Do you or don’t you?

Trewsers

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Oct 13, 2004
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Does anyone actually know if you are meant to wet / dampen feed such has Happy Hoof? I was certain it used to say in the bag but it doesn’t. Mr t reckons not. But the other night I got worried as Chloe being prone to choke I suddenly wondered if I’d make it worse and potentially make her have an episode being as it was a bowl I gave her pretty sloppy. Even so the chop seems to cling together in balls. Does anyone feed it and if so how???? Thanks, and I hope this is in the right section.
 
I do both, actually. For her "proper" feed..... I soak style Fast Fibre so that I can mix in her skin supplement powder (to make it edible and palatable). Then she gets a bit of chaff added to that and stirred in..... so that's a damp feed.

However, before riding G gets a couple of handfuls of dry chaff - so that she's not exercised on an empty stomach. A friend of mine has one with ulcers and she told me that it's not the food in the stomach before exercise that they need but their saliva, which acts as a neutraliser. By feeding dry chaff they will produce a lot more saliva than if you've dampened it already. (For the record, Gracie has to have wetted hay because the dust in dry makes her cough). G doesn't have ulcers, but there's certainly no harm in helping to prevent them.

I have to admit that feeding dry chaff did make me a bit "choke" twitchy, but she's been fine (so far!! ?)

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules, Trews.... so feed however you feel happiest.
 
I actually find Little Un is more likely to choke on damp chaff than dry, I think because he can then grab bigger mouthfuls and chews them less.

@domane it isn't just the saliva that's needed, the long fibre forms a raft which then reduces the likelihood of acid splash from exercise causing ulcers. Providing a net of hay will work just as well, it doesn't have to be chaff.
 
Thanks guys. It just got me thinking when OH said the other night, because I'd been mithering. We'd run a bit low on the Allen and Page fast fibre so I ended up giving Chloe quite a bit of Happy Hoof and automatically wet it. Then started bothering about the choke (which she hasn't had in ages but it's always a thought). I think my wetting it stemmed from when we had J and someone on the first yard I was on spotted me feeding it dry and said "no, you need to wet it". So I did. Hmm.
 
I also have a bag of Graze On which I got for winter emergencies - in case we ran low on stuff and the feed merchants couldn't get out to us with the hayledge and hay. Now I find it quite dusty - so tend to wet that. But I assume that would be okay just sprinkled on top to pad out a meal?
 
@domane it isn't just the saliva that's needed, the long fibre forms a raft which then reduces the likelihood of acid splash from exercise causing ulcers. Providing a net of hay will work just as well, it doesn't have to be chaff.
As I said in my post, I can't feed dry hay to Gracie because the dust makes her cough. So she gets the dry chaff to create the saliva.

Trews.... Graze On is what I feed Gracie. Wet or dry. I call it chaff, just because it's less letters to type than "chopped, dried grass" (and Graze On!) ???

She can't have alfalfa, which is in many commercial chaffs.... it makes her itch profusely. She's such a princess! ??
 
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As I said in my post, I can't feed dry hay to Gracie because the dust makes her cough. So she gets the dry chaff to create the saliva.

Oh I wasn't suggesting you should feed hay instead, I was merely pointing out it's the fibre raft that reduces acid splashes and any type of fibre will do the job.
 
Oh I wasn't suggesting you should feed hay instead, I was merely pointing out it's the fibre raft that reduces acid splashes and any type of fibre will do the job.
But the fibre raft needs saliva for optimum protection, rather than water ?
 
If you compare any chaff to the fodder brix, it's moist already.
I will be offering that soaked from now on.
But if I happen to buy in chaff it would be moist not damp as I think the crap that tends to go in it goes lumpy with too much water.
I will probably get fast fibre as a hay alternative.
 
If you compare any chaff to the fodder brix, it's moist already.
I will be offering that soaked from now on.
But if I happen to buy in chaff it would be moist not damp as I think the crap that tends to go in it goes lumpy with too much water.
I will probably get fast fibre as a hay alternative.
Fast fibre is ace. All ours adore it and a little makes a lot. But it does tell you on the bag what it’s equivalent is in hay.
 
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But the fibre raft needs saliva for optimum protection, rather than water ?

But anything that is chewed will produce saliva, I could give him a toffee if saliva was all I wanted and he'd be chewing that for ages. Water added to chaff shouldn't make much difference to how much they chew it, well not unless you've got a greedy lad like mine, and neither will it make any difference to the fibre content. The saliva is less important in before exercise tactical feeding since the aim with that is to reduce splash ulcers, where that becomes important is gastric ulcers to neutralise the stomach acids and it's why ulcer prone horses shouldn't be left for long without long fibre be that as hay, haylage or grass.
 
It depends, Bo would eat buckets of redigrass dry and never had an issue. Jess will turn her nose up unless it’s damp, she is a bit prone to choke so perhaps she knows that, but she has also choked on the most watery speedibeet, so I guess it really just matters how they will chew it best.
 
As I said in my post, I can't feed dry hay to Gracie because the dust makes her cough. So she gets the dry chaff to create the saliva.

Trews.... Graze On is what I feed Gracie. Wet or dry. I call it chaff, just because it's less letters to type than "chopped, dried grass" (and Graze On!) ???

She can't have alfalfa, which is in many commercial chaffs.... it makes her itch profusely. She's such a princess! ??
AHA! someone else whose horse itches with alfalfa - Hogan can't tolerate it at all. I got poo-pooed by my friends when I said I thought it might be that.
 
AHA! someone else whose horse itches with alfalfa - Hogan can't tolerate it at all. I got poo-pooed by my friends when I said I thought it might be that.
And it's annoying just how many commercial chaffs contain it!!!
 
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I can't feed alfalfa to Little Un either, though in his case it's because even a small amount brings up his digital pulses. It's in so many feeds, sometimes as lucerne too, so you have to be hot at reading labels.
 
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Belle’s handful of happy hoof is always wetted, just because I can’t imagine how horrible it would be to try and eat it dry! Be a bit like eating a dry weetabix!
 
I feed Fast Fibre as although I don't like the NIS in it, it's alfalfa/GM/molasses free and Pete eats it more happily than Thunderbrooks Herbal chaff - which would be my preference over Fast Fibre. That's obviously soaked.

I didn't wet either the Simple Systems or the Thunderbrooks chaff per se when I fed it but I'd sprinkle a tiny bit of water to bind his supplements to it.

As long as they have fresh water available, I don't worry too much about the dryness.
 
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