Can oat straw be fed to horses?

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Jul 3, 2007
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I ask because a woman i know has just brought some oat straw off my Dad who sells it, and is mixing it with her hay to make it last longer.
Is this a good idea?I thought feeding straw caused colic?
If it is ok to do then i might try it myself as i can get the straw for free;)
 
So its ok to actually mix some in with their hay every night??
That really suprises me...i thought it was bad for them to eat straw and that was why some people have problems with their horses eating their bedding?
 
Oat straw is fine for horses to eat as is barley straw. Last winter i fed barley straw during the really cold days to bulk out the hay. Horses weren't interested on the warmer days but while it was cold they couldn't get enough of it.
 
yes, useful where you need to reduce calorie intake without reducing feed bulk. Make sure there's more water available than usual (old pony drank noticably more on oat straw), even better give the hay/oat straw mix a good wetting before feeding and keep a check on consistency of droppings.
 
Oat and barley straw are fine for horses to eat as our vet keeps telling us. He thinks all fat ponies should be fed half hay and half starw as it reduces the calorie intake which means you can feed them more to keep the gut moving. Wheat straw though should never be fed to horses.
 
In some years when our lot have been too fat we have fed them nothing but oat straw.

One year when we got snowed I couldn't get to some of the horses with our own haylage so a nearby farmer dropped one of his haylage bales in to them, we didn't know, it had been made for his beef cattle and was made from silaged green oats, grain and all. They certainly approved of that! It makes a good haylage bale for poor doers!
 
I was taught the reason that oat straw does not make a good bed is because it is more palatable, therefore encourages eating of bed. Did not realise that it could be fed though!
 
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