overwelming him. If you would like to continue feeding chaff maybe put it in a seperate bucket and he can finish it up through the night.
 
have you tried blue chip for weight gain? also there is a coconut supplement out now that is supposed to be really good too, dont know the name, can try find out more if you'd like...
 
my filly dislikes alfa a oil in her feed aswell, i put 1kg in her stable overnight for her to pick through. she eats about half of it.
 
I've never fed it - my poor doer gets baileys no. 4, micronised linseed and fast fibre so it forms a mash and has ad lib hay.
 
I don't feed a chaff. Mine gets a small amount of alfalfa pellets and Coolstance Copra soaked, it fluffs up alot so a small amount looks like a big feed.To that I add linseed and some minerals.
Has ad lib hay and haylage at all times so I have no worry about him getting enough fibre.

Alternatively if you really want to feed a chop of some sort you could try the alfa a molasses free or top chop alfa both of which have oil in them and I think have mint etc added to make it tastier.
 
Have you tried the Alfa-A Molasses Free, a lady on my yard has used this when her horse stoped eating the Alfa-A Oil. I think it is similar to the oil but has herbs included, the stuff that this lady is feeding smells lovely!
 
As said above, you don't have to feed chaff if your horse gets plenty of other fibre and doesn't bolt their feed. If you have a horse with a small appetite then chaff just slows them down too much. Additionally, alfalfa chaffs can have quite a bitter taste which some horses don't like.

If she was mine I wouldn't be bothering with chaff at all, but if you really want to feed chaff than look at something like Readigrass which has a similar content to Alfa A Oil but may be more to her taste.
 
Don't feed mine any Chaff either.

She is on Calm and condition with a small scoop of Frickers mix (did have to cut that down as sent her a bit silly!) with the garlic/linseed and parsley oil in, but she loves it.

Tried her on Baileys no 1, but she would'nt eat it!
 
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