Free choice oats..anyone feed these?

[tuffsmom]

Tuff has already gotten his extra fluff for the winter, and now is getting to be a fatty. My husband suggested that we stop the sweet feed twice daily for a while, and put him on free choice oats to give him more energy so maybe he'll DO something and get some exercise. I figured I'd better get some advice before I go doing this, so has anyone done this before? Is this a bad idea?

Also, he does go on walks with me morning and evening. We walk/jog/trot around our pasture, which is about 7 acres, so he has some activity, but during the day he lays around in the shade and takes naps with the goat.

 

[lilhorseladie]

Not sure how the rest of the world views this...I don't feel comfortable doing it, however, my vet claims that you can fill a feeder full of oats and let them free feed and they will never founder. He says they stay fat and happy and you don't have to feed. I like the time I spend with my horses and choose to feed a sweet feed, when I feed, which is only my preggos except deep in winter when others need suppliments.

 

[Relic]

l would never give free choice oats we had a mare get in the bucket once while waiting to get her feet done and by the time we noticed she wolfed down a third of it and she got real plugged and we were very busy with the mineral oil for a few days. lf he has no energy maybe he's lacking something.

 

[Marty]

EEKS never in a million years would I free choice oats or any grain for that matter with the exception of a weaner maybe creep feeding or something like that. But what you suggested no way would I touch that one with a ten foot pole.

I feed sweet feed 2 times a day and yes they are fat but still run like a little herd of elephants stampeeding.

If your horse is lacking in the energy department you may want to have a blood test taken to check and see why. Maybe your sweet feed isn't up to par. They can lack energy for any number of reasons and that is one thing I would address if I saw that none of mine were running around and not doing anything. I would be a bit concerend.

Maybe Tuff needs a buddy of his own species to run and play with.

 

[JessiTrist]

What is free choice oats? From reading I get the impression that it is where u leave them oats that they can access all day long?

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Put him out to grass and stop all feed for a while- he will be fine, so long as your grass has just started to die back- I am assuming not all the 7 acres is one field???

 

[Cathy_H]

First of all make sure that you are not overfeeding the sweet feed. If you give him hay spread it around so that he has to walk to eat it. I would never give a mini free choice except in special situations........... By the way, when we were trying to get weight off of our mini's we fed oats instead of sweet feed, but they still kept the weight......................... Also if your horse is stalled or dry lotted, he is not going to be engerized that often. Our dry lotted horses just hang around. When they are turned out to pasture they may run a bit initially then they settle down. .......................................... Jessitrist -- free choice is where you have feed available to the horse to eat at will anytime they want. Never works with ours though as they consume it asap & look for more...........................................................

but during the day he lays around in the shade and takes naps with the goat.

If he is healthy & not obese this seems normal to me.

 

[Margo_C-T]

I would NOT, under any normal circumstances I can think of, offer ANY grain free choice to mature horses. Horses have no sense of how much is "enough", will continue to eat when they "should" stop--there is a huge risk of either founder or some sort of gastrointestinal upset-likely to be very serious to life-threatening-when horses have free access to most any sort of nutritionally-loaded feed.( An exception would be good pasture--IF they are well-USED to grazing on it!) )If this horse is mature,basically idle,and in good healthy condition, he may need little to no concentrate(meaning grain/grain mix/formulated) feed, at least for now.

It is my experience that horses are not motivated to move around more by feeding more grain(some may become "hyper",or get fat, but few will exhibit more 'energy' in the sense of more voluntary self-exercise)--it is normal for confined horses to be pretty idle.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

I think it depends on the situation and the horse as an individual if they can be free fed or not. I know my T//B has always been free fed everything from hay to different grains with no issue.

I would say well over half my minis "could" be free fed and would stop eating the others would eat themselves sick.

I personally prefer to feed whole oats over sweet feed and to be honest am going to (once robin C gets back and we can figure it all out) I think switch to grass pellets instead of the oats

It is very normal that he takes naps during the day and such.

 

[beaminewbie]

We feed oats free choice to our 23 yr old broodmare and to all of our weanlings until they are about a year and a half old, but that is with our full size horses. I just got into the minis and have our first babies now, but I don't think they need the free choice, they are fat enough with the amount they get!! Ours are on a dry lot also but I let them into the large pasture every other day to run around. They do get free choice hay though.

 

[tuffsmom]

Okay, that's what I needed to know..I guess the free choice thing is a bad idea.

He's in a one acre grassy lot (the grass is pretty much burned up though, no rain

) with lots of trees. The 7 acres is our empty pasture that we take walks in in the mornings & evenings when it's not so HOT. Tuff has a LOT of thick long hair already, and when it's still getting to 95 or so during the day, he takes it easy. I'll go outside and squirt him off with the waterhose during the heat of the day and he'll take off running and bucking and kicking, so I think he's lazy during the day because he's hot, but I have work to do and can't stand around all day holding the waterhose on him.

We give our big horses free choice oats, and I know that no horse/pony will founder off of oats alone. Any vet will say that, I think. He has PLENTY of energy in the mornings and evenings and nights, but it's down to 70 degrees or so then, so he's not hot and I think it's kind of refreshing for him.

 

[Four__Aces]

Horses will generally spend most of their time either grazing or just standing round, so it isnt unusual for him to be just chilling for most of the day.

I would suggest you clip him if he is hot, even if you have to buy a light rug for night time when it gets cool. Also cut down the sweet feed - I never feed sweet feed anyway, I prefer grains and chaff - but if you prefer sweet feed give it only as a nighe feed and get him have free choice grass hay in the morning to see him though the day to give him something to do.

 

[Annetta]

I don't know if oats alone would cause founder--honestly, I cannot say, but even if it can't, there are other reasons why I would never offer free choice oats. I know I have horses that would overeat if they had free choice oats...

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of reasons why not to feed this way is gastric dilatation; should the horse overeat on oats (or other grains), the stomach may become overfilled/stretched--there are various reasons for gastric dilation, but the condition is most serious when it is caused by a grain overload; there is a fermentation of the protein--oats contains enzymes which start their own digestive process so they do not have to get to the intestines to begin producing toxins. Gastric dilation can easily lead to ruptured stomach, which of course is fatal...horse dies before there is time to founder!

 

[tuffsmom]

Well, I'm not going to clip him this close to winter, I don't want to blanket him unless it's absoltuely necessary, so no clipping this late in the year.

What I decided to do is instead of his sweet feed 2x a day, I'm going to give him one cup of oats 2x a day for a week or two, and see how he does. He's got grass to eat (he has to look for it, but there is plenty), and I fill his hay box full every morning. But I think cutting out the sweet feed will help his chubbiness....I'm glad I didn't go ahead and put out a tub of oats, better safe than sorry, I think!

 

[tuffsmom]

By the way...he only weighs 43 pounds, and he's pushing 23 inches now, so he's a little guy, and he's about 7 months old. I didn't want anyone to think I was trying to starve or underfeed him, he's already rolling fat!

 

[Ashley]

Well call me odd, but are you sure he is fat and not big bellyed from lack of food?

I personally think 2 cups of grain a day for a 7 month old isnt enough. But thats just me. I also think he needs something better then oats being he is just a foal.

 

[chandab]

By the way...he only weighs 43 pounds, and he's pushing 23 inches now, so he's a little guy, and he's about 7 months old. I didn't want anyone to think I was trying to starve or underfeed him, he's already rolling fat!

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Wow, he is tiny. If he is indeed 43 pounds, then going my the standard 1.5% to 2% of body weight for feed (we'll go with 2% for ease of calculating), then he should be getting .86 pounds of feed per day. Typically only 1/2 the diet is concentrates, although more can be concentrates for babies. I wouldn't worry too much about allowing him pretty much free choice grass hay. For the concentrate, at his current weight he only needs about 6-7 ounces of concentrate a day (.43 pounds is 6.88 ounces). I weighed my feeds earlier this summer and rolled oats measured out about 3.5 ounces per cup (kitchen dry measure cup). Pellets were heavier per cup at 5.3 oz per cup (these are 1/4" dia pellets), each feed weighs a bit different per volume (and BOSS is 3 oz/cup).

I'm feeding my weanling a commercial youth feed. The bag states .5 to 1.25# feed per 100# bodyweight. I used a formula to calculate her weight (looking into getting a scale for all my minis) and she's about 135#, so I started her on the low end of the recommendation and she is getting 3/4# youth pellets plus grass hay. She's looking great and is full of energy.

I'm not a vet or equine professional, but did study equine nutrition and health as a minor in college and also took coorespondance equine studies program (passed with flying colors). Also, speaking from personal experience.