Bedding....what are the options?

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phaseone

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Help! A bale of shavings has gone up to £8 each and I don't know what to do!

Don't want to go back to straw due to health problems, so....what options are there?

I am from Yorkshire and heard last year that, with us getting three new power stations to be run on ecofriendly lines, consuming shavings and paper and so on, the cost of shavings would rise. The cost has certainly risen from £5 this time last year to £8 now and is expected to rise again.

Any suggestions please?
 
Do you use rubber matting, I have found at the moment that I am able to use less shavings than normal. I used to still lay quite a bit but with the prices it is getting costly.

You could try using a different brand.

At the moment we can't even get snowflake, noone is getting any in so having to use Soft bed or Easy bed. Bedmax is okay but with thearger flakes there is a lot of clean wasted.
 
I used bedexcel (ecobed) and shreadded paper from work diluted with shavings. It works very well and I only use 1 bag of shavings a week, sometimes less.

Like you, i cant use straw as it makes my horse cough.

I am not a fan, but have you considered deep liter?

There is bedding on the market made of hemp stalks, might be worth looking into that. I think its called hempcore or something like that.
 
Shredded paper can be half the cost of shavings and much better than other types of bedding as economical, v absorbent, no ammonia smell and no dust. One disadvantage is it tends to blow about but i put up with it as its a good bed for my horses, just means i have to sweep more. Only problem with the wood pellets is most makers recomend to take out the very wet patches and mix rest of wet in to bed. Basically you end up mixing urine into the bed which i dont think can be very hygienic. You need liquid to make the pellets fluff up, ok if just water but ammonia and bacteria from urine not great for feet or respiratory system.
 
I tried shavings hated it, used Bliss instead which worked well. This year though my sister bought some really clean straw. My horse has a really bad cough normally and hasn't coughed once this winter on the straw. So don't write straw off totally if you can find nice bales.
 
My horses are on rubber matting with wood pellets, I take the wet out everyday. Its great. Doesn't smell, v absorbent and not dusty at all.
 
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I got my bedding from Corley Bio-Wood, i used LWP before , but found these cheaper, £2.39 a bag. When they arrived, they were the same as LWP pellets. Was well happy. They have a website to, it was www.corleybiowood.co.uk

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They have a website, or you have a website?
 
They have, was just trying to be helpful!!
I used to be on Sundown green, but couldn't get hold of it. Think that was similar to Bliss??
 
Wow, some good suggestions! I'll check the links out.

I don't use matting at the moment but am considering this. Friends have suggested using good quality straw but I am a little nervous about this because I used to get bad as well as good delivered.

Interestingly, re hemp. I used to use hemcore after my vet recommended it when my horse had laminitis. I was told today that the storks are barbed and can travel into the horse's frog! Anyone else heard this?

Thanks very much for your responses.
 
I use the corley biowood pellets and have found them great! Nice people to deal with who delivered them personally as they were in my area visiting and even loaded up the bags!

It does take a bit of getting used to butworks really well with my v. dirty mare!!
 
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