Anyone bed on shredded paper?

Flicker

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What's it like? My mum's work generate massive amounts every day and they have to take out all the staples to get it through the machine, so I know it will be safe. It is properly shredded into little bits, not the long shreds that get entangled round legs...
I am tempted to ask her to save me the odd bag, but won't bother if it is crap to bed on.
My boy is pretty wet and stays in a lot (actually he's on box rest so stays in all the time) and I'm going through bedding like I don't know what at the moment...
 
Ive never bedded on it but heard its quite heavy when wet, but it cant help having some more bedding to mix in with what you have. every little helps
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We use bales of paper, and I add our shredded paper to it when we have some. don't have many problems, although it does blow if its windy.

My mum uses shredded paper which most of her village leave on her doorstop.
She doesn't have any problems either. We both have mats so only have small beds. She says that the cross cut stuff is nicer than the strips, but she takes both as its free.

It rots down quicker than shavings too.
 
i have mucked out paper stables and im not the biggest fan, it gets very heavy when wet, it does not absorb/drain too well, also if you have a grey/coloured or light coloured rug the print can come off the paper leaving you with a lovely ink stained horse!!!!
 
There's a couple of us on my yard who use it under straw to soak up the wet and find it works really well (they're both over 17hh so can't avoid the volume!). I also used to mix it in with Bed-Down which made the bales last twice as long. I shred all my own (work and home) and have never had a problem with print ink on my grey.
 
I used to use Shredded paper mixed with shavings until the YO told us we couldn't anymore because of getting rid of it. People take our muck for free for their gardens, veg patches, etc. so didn't like paper in it.
 
We used to use shavings but changed to paper 2 years ago. Think paper is better - it's warm and cosy, dust-free, rots easily and doesn't blow about as it's wet when it goes on muck heap. Had to change from mucking out with a rake to using rubber gloves as you can't sift paper with a rake. It absorbs the wet easily - I'm very happy with paper bedding. Trouble is it's hard to get hold of at the moment as there's a shortage and what is produced is grabbed by the big racing yards.
 
Quite a few up here at college are on paper and I find them annoying,

When it's windy it blows everywhere especially getting it to the muck trailor.

When it's wet it's heavy. And when it's deep litered it's a nightmare to muck out

However the horses seems to like it, very good for dust allergies.
 
i use it for both the boys & wouldnt use anything else.
we have rubber mats down & the boys get about half a binbags worth a day scattered over the rear third of their box to soak up wet, i use rubber gloves to muck out mornings and it only takes about mins, that is lift wet/lumps, put reusable stuff into a sepereate skip, rinse & sweep out & take to muck heap & sweep yard. evenings i take 5 mins whilst the boys eat tea to put old bedding down where the boys wet & freshen up with new.

i have found the benefits are it doesnt affect the old boys breathing, they dont eat it & it rots down very quickly meaning the muck heap stays small, our local gardeners take it happily as it dosnt take long to rot down like straw/shavings.

BUT it is a nightmare in windy weather, luckily i have a very sheltered yard area.
 
Our yard moved to shredded paper a few months ago...initially because they were having trouble getting shavings.

My horse has COPD so it is supposed to be the best bedding for him as it's dust free...not sure if 'home made' shreddd paper would be dust free though
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As a bed it is extremely absorbant and so long as it is thoroughly mucked out it makes a nice clean bed. What I don't like about it is that it tends to ball up in the horses hooves terribly...if I pick his feet out and immediately walk him out of the stable I still leave a trail across the yard. It also moves a lot in the stable so if your horse moves around you will get holes in his bed very quickly. Our muck heap is cleared regularly so don't see it rot down...but the farmer is happy to take it so no problem there.

If I'm honest, I think a nicely kept shavings bed is best...but it's a good backup and definitely prefer it to straw. Horse has also been on Easibed and I think it's better than that....so long as it's kept very clean.

Have read too that it can be worse than staw for mould spores if not kept clean so beware...
 
I do and I love it!

Use it on rubber matting and as long as I skip out regularly (easy as neds are at home) I can get away with leaving the wet for 3 or 4 days which makes it last longer. It`s so absorbant that the mats never get wet which keeps the stable pong free!

Better still, we have access to a commercial shredder so it`s free :-)
 
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