Alternative bedding types?

[mynutmeg]

We have been using green sawdust as our yard supplied it however they are stopping so am looking into bedding.
It must be dust free as two of ours are COPD/resp problems. My mare is clean but wet and my sister's tb is a messy little b***er.
I skip out/remove all the wet every day and lift the bed every couple of days and my sister deep litters her beds.

I like bedmax but go through at least 3 bales a week with my mare so really isn't cost effect for me.
The bedding we've got down to (after hours of reading ) plus questions about them are:

Megazorb - is this a type of wood pellet ie do you have to wet it down to use or does it just come out ready to use? How many bags a week do you use? What do you like or not like about it?

Unibed/Nedz bed style chopped rape straw - how many bales a week do you use? What sort of bed does it give? What do you like or not like about it?

I have looked at hemp style but can't afford it as it's so expensive. We have looked at sood pellets but am concerned about it being dusty in the summer and also how warm it is given you use it damped down.
Any other bedding you use that you have liked? What have you liked about it?

Thanks

 

[Suzie G]

Sorry, can't help with the 2 you mentioned but we used to use shavings but got sick of it being dusty.

We now use Easibed. The bags are smaller than shavings so u need to use more but they are dust free and just as easy to use as shavings.

 

[Zargon_91]

Megazorb is weird! Sorry, no other way to explain it. I think its cardboard based rather than wood pulp, definitely not dusty though! and is almost like a crumb so you dont have to soak it. Very tidy but i couldnt say how long it lasted as we bulk out shavings beds with it but it does make the deep litter last a lot longer!

 

[Milkmaid]

Why not just normal wood pellets?
Much much cheaper than mehazorb (or virtually any other bedding too!)

 

[Wagtail]

Megazorb is brilliant. It's made of virgin wood pulp. Probably the softest bedding on the market and easy to store and carry. It also rots down really well. I use it for two of the seven horses here. Four are on miscanthus or sometimes straw pellets. I love both of these as they do not need wetting and are highly absorbant and easy to muck out. They are not as nice and soft as megazorb though. The other one is on wood pellets because she eats straw pellets. I like wood pellets, but find with most horses I need to fluff them up first in the barrow, and this is time consuming. The mare that is on them is exceptionally clean though and so I put them in to the deepest part of her bed still dry and it works really well for her.

 

[mynutmeg]

Why not just normal wood pellets?
Much much cheaper than mehazorb (or virtually any other bedding too!)

I'm not keen on having the bed damp to stop it being dusty - just from what I've been reading I'm not overally keen on it.
Am trying to be sure what I want as we're going to be ordering a pallet of whatever we decide on

 

[sarahhelen1977]

We use hemp for some of the horses at work - we remove the droppings daily, and take the wet out once a week. Each horse uses one bale per week. One of mine at home is on Aubiose and has the wet removed every other week and has a bale about every 10 days - works out cheaper than straw once you have put a nice thick bed down to start!