Bedding.. wood pellets

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cashell

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I started using woodpellets Back in december for my 3 horses and absolutly loved it. The thing is with the woodpellets because they absorb so much im finding them very heavy, My 2 younsters beds aren't too bad but my older mares stable is now saturated every morning and the bed isn't drying out at all and im having to put new bed im every 3 days.

For those of you who use woodpellets, how many bags a week do you use per horse?, how do you muck your stable out? do you throw it up every day or deep litter (just take the poo out)?

I throw mine up every day but i feel like i'm going wrong somewhere?
 
Daily I skip out droppings, then mix the top wet bedding with dry pellets (in theory the dry pellets then fluff up from the wet pellets and it all drys out a bit, hence why you only water a new bed and not every time you add a bag). I then take out the wet once a week.
 
When we used them we were told to lay the bed and wet it slightly, NOT to lift the bed daily but you get used to where they pee, you only need to remove the pee when it sort of goes hard in a patch, you then put the new bag in that patch don't wet it just mix it in slightly with the surrounding bed, but try not to disturb the bed elswhere, for the first week we mixed the pee in, sounds gross but it didn't smell and just made the bed fluff up, obviously it can only absorb as much as it can absorb so it comes to a point where you have to remove the wet.

I would think by lifting it you are making it worse
 
Thats the thing though when she wees it makes her WHOLE bed wet literally squidges under my feet. I did try leaving it down and just removing the droppings but it became so compact and thin and wouldnt absorb so her stable was all wet. When i throw it up now I mix the wee into any dry. I'm going to try adding a dry bag without wetting it first next i think ive been wetting every bag!! oooops

Thank you ladies :)
 
What pellets do you use Cashell?

Some are more absorbent than others. The best ones are made from virgin softwoods, the cheaper fuel grade ones are usually waste wood and not as absorbent. Also the better ones are of a more suitable particle size to help absorbancy.
 
If your bed is thin then that's most of your answer. The bed needs to be thick enough to absorb the pee especially if she has Niagra Falls amount of pees and it needs to be left in place, tossing up like shavings just does not work with pellets at all (I found out the hard way!) I do my beds exactly the same as NG and have never had any problems but the beds must be thick to start with even if they are on mats; tbh, 2 inches deep is nothing, I'm not surprised you're pulling your hair out, they need to be at least 4 inches to start with and just add on top - and leave where it is! My beds are only just over the back half of the boxes, it doesn't have to be down to the door which in itself is a big saving as I only need to use two bags a week normally unless they have to stand in for some time. I've found they do get far messier if they're not out all day compared to say if they were on shavings or straw even if they're skipped out regularly.
 
I have 2 on pellets- 1 just has the poo skipped out daily and the wet dug out every 2 weeks or so (gelding) and my mare has the whole bed lifted every day and the less wet stuff mixed through. Big chunks of wet are removed every day because she pees in the same spot every time and ends up with a hill in her stable :) Gelding gets 4 bags in a month, he's only little, mare gets a bag when she needs it, could be 1 a week could be 2.
 
cashell said:
Thats the thing though when she wees it makes her WHOLE bed wet literally squidges under my feet. I did try leaving it down and just removing the droppings but it became so compact and thin and wouldnt absorb so her stable was all wet. When i throw it up now I mix the wee into any dry. I'm going to try adding a dry bag without wetting it first next i think ive been wetting every bag!! oooops

Thank you ladies :)
Click to expand...

You only need to wet it initially, I would put the pellets in unsoaked when adding a bag to the bed in the hole you've mucked out pee from, difficult with a mare though as they can pee anywhere where as geldings are usually in the middle of the bed
 
I started the bed with 8 bags she only has a bed at the back not the whole stable her bed is at least 6 inches thick I just dont know what the best approach is, I love it but i'm still learning with it so trying to get some tips on the best way to go about it. Even my dad cant understand why its so wet... maybe she has a weak bladder after her babies LOL i'll definitly put some in unsoaked and maybe try leaving the bed down again the only reason i throw it up now is because its been so wet her whole stable has been soaked so I like it to dry out a bit.
 
Stop throwing it up. Let the base settle and become solid, the wet will go down there and stay locked in. Then just worry about the top 3 inches of bed and take out wet when it comes to the surface. Get out any stray hay from the bed too, this seems to make it wetter.

I've been on pellets for 3 years, my bed (back half of the stable like yours) is over a foot thick. Dry as a bone with 2 x 10kg bags added weekly, though I do add my pellets slightly damp because I want them to start breaking down before she starts pooing on them.
 
I know this is probably stating the obvious, but is it definitely her thats wetting it so much?
When I bought my young lad, I couldnt understand why his bed was always soaking wet, turned out, he was playing with his water bucket, (he wasnt tipping it over so it wasnt obvious to me) but he was splashing the water around each night. Got a tyre for his water and voila, nice dry bed.
Or could their be a leak?

I definitely wouldnt keep throwing it up, Ive been going through mine taking the wet out every Saturday.
 
RubysGold said:
I know this is probably stating the obvious, but is it definitely her thats wetting it so much?
When I bought my young lad, I couldnt understand why his bed was always soaking wet, turned out, he was playing with his water bucket, (he wasnt tipping it over so it wasnt obvious to me) but he was splashing the water around each night. Got a tyre for his water and voila, nice dry bed.
Or could their be a leak?

I definitely wouldnt keep throwing it up, Ive been going through mine taking the wet out every Saturday.
Click to expand...

I was wondering this, its strange the whole bed is wet
 
Yes its defiantly her stables are new with no leaks and waters always in disturbed other than what she drinks she is a very wet horse I will try leaving it down again and see what happens thanks for the help people :)
 
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