Bedding

[chaps89]

What are we all using for bedding nowadays?
Last summer I used miscanthus but I found it really dusty and horses coat got really thick with grease and her scabby legs seemed to react really badly to it, so that's out.
Currently using shavings under straw, in the hope it would be cheaper than aubiouse and smell less than regular straw. But I still stink and even using cheap shavings I'm using a bag a week plus a bale of straw so it's no cheaper. So I think it's worth looking to change.
I've always been a wood pellet user and I'm highly tempted to go back to them, the only reason I'm dithering is from recent posts it looks like there's been a few supply issues and also even with watering the bed it gets very dry/dusty in summer.
She will be stabled at night all year round, has a huge stable which is fully rubber matted but is super wet and pees for Britain!
So what else is out there?

 

[SpringArising]

I've just tried Laysoft for the first time. I'm thinking about using a combo of Laysoft and shavings.

Pros:
It's cheap (about £6 for a 25kg bale)
No smell
Quite dense so once you've initially laid it down, you don't need much
Not dusty
Poo sort of sticks to it
Haven't had to fish out any wee yet - it lends itself to deep bedding quite well which is something I've never done before
Has that nice white look!

Cons:
I'm finding it really difficult to muck out as the chips don't fall though the fork so I'm wasting a fair bit
It's not THAT soft (they're tiny wood chips rather than shavings)

I think it's definitely better value for money than pellets and much cleaner than shavings. Shavings were costing me a fortune as I'd have to take the wet out every day and they just don't go as far.


I used pellets for about a year and while it was mega easy to muck out and relatively cheap, I didn't like that there wasn't any bounce to the bed, and they never looked white (which is a ridiculous reason, but...)

 

[Hallo2012]

mine are on semi deep litter shredded cardboard-i find it easy to work with but mine are VERY dry and tidy. bonus is my muck heap rots away as quick as i add to it!

I use a bag a week per pony.

theres barely any dust.

 

[Dyllymoo]

I use Snowflake Softchip and have done for 2 different horses for a few years.

I would say the pros and cons are similar/ same as Spring Arising's post about Laysoft:

Pros:
It's cheap (about £5.65 for a bale)
No smell
Quite dense so once you've initially laid it down, you don't need much
Not dusty (is when you put it down but sort of sets and is great)
Poo sort of sticks to it/ sits on the top
I "deep litter" for 1 week (slightly longer in the summer) in that I don't take wee out until then. If some surfaces I take it out but it must be a thick bed and stay like it as that's when it goes wrong and you end up having to put a lot of bales in a week!
I used 2-3 bales a week in the winter and I have been using 2 every 10-14 days recently now they are out longer.
It stays put and soaks up the wee quite well. It compacts down so doesn't move too much.

Cons:
It doesn't stay "clean" looking, even if it is. More so in winter, I think it absorbs the damp air and looks dirty, so I end up pulling some of the banks down over the week.
It's not THAT soft (they're tiny wood chips rather than shavings) but I don't think it makes a bad bed (I've laid on it)

 

[Leo Walker]

Straw pellets might work. They are slightly more absorbent than wood pellets but not dusty in the slightest. They are cheaper than shavings etc as well.

 

[chaps89]

Forgot about this thread, sorry.
It sounds like laysoft and softchip are quite similar and might be worth looking at if it's quite absorbent.

Cardboard is one I'd not considered at all, I've never seen it in use. She's very very wet, is it particularly absorbent? Just worried I'd get through a lot of it. Does it come in shreds (like when you put paper through the shredding machine) or is it more like chips/squares?

Do straw pellets have that awful straw smell?! I suppose if it's pellets you can semi-deep litter so not having to take the wet out so often. Are they like wood pellets in that you soak them pre-use? Are they even not dusty when it gets warmer and the bed dries out?! (Appalling grammar, sorry!)

 

[Leo Walker]

They are like wood pellets but you don't need to soak and they don't go dusty. No smell at all. I could muck 2 out in a few minutes. I was really impressed with them, and only stopped using them as I wanted her to have an actual straw bed to eat when the hay ran out. I used sun-e-bed.

 

[chaps89]

Interesting, so you just open the bag and put them down as they are? I'll hav3 a closer look, thanks

 

[Leo Walker]

Yeah, they are pellets made up of straw. You chuck them down and treat them like wood pellets. I genuinely had no dust at all.

 

[TPO]

I switched to Nedz Pro and loving it.

Previously used a base of wood pellets and then bedmax. I stopped with the pellets, as they are so dusty, and just used Bedmax before switching.

Nedz Pro is chopped rape seed and its coated with manuka honey & something else antibacterial and is treated to make it unpalatable. It is totally dry to the touch and dust free.

It's easy to muck out. The Pro version is supposed to be managed as semi deep litter and I think the original version is for full muck outs.

It's been so good that mum.has switched her two from pellets/shavings onto it too.

 

[chaps89]

That's the only reason I like straw at the moment, something for her to nibble when the hay runs out. I'll definitely take a closer look at those.

I like the sound of the nedz pro, particularly that it's supposed to be good for the skin as she suffers pretty badly from greasy scurfiness. I can't seem to find any photos of what it looks like particularly, from the photos on their site it almost looks a bit like chaff, short chopped and a bit fluffy?! Do the droppings mix into it and bits of bedding get stuck to it?

 

[TPO]

That's the only reason I like straw at the moment, something for her to nibble when the hay runs out. I'll definitely take a closer look at those.

I like the sound of the nedz pro, particularly that it's supposed to be good for the skin as she suffers pretty badly from greasy scurfiness. I can't seem to find any photos of what it looks like particularly, from the photos on their site it almost looks a bit like chaff, short chopped and a bit fluffy?! Do the droppings mix into it and bits of bedding get stuck to it?

I'll take a picture for you this afternoon. Its maybe 4cm long narrow stalks of straw. Its rigid pieces but soft to the touch if that makes any sense. No sharp or jaggy bits and zero foreign objects or random pieces found it unlike previous bedding material.

My horse is really clean and dungs in one corner so hes super easy to muck out. The bedding doesn't stick to the dung so my wheelbarrow is just dung and wet when I do a weekly big muck out.

Mums horses are disgusting. They bury their dungs and mix it through the bedding. Since switching to nedz theyve been 10x easier to muck out. The bedding is so fine that it's easy to seperate/shake on the fork.

When I'm doing the minging stables once I've taken out the heavy I just throw the bedding up the bankings and any wee bits of dung roll down separately.

Mum ropes my non-horsey dad into mucking out. Despite years of training he is really rough at it; probably on purpose. Even he has commented on how much easier it is to muck out and his standards have improved. Now I only need to take a quarter of a barrow out behind him instead of a full one!

 

[Steerpike]

I was looking at nedz bed for when I move, do you know if it's easy to get hold of, I've emailed the website just waiting on a reply.

 

[TPO]

I was looking at nedz bed for when I move, do you know if it's easy to get hold of, I've emailed the website just waiting on a reply.

A feed merchant 40mins away from me stocks it and I was going over in my wee lorry to stock up.

However I just bought 40 bales via efeed website, along with some feed, and the delivery charge was less than what I'd spend on fuel going myself so think that's how I'll continue to buy it.

 

[TPO]

 

[asmp]

I use Laysoft and rarely use a shavings fork. It’s much quicker to pick up the poo with gloves and a bucket. Mine takes quite a while as he box walks and kicks it all around but my friend’s horse who is also on it, is very clean and it takes a few minutes to do her. Can’t use it for our other horse as he likes to dig holes!

 

[chaps89]

I'll take a picture for you this afternoon. Its maybe 4cm long narrow stalks of straw. Its rigid pieces but soft to the touch if that makes any sense. No sharp or jaggy bits and zero foreign objects or random pieces found it unlike previous bedding material.

My horse is really clean and dungs in one corner so hes super easy to muck out. The bedding doesn't stick to the dung so my wheelbarrow is just dung and wet when I do a weekly big muck out.

Mums horses are disgusting. They bury their dungs and mix it through the bedding. Since switching to nedz theyve been 10x easier to muck out. The bedding is so fine that it's easy to seperate/shake on the fork.

When I'm doing the minging stables once I've taken out the heavy I just throw the bedding up the bankings and any wee bits of dung roll down separately.

Mum ropes my non-horsey dad into mucking out. Despite years of training he is really rough at it; probably on purpose. Even he has commented on how much easier it is to muck out and his standards have improved. Now I only need to take a quarter of a barrow out behind him instead of a full one!

Thankyou, this has been really helpful.
Can I ask a couple more questions please (sorry! I'm the world's biggest dither-er when it comes to decision making about changing something!)
How many bales do you use a week to keep the bed topped up and do you remember how many you used to set your bed up?
Does the bed get quite compact (or just wet patches?) Or stay fluffy?
Have you used it in summer/when it's dry and has it stayed not dusty? (It certainly looks very clean from the pictures - thanks for that, really helpful to get an idea of what it looks like)

 

[hopscotch bandit]

I'm using Thoroughbred 20kg shaving at £7.44 inc vat but no where near as good as the Metsawood Stable Choice which was £7.20 for 22kg. But metsawood stopped production over xmas until May

But even better was the Metsawood mega spread which i loved, again out of stock till May at the earliest.

 

[Auslander]

I've got two on wood pellets, one on chopped rape straw, and one on teabag paper. Had one straw pellet bed down to try, but the horse ate them like they were pony nuts!
Teabag paper is amazingly fluffy, and the COPD horse whose stable it is hasn't coughed once since being on it, but it's an utter arse to muck out
Wood pellets are my go-to. I hose them after mucking out in summer to keep the dust down, but wuldn't put the COPD one in there
Rapes straw is clean dry, easy to muck out and not dusty. My only beef is that if it's mucked out by someone else, I have to spend hours getting it back up to scratch the next day - and no-one bothers to sift it properly, so too much clean stuff comes out at weekends when the horses are DIY.

 

[chaps89]

Tea bag paper sounds interesting! I'd like to go back to an easy life though, fed up of spending ages mucking out straw (even though you can't see little bits in a straw bed I know they're there if I don't take them out!)
She doesn't have copd but does cough on dry hay and the thick film of dust on everything even though I was watering her bed most days is putting me off going back to pellets. But I am so tempted as they are so easy and she is so clean on them and even using 2 bags a week it didn't break the bank.
I think nedz bed and bedsoft bio are both chopped rape straw so that's the one I keep coming back to as that sounds like another vote. How do they manage to make such a mess of it if it's so easy to do!
Reviews seem mixed on the absorbency, really 1 extreme or the other. She is so very wet.

 

[TPO]

Thankyou, this has been really helpful.
Can I ask a couple more questions please (sorry! I'm the world's biggest dither-er when it comes to decision making about changing something!)
How many bales do you use a week to keep the bed topped up and do you remember how many you used to set your bed up?
Does the bed get quite compact (or just wet patches?) Or stay fluffy?
Have you used it in summer/when it's dry and has it stayed not dusty? (It certainly looks very clean from the pictures - thanks for that, really helpful to get an idea of what it looks like)

I think is used 5 or 6 to set it up and the stable is just over 12x12.

I use a bale a week to top it up although I'm going through a bit more just now because dad is "helping" with the mucking out during lock down bless him.

The wet patches get compacted. Once a week I lift the floor completely and take out the wet. If any wet rises to the top it just dig that one patch out.

The rest stays soft and fluffy.

I just started using it last year so I've not had a summer with it. It hasn't been dusty so far and even when I put a new bed down (mum just switched hers to it) it's not dusty.

I used dust extracted shavings before and the air was definitely dusty when laying a bed or putting a new bale down. The nedz pro hasn't been like that at all.

This was one of the stables yesterday before and after. Hes normally really tidy and does most of his droppings in one corner so it was messier than usual. You can see where some wet had been stirred up and birds had picked through a couple of droppings and broken it into wee fragments. I took out 3/4 of a barrow and that was mainly dung with a couple of wet patches.

 

[sherry90]

I use Swish bedding. It is precision chopped rape straw. I love the fresh version (smells like lemons and I deters flies) never dusty.
I used to use wood pellets but found these got exceptionally dusty in summer and never really appeared comfy or dry!
I use 3 bags a week for a very wet and dirty gelding. In summer I could get away with 2 a week but I still use 3 and he the. has an ultra comfy bed with huge banks!
I have also used Bliss in the past but found that the wet lifted to the top. With Swish I never see the wee surface and do a full muck out twice a week, every other day it is skipped out.

 

[chaps89]

Perfect.
I can't get straw pellets (not without buying a big pallet anyway, which is a bit of a gamble if I don't like them!)
And it seems like the chopped rape straw is getting the thumbs up from a few people.
Although I do hope I don't end up using 3 bags a week, that would be £30 (unless Swish is substantially cheaper than Nedz!)
I'm quite looking forwards to not stinking to high heaven every day, as well as cutting down mucking out time!

 

[sherry90]

Perfect.
I can't get straw pellets (not without buying a big pallet anyway, which is a bit of a gamble if I don't like them!)
And it seems like the chopped rape straw is getting the thumbs up from a few people.
Although I do hope I don't end up using 3 bags a week, that would be £30 (unless Swish is substantially cheaper than Nedz!)
I'm quite looking forwards to not stinking to high heaven every day, as well as cutting down mucking out time!

I think it’s just over £7 a bale but I’m not sure if you buy direct or in bulk, the fresh is slightly more but still under £8. Mine is a very messy boy though, most people only use 1 or 2 a week so don’t use my pig as a guide ?

 

[Dyllymoo]

following this. Nedz Pro looks amazing, but I'm not sure about £10 a bale. I have emailed Swish about their bedding but they don't have a stockist near me (and would need me to order 8 pallets of 48 bags each due to transport costs at £6.60 each bale). Maybe I could start selling it!

 

[TPO]

I think I paid £9.80 from the feedstore for Nedz pro.

eFeeds is £9.71 unless buying 40+ when its £9.50 (plus delivery)

I also ordered feed (cheaper than feed store) so the total delivery to Scotland was £13.50. I saved £12 on the bedding alone (bought 40) and at least £4 on feed plus didnt have to pay for the fuel to travel the 46mile round trip in the wee lorry to feed store.

 

[chaps89]

I think it’s just over £7 a bale but I’m not sure if you buy direct or in bulk, the fresh is slightly more but still under £8. Mine is a very messy boy though, most people only use 1 or 2 a week so don’t use my pig as a guide ?

Phew. Mine is messy on straw I'm finding, but on wood pellets she was always immaculately tidy, just very very wet hopefully the fact she doesn't churn it up will help!

Local stockist can get nedz bed pro for £9.50 or the pink biosoft (seems to be the same but a different sort of coating on the straw) for £9.
At the moment I'm using a bale of shavings (£7.50) and a bale and a third of straw (£4) a week. Pellets used to be 2 bags a week so about £10.
So if I can get away with a bale or a bale and a half a week then costs will be the same (or even a bit less!)/not too much more. I'd have to scrap it if I was using 2 bales a week though, but until I try it I won't know.
At least the cost of setting the bed up should be far less than pellets.

 

[sherry90]

Phew. Mine is messy on straw I'm finding, but on wood pellets she was always immaculately tidy, just very very wet hopefully the fact she doesn't churn it up will help!

Local stockist can get nedz bed pro for £9.50 or the pink biosoft (seems to be the same but a different sort of coating on the straw) for £9.
At the moment I'm using a bale of shavings (£7.50) and a bale and a third of straw (£4) a week. Pellets used to be 2 bags a week so about £10.
So if I can get away with a bale or a bale and a half a week then costs will be the same (or even a bit less!)/not too much more. I'd have to scrap it if I was using 2 bales a week though, but until I try it I won't know.
At least the cost of setting the bed up should be far less than pellets.

Your mare sounds tidier than my gelding. I was putting in x4 bags of wood pellets per week and still having a messy bed!

 

[PurBee]

Ive just switched to wood pellets....easier to muck out...i use large poo shovel and small hand shovel.
horses arent eating the pellets thankfully!
However, im wondering if they’re causing a reaction in my mare, her eyes are weeping...or is it coinciding with spring fly bites, being turned out more, more exposure to pollen?

I loved chopped rape straw, as its clean and bouncy bedding, easy to muck out, but my horses loved it too and ate a whole fresh laid top-up bag overnight between themselves, which gave them a mild lami and colic attack. These attacks were re-curring and coinciding with me laying new top up rape bedding and took a few bags before i figured out they were ingesting loads of it, and it was that causing the attacks.
I switched bedding and they recovered.
So if you have a horse prone to curious grazing of everything, get just 1 bag to try of the rapeseed before committing to a pallet load.

 

[TPO]

Nedz is coated in "something" to make it bitter tasting (according to the website, no personal experience!) so that they wont eat it.

When I first laid my bed Chip did nibble at it but spat it out again and because of who he is repeated that process another few times ??. The TB didn't bother his shirt about it.