How Many bags to make a nice bed?

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peanutsmumma

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As the title says,.........How many bags of shavings make a nice starter bed?

I will be having stables for the first time in 15 years and I have no idea where to start!!

What shavings do people recommend? I was looking at New Flake as these seem to be the cheapest at £9
 
We use the lavender unibed - it's £7.50 where we are. 4 bags will give you a really decent bed. I like also putting a couple of bales of sawdust underneath to soak up the wee and dry out the poo which generally keeps much cleaner
 
Barklands said:
We use the lavender unibed - it's £7.50 where we are. 4 bags will give you a really decent bed. I like also putting a couple of bales of sawdust underneath to soak up the wee and dry out the poo which generally keeps much cleaner
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Is the unibed a chopped straw?
Where do you get sawdust from?
 
Yes, the lavender one is wheat straw. We just get our sawdust from our local feed shop, most places that stock shavings will also stock sawdust. Some people get direct from sawmills which is much more cost effective but have to be careful with what wood they are using.
 
You can also use straw or wood pellets instead of sawdust and you can use pellets and sawdust on it's own without shavings on top.

If you've got a couple of stables then I'd probably try a couple of different bedding types in each and see which you like best :)
 
Squeak said:
You can also use straw or wood pellets instead of sawdust and you can use pellets and sawdust on it's own without shavings on top.

If you've got a couple of stables then I'd probably try a couple of different bedding types in each and see which you like best :)
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How many bags of wood pellets would make a sufficient base layer?
 
i use champion, when i looked for answers to this question a lot of people had said 6 - 8…if id have put that many in there she’d have been burrowing like a hamster🤣🤣

4 makes a decent bed, i go for 3 because i don’t have bankings since the little madam paws them down🙈
 
I found 2 bags of shavings for a pony and 3 or 4 for a larger horse

Some people give messy horses a smaller bed but I’m not really sure how I feel about that.
 
Barton Bounty said:
Depends on the size of your stable, 6/8 sawdust or 4 shavings 🙂
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I was just going to say the same. It also depends on how big and deep you want the bed and if you have rubber matting underneath.

I start a new bed with 8 bags of wood pellets, half a bucket of water in each, then I think I put 6 bales of laysoft shavings on top (they aren't absorbant so the wet filters down to the pellets)

This sounds like a lot but my stable is approx twice the size of a regular stable and I'm building the bed directly onto a concrete floor and using the pellets to create a thick soft base to the bed. I deep litter. They bed is approx half of the stable size. (My horse is also larger than average)
 
I used 5 last time i used shavings but have now switched to caviera bedding as i found it cheaper. It isnt as 'open' as a shavings bed but i find it easier to work with and doesnt stick in his tail like shavings and the muck heap is smaller.
 
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