Getting deep litter right?

dwi

dwi

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I have decided to try deep littering D on a combination of Bliss and pellets. I'm loving not having to lift the whole bed each day but feel a bit trampy. I couldn't help myself this morning, I dug down in to find the wet and now my bed smells where it was lovely and clean.

Any tips? Do you wait until you can see the wet? How do you dig it out without polluting the top layer?
 
Don't touch the bottom crust!!!!! Only take out the poo and the OBVIOUS wet. As soon as you break into the dark, stuff at the bottom you add oxygen and release all the ammonia - hence stinky bed.

I just take off the poo and the daily wee patch and keep chucking more bedding in on top. Honestly, if you keep your fasitidiousness nature under control you should never see the stuff at the bottom. You should only touch it on the big clean out (every three/six months). The whole point of deep littering is it builds up and up. My two have beds about a foot thick now - lovely toasty warm insulation and I never touch it.
 
Rather than deep litter, why don't you go for semi deep, thus only taking out once a week. If your horse is clean then that is the best option, in my opinion only though
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deep litter is deep! very deep! get ready for big dig out in spring!(tractor or digger?) Taking the base out every week is fine bit is neither one nor other! do what suits you and your horse! a forum does not have to deal with the wet or the smell!!
 
Deep litter done properly is just as inviting for a horse to lay down on and roll in. Just thought I'd let you know that I've had my deep litter bed down well over two and a half years and have NEVER had to take it up! It's about 9" deep and is the envy of the yard. But I would say that to get it really right you have to be generous with new shavings. I could get away with a bale every 6 days or even 7 but I add one about every 4 - 5 days and I'm SOOOOOO proud of my bed it breaks my heart to have to put Sunny in it sometimes!
 
I used to deep litter but the deep clean that I had to do when I moved yards was enough to make me think twice about doing it again, it took ages and it smelt disgusting. I'm trying to decide whether to do it again or use rubber matting (lucky enough to get it free) and put a normal sized bed on top and muck out properly daily, he box walks if he gets upset (if another horse goes out before him, if I'm 5 minutes late with his tea etc) so it's hard to get the base down and I don't want him to get thrush. He did used to have an amazing bed though. I used to take out the droppings and the loose wet on top then pat it all back down and add more dry, his bed was over a foot deep.
 
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