Feed advice needed

stormandsummer

New Member
Dec 23, 2005
299
0
0
uk
plusrider.proboards57.com
Okay my approx 15 year old cob, ideal weight is on hi light basic cubes as his feed twice a day, he has been on this for years and apart from how can i explain, after he poos, he has liquid coming out his rear end, he apart from this is in good health and is happy He is also on cortaflex and i add garlic and carrots to his feeds. And he has additional hayledge when required too.

Right my questions is this ......Now i have been given two lots of advice, that he should be on molly chaff as well as his hi light basic cubes, being a new owner i am aware that any change in food needs to be done gradually, but what would the benifit of adding chaff to his food ( he does not bolt his food down) but would this solve the problem of the liquid from his rear ?

I am so confused about what chaff is and why it should or should not be feed can someone advise me please :rolleyes:

My only concern that it would give him too much energy :rolleyes:

advice needed asap please
 
I'm not great at these things but chaff is just added for bulk. I don't think it has any great nutritional value. If you were going to add a chaff I would add something like hifi lite not a mollychaff.

Not sure about the liquid though.
 
molichaff is coated in sugar, so not the best chaff really - i'd rather use an unmolassed one.
chaff is chopped up straw, hay or alfalfa, it is used to bulk up the horse's food and provide extra fibre. non-molassed chaffs include hifi lite and happy hoof (which has pellets in it as well, it is designed to be fed on its own so has opellets with trace vitamins in it). if you want more energy, an alfafla-based one like alfa-a is good.

with regard to the liquid - is it a lot, or just a dribble? a dribble is perfectly normal in my experience.
 
the liqiud is a dribble really but enough to run down his back legs and requires cleaning daily, thank goodness it is normal :D None of the other horses i have known has this so it has always been a concern.

Thanks for the advice about chaff, it is all so confusing for new owners :rolleyes: I keep being told horses have to have chaff :rolleyes: but he has never had it added to his food and in winter he has sugar beet added to keep his weight up.

does this mean i can rest easy now that he is getting what he requires :rolleyes:

*** new horse owner, worrying about small things :rolleyes: LOL ***
 
Ok a small ammount of liquid is perfectly normal, but if it is going down his back legs then it could make them a bit sore eventually.

Chaff is just a bulker, molichaff is horrible stuff (but I do use it on occasion :rolleyes: it does have its place) it is just chopped straw covered in mollasses (sugar) and has no real nutritional value. You can get other chaffs which are much better dengie do a good range (as do many other feed companies), the HiFi ones are mixed straw and alfalfa and have varying combinations of these and varying degrees of mollasses but all of them less that moli. They also do their Alfa range which is just that, again with varying degrees of mollasses or oil as a coating.

One reason people may be suggesting changing your horses diet is that a high fibre diet could help 'soak up' some more of that liquid.
Horses are better off having a fibre diet, although many will do perfectly well on hard feeds.
I would perhaps consider a slight change to see if it helps, I would try something like HiFi Light (I suggest light as you don't need more weight or energy from the feed) mixed with a slightly reduced ammount of your normal cubes.
You should also make sure you weigh your feeds so you know exactly how much he is getting in comparison to the recomended daily ammount (from the manufactrer) as if he is getting less than they recomend (you would have to consider all components of the feed) then you may need to consider adding another source of vitamins and minerals either to the feed or as a lick available in the field or the stable. You also didn't mention if he gets turn out etc as this will also effect what his hard feeds should consist of too.

J x
 
Yes he gets turnout 3 times a week, the rest of the time he is stabled :rolleyes:

I understand about the liquid causing soreness, hence why mum gets to wipe his bum every day to keep him clean :rolleyes: LOL honest i don't mind but he does insist on lifting his tail to help which is great but to pass wind at mum and then smirk is going too far LOL

So if i was to add fibre what would it be in the form off, i am getting so confused here :rolleyes:

Is there just a fibre i could add to his bulk food, and would that help ?


there is a definate science to feeding horses isn't there, but i need to learn thanks for your help :D
 
Yes as lauren says, fibre is grass, hay and chaffs.

I don't want to skip stuff so will start from the top :D

You should aim for your horses diet to be 80% fibre and 20% or less hard feed (even high fibre feeds come under this but are marginally better) and at a total rate of 3% of total body weight for weight gain, 2% for maintainence and 1% for weight loss or special restricted diet like a laminitic.

So if your horse is on restricted turn out of just a few hours a week I would just work it out on stable fed feed stuffs, this is because we don't know how 'good' you grazing is and its difficult to say just how much he will be eating :D but at the same time don't worry if he can't eat enough hay, you can normally safely assume he will be topping that up out in the field.

So for your average 15hh 500kg horse that you want to maintain current weight you would want to feed a total of 10kg of feed stuffs per day (2% of body weight) of this 10kg a maximum of 2kg per day should be hard feed and 8kg should be fibre (by dry weight), but if your horse keeps his weight on well you may be able to feed just 10kg of fibre per day (thats the bit only trial and error will solve :D)

So weight his hay (per day ammount and remember if he just gets haylage you have to allow extra weight because of how high it is in water) and his hard feed and see how it is :D

Chaff can be added to his hard feed to increase his fibre intake, that could be straw chaff (eg moli) or grass chaff (eg redi-grass) or Alfa chaff (eg alfa A)

Hope that helps

Jx
 
newrider.com