Bedding!!!!

[BenvardenRach2]

I know this has probably been done to death!
I’m currently on wood pellets which I really like but we have to buy them off the YO and they’re currently £6 a bag... new supplier and bags are getting smaller but price going up... I normally use 7/8 bags a month on average to maintain his bed it’s fairly small - so around £50 a month on bedding which I would ideally like to cut down.

He doesn’t lie down much and I like to keep his bed fairly deep to soak up his super wetness!

Do shavings work out cheaper or not?
No to straw, it smells so so bad because he is so wet and doesn’t soak up!

Thank you!

 

[milliepops]

can't you get your own delivery of pellets? I find them the cheapest bedding by far when bought by the pallet.

 

[BenvardenRach2]

can't you get your own delivery of pellets? I find them the cheapest bedding by far when bought by the pallet.

YO wants us to buy them from her .. but also I have v limited storage at the yard no room for a pallet and couldn’t even have them delivered at home as our drive is not accessible at all

 

[milliepops]

that's a shame. I have them delivered to the inlaws and fetch them from their shed so I sympathise on the no access thing!

 

[Myloubylou]

Shavings are about £8 & you’d need 6-8 a month to get deep bed. I personally find them hard to muck out on. I am currently on flax, cheaper & take out less so using one a week

 

[mavandkaz]

Could you do wood pellets under straw? This is what I do and use a bag of wood pellets every 10 days or so, sometimes can do 1 bag a fortnight. Also use very little straw as just lift the poo off the top and the pellets absorb all the wet

 

[webble]

I am a pro bed convert for my v wet boy.Use approx 6 bales a month £6.50 a bale

 

[ihatework]

Unless you have a particularly clean/dry horse I can’t imagine being the cost for shavings or other chopped bedding being less than wood pellets.
I would generally budget on 2 bales a week for most normal horses and even buying rape/miscanthus in bulk it’s over £6 a bale

 

[hopscotch bandit]

We are getting ours for around £7 per bale, including VAT and free delivery.
These are for 22kg compressed dust extracted white wood shavings, from a building supply company near my yard.

This is the cheapest I could find for the weight and spreadable volume. Yes there are bales out there that are £4 - £6 but they are only 18 kg.
I have no experience of wood pellets personally although I know a few people who are on them and swear by them. They always look dirty to me, but I'm sure they aren't, its just the colour that's a bit off putting.

 

[twiggy2]

I used to get free white sawdust from a woodyard and use that as deep litter and slightly dampened, I had a straw bed on top.
Worked really well, added hardly any sawdust after laying a really deep bed initially.
I could not use pellets as apparently ALL pellets are edible, even the ones buried in the corners hidden from view she used to dig up to eat.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I saw straw pellets at YHL and they looked better than wood pellets. Particles were larger and they certainly didn't look as dusty. I think it worked out a £4 a bag and they recycle the bags so you get money back when you send them back in a pre paid envelope which makes it even cheaper. I'm seriously considering switching from shavings for the winter or using it as a base layer so I use less shavings.

 

[9tails]

Your YO is making £1.50 per bag on your wood pellets, but even with that mark up if your horse is as wet as you say they're cheaper than shavings. You could try shavings over the top to give the impression of a deep fluffy bed so the pellets underneath will soak up the wet. Give it a go,see if you save on wood pellet bedding over the course of a month.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Having had someone stay over (ok, their horse) and they left me a deep bed full of good quality shavings which I recycled to my stables and shelters, I now remember why I don't use them anymore... ruddy things blowing about, stuck on rugs, ponies etc, stuck to yard....

Used to use Eco Comfy Bed, when that ceased I swapped onto Miscanthus (Burley Bed or Easy Pack, supplier permitting) and 5 years on I still wouldn't change

 

[OdinsMum]

I was on wood pellets at my previous yard but decided to go on to shavings when I moved. One of my boys is really wet in the stable and I put one bale down every other week so it has worked out better for me in the long run, I find happy horse beddings shavings to be the best for me.

 

[Sandstone1]

You can get wood pellets at pets at home. Could you get 4or 6 bags at a time?

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I know this has probably been done to death!
I’m currently on wood pellets which I really like but we have to buy them off the YO and they’re currently £6 a bag... new supplier and bags are getting smaller but price going up... I normally use 7/8 bags a month on average to maintain his bed it’s fairly small - so around £50 a month on bedding which I would ideally like to cut down.

He doesn’t lie down much and I like to keep his bed fairly deep to soak up his super wetness!

Do shavings work out cheaper or not?
No to straw, it smells so so bad because he is so wet and doesn’t soak up!

Thank you!

I been through so many bedding for my wet mare

shavings P I T A to muck out Very wasteful take two barrows out a day bed wet and got thinner by the end of the week despite two bales going in
bedmax waste of time, not absorbing
wood pellets hated them, needed so many once wet they would not soak up anymore
I settled on aubiose easy to muck out, 3/4 - 1 barrow a day, nice drier bed

 

[BenvardenRach2]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies, always good to hear what everyone’s using and why !
It’s such a mindfield, he is such a messy bugger and wet ... so doesn’t make life easy!
I think trail and error may be the next move, I do really like the woodpellets maybe a layer of shavings ontop will give him a cosier bed but still absorb a decent amount!

 

[tiahatti]

Does it have to be shavings or wood pellet? I used to get chopped straw. I wasn't expecting great things when I tried it but I really liked it. I used Easy Pack.

 

[Dyllymoo]

I use Snowflake Softchip. I used it for my mare as she was very wet and her stable was less than 12 x 12 so it made sense to have the whole stable as her bed. It was the only bedding I tried that didn't really move, the wet stayed in place. I would leave the wet in during the week and take out at the weekend, I would use between 2 and 3 bales in the winter (1 or 2 in the summer) and at £6 each it was better than the 3 or 4 hunters at nearly £10 each a week!

It doesn't look "clean" after a few days (it seems to go dark due to damp air) but I cant fault how firm it stays really

 

[foxy]

I use megasorb with shavings on top and once the bed is made I prob use 1 bag of each every 3 weeks and this is for the one that is really wet, another who is really clean its prob every 4/5 weeks and the beds never look dirty nor wet and don't smell either

 

[hopscotch bandit]

I use megasorb with shavings on top and once the bed is made I prob use 1 bag of each every 3 weeks and this is for the one that is really wet, another who is really clean its prob every 4/5 weeks and the beds never look dirty nor wet and don't smell either

I used Megazorb once to see how it absorbed wee under shavings and was impressed but it was expensive alongside shavings and I wouldn't have used it on its own.

 

[itsokboah]

We have rubber mats down and get through 4 bag sawdust and 4 bag shavings p/month. The mats have really reduced the amount of bedding we have to use as it doesn't need to be as deep.

 

[beingachicken]

Shavings are about £8 & you’d need 6-8 a month to get deep bed. I personally find them hard to muck out on. I am currently on flax, cheaper & take out less so using one a week

I’ve recently tried flax and loved it. I used the one by Aubiose and it was quite expensive at £9 something for what looked a tiny bale. However on tipping it out there was loads in it and it was so absorbent I stopped taking the wet out daily as it was a waste of time digging for such a tiny patch!
unfortunatly the store near me stopped selling it, they now stock the cheaper bigger baled super green flax. No where near as good and my horse ate it so I’ve stopped using but if you can get Aubiose flax I’d highly recommend. They say most people get away with half a bale a week, which I found true easily

 

[foxy]

I used Megazorb once to see how it absorbed wee under shavings and was impressed but it was expensive alongside shavings and I wouldn't have used it on its own.

Its not that much more expensive than shaving and I use shavings on the top and as I only have to top up every 3/4 weeks it doesn't work too bad plus it doesn't take as long to muck out and when you have 3 every bit of time saved helps especially in the morning before work! Before I switched I was using 2 bags of shavings a week