Can Horses Eat Flour? 3 Amazing Facts To Know!
You could have a pet horse at home, and you’re anxious about what they’ll eat in the meantime because of the food scarcity and the question “Can horses eat flour?” will be asked.
Horses usually eat only vegetables and feed pellets that are provided to them by their owners. With that, they gain a lot of energy from consuming it. According to some research, flour is consumable for horses’, especially wheat-based ones; yes, it is safe for consumption.
You can even bake them horse cookies. Wheat-based flours are the best to feed since they are beneficial to your horses’ diet. All you have to do is bake them with some shredded carrots, and you’re good.
Horses cannot usually be seen eating flour, it is a rare moment to see one consuming it, but it doesn’t mean that your horse is eating something harmful.
Whether it may be regular flour or wheat flour, it can be consumed by any breed of horses, though picky ones wouldn’t eat it without something mixed with it.
Let us continue to learn more about this topic now that you know that horses may ingest flour. So, keep on reading to have new learnings about the discussion.
Can Horses Eat Flour?
Can horses eat flour? If you don’t have anything else to give your horses but flour, don’t worry; it isn’t perfectly safe for them to eat high gluten content though a bit of it is okay since it is essential for their diet.As we’ve said earlier, most people use it for baking horse cookies or biscuits, which contain shredded carrots to give them all the supplementary nutrients they need.
If you don’t have any ideas, then here is a little trivia for you. Flour may be consumable, but it is not advised to be taken by horses daily.Whether it be wheat or just regular flour, the high gluten content is present, which means it’ll be a problem when wheat gluten starts to ball up in the stomach or intestinal tract.They can cause a blockage (colic) in those areas, which may give your horses a hard time digesting food and processing it into their stomachs, causing them to bloat because of the gluten.
Here are more facts that you should know:
#1. Colic (blockage or abdominal pain)
Now that we’ve mentioned colic, it is commonly used to describe whenever horses or even humans feel abdominal pain. As for your pets, these usually occur because of horses’ intestinal issues.
There are more than 70 distinct forms of digestive problems that can cause colic. It ranges from a bit of pain that is easy to handle to a life-threatening situation.
Giving horses a decent amount of bread or horse treats isn’t bad for their health. The only time that you’ll face this is if you’ve overfed them.
Gluten will start building up in the stomach or intestinal tract, which will then cause colic. So, with this, you should be mindful of how you feed your horses.
Keeping track of their daily intake might be one solution to this problem, be more responsible for taking care of them because they are not just ordinary animals.
#2. Is flour a toxic component? is it edible?
Yes, it is edible. Wheat flour is one of the main ingredients used to make bread that also contains other components like yeast, salt, and water. None of them are toxic ingredients which means they can be consumable for your horses.But, take note that you cannot consume wheat flour unless it is baked or cooked into something else. Its dry form can cause a blockage that can choke your horses.
You know, horses are the type of animals that tend to eat fast when they like their meal. Because of that, they tend to gulp their food without even chewing.Also, if you’re trying to make cookies, a little bit of flour is fine. However, it will only act as a binder so that your cookie treats don’t fall apart in the process of making it.Back to the bread; putting too much flour can cause a blockage that can even lead to more severe problems, as we’ve mentioned earlier. Colic is one of them.Yes, they aren’t toxic, but they aren’t safe to be edible either. So always make sure and double-check if what your horses eat daily. Otherwise, you won’t be able to keep track of what’s happening on their systems.
#3. Will a 50:50 ratio of food with flour be good for horses?
The answer to that question of yours is yes; as long as it is mixed with a 50% ratio of corn and oats combined, it will be safe for consumption.
It is even recommended to be fed to your horses. Then, with the safety of oats and the economy of corn, you’re all good.
What Are Different Types Of Flour That Can Horses Eat?
There are a number of flours that horses can eat and the most common ones include:
Oat Flour
Oat flour is safe and quite popular flour to feed horses. They contain a high amount of starch and an abundance of other nutrients including magnesium, copper, and phosphorous.
However, when fed in excess the increased amount of starch can lead to damage to the hindgut of the horse.
Bread Flour
Bread flour contains only a sufficient amount of proteins and very little amount of proteins which can be problematic for growing horses.
When feeding bread flour it should be mixed with some bulky feed to prevent protein deficiency.
Corn Flour
Corn flour is energy-dense food with a high amount of starch.
Although corn flour contains triple the amount of energy that oat flour has, the high level of starch makes it easily fermentable and eventually toxic.
Conclusion
Can horses eat flour? Again, horses are allowed to intake flour but only a tiny amount of it.
If flour is given in large amounts, your horse won’t be feeling too good as this may result in colic unless it is a 50:50 mix with corn and oats. These are recommended, so you better try them whenever there is no food available at the moment for your horses.
We hope the information from this article will help you take better care of your horse’s health. Thank you for reading!
