Done 5 million times, but, wood pellets?

[Damnation]

I am contemplating putting the 'oss onto Wood Pellets, and going out and buying 12 bags of them (I can get them for about £3.50 a bag!!!!). She is very wet and tramples the muck into her stable. On shavings, the wet just seems to spread through the whole bad.

How do you keep ontop of them? Does one bag a week really keep top up the bed and keep it a decent size? Even at 2 bags a week it works out at the same price as a bale of shavings that I would use once a week anyway. Is it easier to muck out? Is it quicker? Do y ou take out less?


Thank you

 

[Luci07]

I tried using pellets as a base with my big wet horse. I was very smug...for about 3 days then it all came through again. I ended up spending as much on pellets as I did on shavings and my bed looked worse. I much preferred the stability of a pellet bed and it is absorbent but it didn't save me any more time or money!

 

[Damnation]

I tried using pellets as a base with my big wet horse. I was very smug...for about 3 days then it all came through again. I ended up spending as much on pellets as I did on shavings and my bed looked worse. I much preferred the stability of a pellet bed and it is absorbent but it didn't save me any more time or money!

Thank you Luci07, as long as it doesn't cost me loads more than I don't mind too much, I'd just like something a bit easier to muck out! The shavings just move about too much which causes most of the mess!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

We use pellets underneath and shavings on top, works brilliantly for us, as I love a big fluffy bed with banks and a full pellet bed just doesn't do it for me .

We skip out daily, I bank everything up during the day when they're out and just take out any wet shavings that are on top. At weekends I then dig my banks up and take the wee out, all mine are mares so tend to wee in their banks. Usually pop a bag of shavings down a week and pellets maybe half a bag a week, however baby horse only has a bag of shavings ever two weeks and just a pellet top up at weekends! So pleased she outgrew her messy bedroom stage .

 

[Damnation]

Also is there a huge difference between horse pellets and stove pellets? Verdo do a version of each except the stove pellets are about £1.50 cheaper a bag!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Also is there a huge difference between horse pellets and stove pellets? Verdo do a version of each except the stove pellets are about £1.50 cheaper a bag!

Just the added VAT for horse ones , but you may want to check they don't contain anything toxic for horses as different woods might be used?

 

[Damnation]

Just the added VAT for horse ones , but you may want to check they don't contain anything toxic for horses as different woods might be used?

So if I actually buy the "stove" pellets, it is cheaper then the actual horse pellets but the exact same thing?

 

[Luci07]

We use pellets underneath and shavings on top, works brilliantly for us, as I love a big fluffy bed with banks and a full pellet bed just doesn't do it for me .

We skip out daily, I bank everything up during the day when they're out and just take out any wet shavings that are on top. At weekends I then dig my banks up and take the wee out, all mine are mares so tend to wee in their banks. Usually pop a bag of shavings down a week and pellets maybe half a bag a week, however baby horse only has a bag of shavings ever two weeks and just a pellet top up at weekends! So pleased she outgrew her messy bedroom stage .

I tried this. It made such logical sense but with a big horse (17.1 WB) who will drink 3 buckets of water plus 1 large bucket on the floor during the night, he just saturates my stable. I was hoping that I could semi deep litter and take the wet out weekly but he was just too wet. Previous horse would have been fine! I need a pretty thick bed too even on rubber as he likes to lie down.

 

[milliepops]

I have just got a new pallet of pellets, yay :lol:
It's SOOO much nicer than shavings. I have one filthy mare and one tidy one, but I just so prefer mucking out pellet beds. Quick and easy. No more hidden poos, no more digging around in shavings. I put about one bag in a week if they are out every day, or 2 in if they have to be stabled more.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I am contemplating putting the 'oss onto Wood Pellets, and going out and buying 12 bags of them (I can get them for about £3.50 a bag!!!!). She is very wet and tramples the muck into her stable. On shavings, the wet just seems to spread through the whole bad.

How do you keep ontop of them? Does one bag a week really keep top up the bed and keep it a decent size? Even at 2 bags a week it works out at the same price as a bale of shavings that I would use once a week anyway. Is it easier to muck out? Is it quicker? Do y ou take out less?


Thank you

I tried Verdo wood pellets after seeing allot of members on here suggest them. I placed them under the shavings, I found it made no difference and they were wet in the first place when you added water so they did not soak up enough pee and they were just thrown out with the rest of the bedding. It barely made any difference in time either, the bed looked dark brown and dingy. Mare trampled her poo round so made it darker and poo pellets were harder to pick up. Wont buy Verdo pellets again, as she is a big ID mare who is very wet.

In the end I have gone to Nordic and just put a sprinkling on the floor only so she has very little bed. Bedmarx did not work either, but works for the boy, so for me wood pellets were a waste of money.

Maybe if they created a pellet which you did not have to soak and then they soak up the pee it may work but with the pellets already wet they did not absorb any pee.

 

[HufflyPuffly]

I tried this. It made such logical sense but with a big horse (17.1 WB) who will drink 3 buckets of water plus 1 large bucket on the floor during the night, he just saturates my stable. I was hoping that I could semi deep litter and take the wet out weekly but he was just too wet. Previous horse would have been fine! I need a pretty thick bed too even on rubber as he likes to lie down.

I think as they're mares it helps as they tend to wee in their banks so I can semi deep litter their banks but the middle I can throw up and so keep everything cleaner. My oldie is less specific about where she wees so I go through a bit more with her, but the other two it works well . All mine are on rubber mats, the thick bed idea is for my benefit I'm a softy!

 

[HufflyPuffly]

I tried verdo wood pellets after seeing allot of members on here suggest them. I placed them under the shavings, I found it made no difference and they were wet in the first place when you added water so they did not soak up enough pee and they were just thrown out with the rest of the bedding. In the end I have gone to Nordic and just put a sprinkling on the floor only so she has very little bed. Bedmarx did not work either, so for me wood pellets were a waste of money.

Maybe if they created a pellet which you did not have to soak and then they soak up the pee it may work but with the pellets already wet they did not absorb any pee.

I put mine down un-soaked as they are not being a top layer so don't need to be soft for them.

 

[milliepops]

Maybe if they created a pellet which you did not have to soak and then they soak up the pee it may work but with the pellets already wet they did not absorb any pee.

I put mine in dry when topping the bed up I get Platinum Plus pellets which are a bit brighter and (I think) the most absorbant. They break down over the course of the week.

 

[MungoMadness]

I think you must be putting too much water in if they aren't absorbent? I put in Max half a bucket of water per bag and "soak" them for only a few minutes so all it does is break down the outer casing.

I personally think they are great, save me lots of time, effort and money

 

[C1airey]

Same here - 2 bags of unsoaked wood pellets in his wee patch, and then a big fluffy shavings bed on top. The wet rarely comes to the top. I skip the muck off the top during the week and every other weekend scrape back the shavings, cut the wet pellet layer out and replace with fresh pellets.

His bed is never damp and his stable never smells of stale wee. I love it!

 

[atropa]

Think you're adding too much water HGA. I put a mix of half soaked and dry pellets in, usually a bag a week, and add a bale of shavings once a fortnight and I have a decent sized, nice bed that takes maybe 10 minutes during the week to do.

 

[9tails]

Are you using Verdo? If so, good luck to you as it would take a non-peeing non-pooing completely static horse to keep them looking anything but mush. I've used many pellets and made the mistake of adding Verdo once, the bed was ruined within two days and I had to start again. I use White Horse Energy Platinum Plus pellets on their own, the bed is about 6-8 inches deep and I add one bag (soaked overnight) a week.

 

[Wagtail]

I start a bed off with around 8 bags. I space them out flat on the stable floor and put a U shaped slit in the top and pull back the flap and then use a third of a bucket of hot water poured into each. You can watch them fluff up really quickly if you use hot water. Then I use 2 bags a week to top up. I have never met a horse yet that can do with only one bag. I don't like the bed going brown, which it does if you only put in one bag a week. Some horses need three bags. I don't wet the pellets I use for topping up if they are White Horse Platinum, but some types, like verdo are better fluffed up first. I take out all the poo and just the really wet bits every day. Most days you don't need to remove wet.

 

[Damnation]

Thanks guys, very interesting insights into wood pellets!

Now to find a supplier local to me and not a half hours drive away.....

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Platinum plus, order online, buy by the pallet and they deliver

 

[Luci07]

Same here - 2 bags of unsoaked wood pellets in his wee patch, and then a big fluffy shavings bed on top. The wet rarely comes to the top. I skip the muck off the top during the week and every other weekend scrape back the shavings, cut the wet pellet layer out and replace with fresh pellets.

His bed is never damp and his stable never smells of stale wee. I love it!

Might try this route.. And not use Verdo ...

 

[eggs]

When I first put a wood pellet bed down I soak the pellets first. Thereafter I put a dry bag in every three or four days (so two a week) and mix them in with the existing bedding. I have deep beds of about 6-8 inches. I skip out daily and take out any wet that comes to the surface. It takes about 10 minutes per stable.

I prefer White Horse Platinum Plus or Arden Wood Five Star Professional. Aqua ax are also very good but are more expensive. Don't touch Verdo. I buy a pallet load at a time

 

[Lakota_Lizzie]

I use and love Liverpool Pellets... Literally 5 mins to do a stable. My gelding pee's for Britain and poo's in a corner, take out a bit of wet every other day... one bag for him a week, bed is still lovely and white and no smell! My mare likes to scoot all her bed into the middle and churn it all up, still quick to muck out, no waste as bedding falls through the fork, I just sieve through the heap and tidy. She will very rarely wee in her stable (has been on shavings and straw as well and done the same!) I do find her bed can get a little dusty for this reason so I use a watering can with an attachment to dampen it down once a week. She has a bag every 10 days put in along the banks. My muck heap is tiny and more or less just poop! I will never go back to anything else. Between the two I just about a small wheelbarrow every morning.

 

[C1airey]

Might try this route.. And not use Verdo ...

Umm... should I admit that I do use Verdo...?

 

[Merrymoles]

I do two geldings daily on pellets - one reasonably clean and one swamp monster. They get two bags of semi-soaked pellets as top up each week, with an occasional third bag if the swamp monster is particularly wet.

We usually add the pellets at the weekend - swamp monster on Saturday, mine on Sunday. I generally don't have to take any significant wet out of either until Wednesday, although swamp monster's bed can go downhill from mid-week on depending on how wet he is (and this week he's wet!). My horse tends to pee in one spot (in the middle though as he's a gelding) and I can generally just remove the wet spot and rake in some fresh pellets towards the end of the week.

We have changed pellets twice this year and I'm not sure what the new brand is (not one of the mainstream ones) but they are 15kg bags and working well.

Having mucked out all kinds of bedding over the years, I like the pellets for the lack of wastage and for the fact that, despite the fact that we have massive boxes, they stay put. The horses walk them forwards during the night but there are never any "bald" spots in the actual beds so it's just a case of sweeping them back into place. Easy to remove poo without any bedding and the wet more or less solidifies so can be lifted out as a lump.

 

[Fiona]

I just add a splash of boiling water from the kettle into a bag of pellets. Not too much. A pint maybe. Thats enough.

And the geldings bed gets some non soaked pellets too as he pees in the middle rather than the banks...

Fiona

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I put the amount they suggested and they barely swelled so added more. I was worried about putting non swollen pellets down in case the mare ate them and would swell in her stomach.

 

[Boysy]

I use Verdo and have done for a while but never use them wet and never on their own, I put a full dry bag under the pee spots in the ponies stables then put down a full Laysoft or BioSoft bed over the top. Skip out and only remove the wet when it starts coming to the top which a good while as I like deep beds. Best bit is no pee smell even in my very wet mares stable.

I actually dug out the boys stables this morning to get the wet out, been down around a month I think, one barrow of wet each, no ammonia smell, floor dried in 5mins and beds back down