Timothy/alfalfa chop

[Debbie]

....sigh....its such a chore to find anything decent for Blossom to eat!

The other day in the feed store, I got excited because they were selling bags of chopped timothy hay mixed with alfalfa. I thought I would look to see how much alfalfa (and of course its all labelled just for horses). I couldn't believe how incredibly heavy it was to turn over, it should have just been chopped hay. Nope, mixed with molassas. And I'd say a fair bit given the weight of the bag. Why can't they just leave a good thing alone??

[harveydales]

I don't know much about the processing of these chops but I imagine they need something to bind the grasses and alfa or it would be a dusty mess and molasses seems to do the job. I suppose the ideal solution would be to get your own chaff cutter and make your own. I always keep my eye out for such a machine at farm sales but in the meantime I do feed a Timothy/Alfa chop and tell myself that the molasses consumed in the small feeds I give is minimal. Hopefully a tiny amount as a token feed can't do much damage.

[zeldalithgow]

I used to get an unmolassed chop called Just Chaff - haven't seen any unmolased stuff for ages

[Debbie]

Blossom's thankfully never been given a whiff of American alfalfa as she'd think she'd died and gone to heaven. I was willing to possibly give her just a smidge of it, but the molasses that was added as well ~ stuff resembled a deep fried Mars bar!!! I don't doubt she'd snarf it all down....and then I'd be stuck with a little girl with a huge tummy ache, and me fretting about lami shortly thereafter.

Maybe this year I'll get lucky and just find some orchard grass/timothy hay like I want. I can dream anyway.....