Pellet Bedding Maintenance

[Velvet turner]

How do you muck out and maintain your pellet bedding? I am moving back to straw pellets for my 2 mares and not sure how best ot manage them. Previously i have loved the ease of mucking them out but struggled with the wet patches. How deep do you have the beds? I will soak them before putting them in.

 

[Sandstone1]

From experience with both wood pellet and straw pellet bedding I would start with about 10 bags soaked. Then daily remove the poo. maybe weekly remove the wet patch and add another bag or two. I like them for wet horses but they do not look the nicest and can be dusty.

 

[meleeka]

I too found it easiest to remove the wet every couple of weeks at least, or I ended up with a mound in the middle.

 

[Aimzz]

When my mare was on just straw pellets, I skipped out poo daily and would lift out the wet typically once a week, but if there were clear wet patches or it smelled bad, I'd do it more frequently of course. I'm lucky she only wees in one spot really.

I did make sure I started out with a deep bed, I can't remember how many bags I'd used, but I'd hazard a guess at about 10. It's a large stable.

I've actually just switched to wood pellets with miscanthus chop on top. Hoping that will suit her!

 

[Birker2020]

I started with 2 bags at a time for one week, on top of rubber matting but under 4" - 6" shavings. We soon began to realise that was too much for the area of stable so reduced it to one. It onky has to cobmver a four foot area where he tends to wee. Obviously if its just pellets yiu are using you will need more.We soak ours in a wheelbarrow then when its well soaked we apply it onto of the rubber and tread it well down.

We then add shavings on top. After probably three days the pellets start popping their 'head' through the shavings and then the pellets are 'skimmed off' and some of the clean bank shavings put on top of the small crater left. It's probably only about two or three inches of wet.

Lari is quite light on his feet so my bed rarely gets mangled, Bailey was another matter and he used to practically skate his hands through the surface and poo for England. We never got to trial pellets with him, they weren't in such popular use back then.

The only disadvantage I find is that when the pellets do come through the top of the bed they are extremely urine soaked so do smell a lot and its an art to pick them out without spreading to the rest of the bed, if you are careless or too much in a rush it's not good.

A bag of pellets (15kg) lasts me two weeks in Summer, one week in winter. Shavings bale once every 7- 10 days Summer and in winter when condensation, dripping rugs and more time in the stable usually mean a bale every 5-7 days. This is for a 680kg 17hh horse.

I used a snow shovel and cannot use anything else, never have, never will.

 

[Fjord]

I used to make a deep bed, then poo pick daily. Wet would be taken out when it was visible, which ended up being every few days. I probably put in one to two bags a week, depending on how thoroughly I was cleaning out. As long as there was still a clean surface, I didn't always dig down to the wet, but would generally go through the whole bed once a month. I was using wood pellets mainly, although did switch to straw pellets for a while. They worked well but didn't look as night, but we're cheaper. I did find them all very dusty though.

 

[Birker2020]

I used to make a deep bed, then poo pick daily. Wet would be taken out when it was visible, which ended up being every few days. I probably put in one to two bags a week, depending on how thoroughly I was cleaning out. As long as there was still a clean surface, I didn't always dig down to the wet, but would generally go through the whole bed once a month. I was using wood pellets mainly, although did switch to straw pellets for a while. They worked well but didn't look as night, but we're cheaper. I did find them all very dusty though.

Yes mine are very dusty in the warm weather. Probably better being a winter bedding material.

 

[Squeak]

I like a proper deep bed even though I have rubber matting, then I do the same as others and take the poo out daily and take out the wet when it comes through, usually once or twice a week, if the bed is dry though I mix it in.

I'd always complained about the pellets being a bit dusty in the summer but they're easy to damp down with a hose, where my shavings bed is horrendous this summer and more dusty than pellets have ever been and you can't damp it down. I've always been a convert to straw pellets though.

 

[mariew]

With my old horse i.used wood pellets as they were a relatively inexpensive option. Only took out the wet a couple of times per year but holy money that was a big job! It did make for 5 minutes to muck out on a daily basis though and a really nice firm bed. Not sure I would do the same again as they seem much more expensive now.

It is not a great option for those who want to take wet out on a daily basis and have pristine white looking beds, unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money

 

[BSL2]

I used wood pellets. First time a well known high end brand. Not too bad. A bit dusty. Made a major boo boo following year. Hay supplier was stocking wood pellets. That was the year I got pneaumonia. I swear it was down to pellets that were sold for bedding, but were meant for wood burners. Please be careful. Choose your pellet brand carefully. There is a big difference.