Digestibility of a complete ration in horses fed once or three times a day and correlation with key blood parameters.
Authors: van Weyenberg Stephanie, Buyse Johan, Janssens Geert P J
Journal: Veterinary journal (London, England : 1997)
Summary
# Editorial Summary Van Weyenberg and colleagues investigated whether feeding frequency influences nutrient absorption and metabolic responses in horses by comparing once-daily versus three-times-daily feeding schedules in four geldings receiving a maintenance ration of cereals and chopped alfalfa hay. After a three-week adaptation period, they measured apparent digestibility of all major nutrient fractions from five-day faecal collections and tracked blood glucose, lactate, triglycerides, non-esterified fatty acids and T₃ concentrations across 10 hours post-feeding using 16 serial sampling points. Counter-intuitively, apparent digestibility coefficients for dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre and nitrogen-free extract showed no significant differences between feeding frequencies, nor did basal glucose levels or metabolite responses; however, the single daily feeding was consumed gradually throughout the day rather than consumed entirely at the morning meal, which likely explains this null finding. A notable inverse correlation emerged between glucose area-under-curve and both crude protein digestibility (R² = 0.76) and crude fibre digestibility (R² = 0.61), suggesting that metabolic efficiency may be linked to the digestive fate of specific nutrients rather than meal frequency per se. For practitioners, whilst feeding frequency alone appears inconsequential to digestive efficiency in this model, the protein and fibre digestibility associations with postprandial glucose control merit further investigation to understand whether passage rate or endocrine dynamics explain these relationships.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Feeding horses once daily versus three times daily does not significantly alter digestibility of ration components or blood metabolite responses, even though single-feeding protocols do not prevent horses from consuming feed sporadically throughout the day
- •Digestibility of crude protein and crude fibre appear inversely related to postprandial glucose responses; horses digesting these nutrients more efficiently may show lower glucose excursions
- •Small sample size (n=4) limits applicability; results suggest feeding frequency may be less critical for nutrient utilization than traditionally assumed, but individual variation in self-regulation of feed intake may be a confounding factor
Key Findings
- •Apparent digestibility coefficients for dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, ash and nitrogen-free extract were not significantly different between once-daily and three-times-daily feeding (P>0.05)
- •Horses fed once daily did not consume the entire ration at once but distributed intake throughout the day, negating the intended feeding frequency difference
- •Plasma glucose area under curve (AUC) was negatively correlated with crude protein digestibility (R²=0.76; P=0.005) and crude fibre digestibility (R²=0.61; P=0.022)
- •Feeding frequency did not significantly affect basal plasma glucose, glucose curves, or other blood metabolites including lactate, triglycerides, NEFA and T3