Does anyone not soak wood pellets?

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canteron

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I am using quite a thick bed of wood pellets for a box rest horse. In the high ‘pee’ areas I was thinking of putting some unsoaked pellets under a layer of soaked pellets in the hope it would make them more absorbent.

Crazy or feasible?
 
I’ve also got one on box rest. I use a mixture of wood pellets and shavings. I never soak the pellets but have to cover them quickly or he eats them.
 
I soak pellets to set up the bed but never soak the ones I add .I spread them on the bed then rake over thoroughly to mix them with the dry already activated one's and it tends to keep the bed drier. I do add a bale of shavings every week or two and again rake well into the pellets it makes a lovely fluffy bed.
 
i part soak new ones - just enough to roughen them up a bit. I used to put unsoaked ones in the wee spot, but discovered the hard way that they are very slippery if a horse tries to get up with its feet on the unsoaked patch!
 
I part soak for the base just so they start to go crumbly. Then add a bag of shavings a week. Then I just take the wet out when the pellets are fully saturated. Saves me so much time during the week and then I can do a thorough muck out on weekends.
 
Water runs down the back of my gelding's stable in heavy rain (so pretty much all this winter. ...) & i banked it with unsoaked pellets. That back bank will be dug out when the horses go out 24:7 which will be a delightful task.
 
Bionic Boy said:
I’ve also got one on box rest. I use a mixture of wood pellets and shavings. I never soak the pellets but have to cover them quickly or he eats them.
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He eats them? Wood?!
Would he eat them all up thinking theyre feed pellets?

Once ive used up my pallet of miscanthus i was going to try wood pellets as theyre more absorbing than miscanthus but concerned the horses might think theyre feed pellets....thought i was being paranoid! ..damn...wonder if ill get away with it!
 
I chuck them in dry and usually cover with either some other bed or some scrap hay. Very rarely pre-soak them, only if I'm starting a new bed :)
 
I sprinkle the new pellets onto the mats and cover them with the old bedding. I only damp them if I have let the bed get too thin.
 
I only soak them when i lay the bed down initially. After this i add them dry and mix them in. Daughter always damps them first, but as the pony wee's for Britain i dont think this is sensible, then again, she buys them so can do what she wants with them!
 
Not wood, but straw pellets and wood shavings.

I put a base of pellets in unsoaked and cover over with some existing bedding (usually a combo of broken down pellets and wood shavings used initially to establish the bed). Seems to work well for us.
 
i used to always put them in unsoaked in the patch where my gelding would wee

however now own a new gelding who eats them if they go in unsoaked! and even when he gets a mouthfull works out its not food spits it out, he still goes back for more!!
 
Mine has a bag of unsoaked every Saturday in his pee spot. I cover it over with older stuff. Over the week the unsoaked pellets gradually get soaked by Archie! Every other week I also add a bag which I soak. I always add that to the left hand side of his bed - the 'clean' side and push the older bedding over to the right to cover up the pellets so that it all gets nicely rotated and the clean side doesn't end up all dusty by being left too long. There's a method to my madness.
 
I don't soak. I have quite a thick layer and sort of deep litter. I just take out poo piles as and when and rake dry over wet area, and then clear out the impacted wet area when it is big enough (or run out of dry to rake over). At that point I then mix in 2 or 3 bags of pellets in with the remaining bed and start again.
 
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