Littlemax - Anyone Got Any Thoughts?

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Sorry bit of a dull question!

My yard have just changed so that you can't do your own bedding any more, and I was using just bog standard shavings (Royal Span). The YM uses Littlemax and I went through 15 bales last month as despite being very clean, he seems to be very wet and it's all being taken out. I was using 8-10 bales on the same routine before we swapped over to littlemax, so I am thinking that perhaps Littlemax just isn't as absorbent. Has anyone else found this?

I don't want to rock the boat and mention to YM that perhaps it isn't working without being fairly sure that there is a correlation.

 

[mini-eventer]

I found it not as absorbent as non branded shavings. Also the bales are slightly lighter. But it is less dusty if that is something to take into consideration. Could you get a few bags of wood pellets and just have a patch where his wet is? this worked really well for me with a wet one.

 

[TPO]

I like it and have found it very absorbant but...over the past month I've went through double the amount. All three horses have been much wetter. I've attributed that to the water content of soaked grass etc.

I've never known them to be this wet and Chip is usually really easy to keep clean.

I'm contemplating trying their strawmax pellets under little max. I hate wood pellets so I'm hoping the straw is different somehow?

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I found it not as absorbent as non branded shavings. Also the bales are slightly lighter. But it is less dusty if that is something to take into consideration. Could you get a few bags of wood pellets and just have a patch where his wet is? this worked really well for me with a wet one.

I have given this a go, but he pees right in the middle so it all the pellets get brought to the surface as he stands and drags his feet a bit, it actually results in him being messier than without them sadly.

I like it and have found it very absorbant but...over the past month I've went through double the amount. All three horses have been much wetter. I've attributed that to the water content of soaked grass etc.

I've never known them to be this wet and Chip is usually really easy to keep clean.

I'm contemplating trying their strawmax pellets under little max. I hate wood pellets so I'm hoping the straw is different somehow?

This is interesting! I did think it might be the grass water content, I did a bucket test as they have auto drinkers, and he's not drinking an abnormal amount. I don't mind paying for it all if he needs it, just thought it was a suspicious correlation with the change of bedding.

 

[mini-eventer]

I have given this a go, but he pees right in the middle so it all the pellets get brought to the surface as he stands and drags his feet a bit, it actually results in him being messier than without them sadly.



This is interesting! I did think it might be the grass water content, I did a bucket test as they have auto drinkers, and he's not drinking an abnormal amount. I don't mind paying for it all if he needs it, just thought it was a suspicious correlation with the change of bedding.

Based on my experience I would be suspicious. Are you able to try a couple of your old bales as a one off?

if 15 bales is for one horse that is a lot. I used 1 every 5-7 days for my 17hh he has a big bed and he's not particularly clean.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Based on my experience I would be suspicious. Are you able to try a couple of your old bales as a one off?

if 15 bales is for one horse that is a lot. I used 1 every 5-7 days for my 17hh he has a big bed and he's not particularly clean.

Definitely for one horse, and I know they have been going in as I can see when they're added due to the difference in colour (YM puts them in in the day). He wees in the middle so we end up taking out a lot of it, whilst he doesn't mulch it around, there just seems to be a lot of it. I think I might whack a couple of his old bedding bales in at the weekends and see if that helps

 

[SpeedyPony]

Just a thought- his stable hasn't developed a leak? I used to muck out for someone who had a small leak in her stable and there was always an enormous amount of wet in the bed.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Just a thought- his stable hasn't developed a leak? I used to muck out for someone who had a small leak in her stable and there was always an enormous amount of wet in the bed.

It does get a bit damp under the banks when it rains hard, but this is definitely wee

 

[TPO]

I went through 10 bales last month. Chip is usually really clean. I normally use 1 bale a week so it more than doubled

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

If a big horse is in overnight I would expect to use 2 bales of shavings a week but I do like mine big and white, maybe just ask if you can put a few in of your old brand every so often to keep cost down.

 

[[153312]]

Not a fan - don't like bedmax either! the wee just runs off it it seems. but Diva is filthy in the stable.
(she's a grey, of course she bloody is).

 

[beatrice]

We also have to use Littlemax, bedmax or strawmax.
October we went through circa 14 bales of little max and 4 straxmax (put this dry underneath). My mare is messy but has been particularly wet recently as have a lot of others on the yard.

I've swopped to a full strawmax bed with little max banks and that is proving more cost effective albeit i'm still using 3 strawmax and 1 littlemax a week.

 

[mini-eventer]

If a big horse is in overnight I would expect to use 2 bales of shavings a week but I do like mine big and white, maybe just ask if you can put a few in of your old brand every so often to keep cost down.

2 bales a week would give mine a lovely big clean bed. 15 a month is at least 3 a week

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

2 bales a week would give mine a lovely big clean bed. 15 a month is at least 3 a week

It is a lot which is why I am a bit alarmed by it, but then again if we are taking out a wheelbarrow of wet every day that's a wheelbarrow of shavings almost, so it wouldn't take many to equal removal of 2 bales + a week

 

[Nasicus]

Any reason why you can't use your own preferred shavings brand? I'd have thought it wouldn't matter that the wrapper looks like, they're both pine shavings, although I suppose if I was squinting at it I could just about see an explanation in the difference in flake size if I spent the time to do the mental gymnastics for that.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

2 bales a week would give mine a lovely big clean bed. 15 a month is at least 3 a week

Agree it is alot but I do think the most superior shavings are Hunter and megaspread they go so much further compared to everything else.

 

[Sossigpoker]

The very fine shavings will always be the most absorbent. The bigger the flake ,.the less absorbent it will be.
I love Little Max , mine is in over night and has about 2 bales a week,.I do like to keep the bed dry and at least a couple of inches.
The wee goes through the top layer and gets absorbed at the bottom. So as long as the bed is deep and dry enough, the surface will always be dry.
I don't like the really fine shavings as I find they go all over the place and clump.too much.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Sorry bit of a dull question!

My yard have just changed so that you can't do your own bedding any more, and I was using just bog standard shavings (Royal Span). The YM uses Littlemax and I went through 15 bales last month as despite being very clean, he seems to be very wet and it's all being taken out. I was using 8-10 bales on the same routine before we swapped over to littlemax, so I am thinking that perhaps Littlemax just isn't as absorbent. Has anyone else found this?

I don't want to rock the boat and mention to YM that perhaps it isn't working without being fairly sure that there is a correlation.

15 bales????


I was using Bedmax on my box rest mare while her feet were sore, she had max 2 bales a week ( occasionally 3 ) but she is on full box rest for months. Something does not sound right going through that much

 

[scats]

I never found bedmax any good, but I’ve never used littlemax.
15 bales is an awful lot! I use around 16 a month for 2 horses.
I have a filthy box walker who poos wherever she stands and then mulches it in, but even I get away with just 2 bags a week, with an occasional top up of an extra bag.

I can’t deep litter my box walker as just churns it up. After she’s had her brekkie, I muck out around her and chuck the bed up onto the back bank. Then she stands on rubber mats while I ride the other one. If I don’t do this, by the time I get back from riding, her bed is a black mulch.
Then she goes out and I put the bed back down. It’s a system that seems to be working quite well.

 

[DabDab]

Yikes, that is quite a lot of bedding. How much is yours turned out atm? I always find that everything seems to get disproportionately wetter if in the stable for longer than about 14 hours...as in, the relationship between time in and amount of wet seems to go non-liner after a certain point. Might just be my imagination of course, but could be something to do with once one bit of bedding gets saturated then the extra wet added starts to spread around much more.

Dabs was a 2-3 bale a week horse on a pure shavings bed, as he too was a pee-in-the-middler. An entire base of wood pellets was the only thing that worked with his bed. That reduced him to one bale of the top layer material per week.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

The only time I found BDMAX good is when they are going through laminitis foot pain or other foot pain. I put mine on Bedmax 2 months ago due to her check ligament pain and foot pain, she was obviously more comfortable on it,

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

Any reason why you can't use your own preferred shavings brand? I'd have thought it wouldn't matter that the wrapper looks like, they're both pine shavings, although I suppose if I was squinting at it I could just about see an explanation in the difference in flake size if I spent the time to do the mental gymnastics for that.

We have to now pay an equivalent price for 'x' amount of shavings per week included in the livery, plus then any additional on top. I think this is primarily due to storage space, although we were never given the proper reason for the change.

Thanks all - I'm glad it's not just me going mad! Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot I can do so I just have to pay, although I do have three shavings of the stuff I prefer in the car which I am going to whack in, see if that makes any difference to how much needs to be used this week. He is cirrently out from 7:30-4

 

[Surbie]

15 bales in a month is a huge amount, even with more stabling overnight.

I use miscanthus rather than shavings, with (easypack) straw pellets in the wee spot and get through 2 bags of straw pellets every 4 weeks, and 6-7 bales of miscanthus if my horse is brought in before he has his early evening wee...! So at a maximum that is 9 bales/bags per month and mine is quite wet at the moment.

My neighbour at the yard has 2 big horses (16.3 and 18.2ish) and the most she gets through is 2 bales a week for the wet mare and 1.5 for the huge but tidy gelding.

I'm contemplating trying their strawmax pellets under little max. I hate wood pellets so I'm hoping the straw is different somehow?

Admittedly a different brand, but the ones I use are slightly less absorbent than wood pellets (which we can't have on the yard now ) but ok. I get through a poo scoop of slightly expanded pellets a day.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I’ve not used Littlemax, but I found Bedmax to be spectacularly unabsorbent. I thought it was great to start with, but when horse pee regularly started to flood out under the stable doors despite a good layer of shavings in their day beds I stopped using it. I’ve never had that happen with any other brand.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

15 bales in a month is a huge amount, even with more stabling overnight.

I use miscanthus rather than shavings, with (easypack) straw pellets in the wee spot and get through 2 bags of straw pellets every 4 weeks, and 6-7 bales of miscanthus if my horse is brought in before he has his early evening wee...! So at a maximum that is 9 bales/bags per month and mine is quite wet at the moment.

My neighbour at the yard has 2 big horses (16.3 and 18.2ish) and the most she gets through is 2 bales a week for the wet mare and 1.5 for the huge but tidy gelding.


Admittedly a different brand, but the ones I use are slightly less absorbent than wood pellets (which we can't have on the yard now ) but ok. I get through a poo scoop of slightly expanded pellets a day.

That's interesting, the two big ones next door - when I was bringing my own bedding I only did 7-10 per month. I do think the YM is a bit liberal with her mucking out, that and the bedding not being that absorbant so it leaks out under all the bedding and makes it all wet. He really is tidy, poos along the back and then lays in it, and wees in the middle, he doesn't even mix it all up.

 

[maya2008]

I would put pellets under the wet spot and hope you can then stick to the minimum amount of bales included in the fee you're being asked to pay.

 

[Surbie]

That's interesting, the two big ones next door - when I was bringing my own bedding I only did 7-10 per month. I do think the YM is a bit liberal with her mucking out, that and the bedding not being that absorbant so it leaks out under all the bedding and makes it all wet. He really is tidy, poos along the back and then lays in it, and wees in the middle, he doesn't even mix it all up.

She doesn't use pellets either. The horses are out 5.30/6am-4.30/5pm year round so a little more than you.

Another friend has a 5yo 16.3 gelding who is genuinely disgusting - poos and wees in the front third, mulches it all in and lies in it. She doesn't get close to 15 bales a month for him - nearer 8-10. He's out 8am-4.30pm.

Has the YM got new staff? Or are they under significant time pressure so more is being taken out to get a clean bed more quickly? It must be costing you a fortune! And costing the YM more in muck heap removal.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I love bedmax but I also love small flake shavings so I expected a combination of the two to be brilliant, I wasn’t keen though!
Also as everyone else is saying we got through so much more than other shavings so switched back to cheaper shavings

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

We have to now pay an equivalent price for 'x' amount of shavings per week included in the livery, plus then any additional on top. I think this is primarily due to storage space, although we were never given the proper reason for the change.

Thanks all - I'm glad it's not just me going mad! Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot I can do so I just have to pay, although I do have three shavings of the stuff I prefer in the car which I am going to whack in, see if that makes any difference to how much needs to be used this week. He is cirrently out from 7:30-4

Don't they have a minimum amount of shavings you have to buy from them?

I was at a yard where yo made you buy at least 1 a week off them, and as long as you paid that you could put however many of what you wanted in your stable bought elsewhere.