Whole Oats vs Steamed Crimpted Oats

[griff]

I've had my may 2005 filly on free choice whole oats since she was weaned. She's in a two acre paddoct with orchard grass which is over sown with oats plus she also has free choice access to good but not great tmothy hay. She's in good condition but not fat and is 15.3 hh at 18 months.

recently i've noticed she seems to be passing a much larger percentage of the oats undigested and have been thinking about swithching to steamed crimped oats.

I've never had any health problem with free choice whole oats but wonder if I will have to limit her intake of steamed crimped oats.

griff

[madelyn]

Perhaps you should check her teeth.

[griff]

Thanks Madelyn. It never occured to me that an 18 month old filly might need her teeth floated. The Vet will be out next month to take a coggins sample and I'll get him to float the teeth then.

I'm still curious if I can free choice steamed crimped oats.

griff

[freshman]

I agree with M, check the mouth and teeth. Usually a problem in a yearling would occur from a malocclusion or misalignment of the teeth due to a congenital problem (parrot mouth, etc) or injury. Or some problem with the eruption of her teeth that isn't visible without a speculum, flashlight, and usually, sedation. She may need a float, other dental intervention, or a switch to feed that is easy to chew if this is the case.

She sounds like she is growing quite well, 15.3 @ 18 months, and a thinner body condition is always better for the joints than the buttery round, unnaturally muscled yearlings that are seen at the sales. But undigested feed material in the feces would worry me some. Your plan to have her checked sounds good.

I wish I were familiar with feeding steamed crimped oats, but I can't speak to this. Hopefully someone else can do so. If she dropping weight or becoming too thin, you can always offer a name-brand equine senior complete feed, usually quite palatable, easy to chew and digest, and offers a moderate protein level that shouldn't be harmful in terms of rapid-growth, OCD, etc.

I only recommend name brand, like triple crown or purina, because I have found that many generics apparently taste bad and are rejected by many horses. The nutrition level is usually there, check the label, and you can save money by feeding generic and adding a few handfuls of sweetfeed, etc, to increase palatibility.

On the very outside realm of possibilities, she could be bolting her food due to real or perceived competition and just not chewing it well. Feeding seperately in the security of a shut stall might help in this case. Very rarely, horses have autoimmune disorders that include malabsorption disorders. Not likely in young horses and usually accompanied by diarrhea and weight loss. Hypermotile bowels for any reason usually result in diarrhea and seeing whole feed in the feces, but the horses are usually sick to some degree and often also have diarrhea. Doesn't sound like your horse.

Good luck!

[griff]

Thanks Fresman

No she's not dropping weight; fact is she's just about where I want her. maybe that, and not the whole oats in the droppings should be my major criteria.

I like to free choice whole oats intead of rationing mixed feeds because she's never hungry and therefore never bolts her food. Also, #2 whole oats run approximately 11% proteen and that's all the proteen any run out horse ever needs. Also, I look at most mixed feeed and it starts out with "grain by products" as the first ingrediant which leads me to think all i'm buing is ground up straw with enough soybean meal to get the proteen up and enough molassis to make then eat it.

griff

[TBLADY]

I feed Steamed rolled oats...no hulls to digest and pass, no starch from the hulls and 100% Digestable matter!

[griff]

TBLAD

what do you have against roughage?

griff

[cewright]

Griff - I feed steamed crimped oats 50/50 by volume with a 12% high fat pellet. I see very little waste. According to the feed store mgr, the oat supplier is Red River. Supposedly, they remove the hulls by crimping and the steaming puffs up the oats making them more digestable. However, the processed oats cost more than the regular oats and I am still not sure I can prove one or the other is better economically. Emperically, it seems we get greater efficiency (as measured by weight gain per dollar of feed) with the processed oats, but as oat prices fluctuate so does this calculation. The density of processed oats is much less than the density of whole oats and this difference needs to be considered when calculating rations. The densityy also varies by brand and type of oat.

I can generally tell how my food is being digested by noticing the amount of birds in my pastures.

Regards

Chuck

[griff]

Thanks guys

I have do doubt that the steamed crimped or the steeamed rolled oats are more digestable.

My question or concern is I like feeding whole oats free choice, especially to young stock. . Once the horses fill up they rarely eat more than 15 pound per day, maybe 20 pounds per day when a Noreaster is going on [like now] I know free choice whole oats will not hurt a horse.

My question is does anyone feed free choice crimped oats ?

griff

PS: I'd be afraid to feed rolled oats free choice as that takes away the hull roughage.

g