Shavings to straw change? Undecided ...

[Greylegs]

Having just moved the hairy highland to a new yard, I am paying silly money to keep him on the same shavings bed he was on in the old yard (shavings on top of rubber matting). However, the current yard offers unlimited straw bedding for an extra £10 per month - as opposed to me using 5-6 bales of shavings per month at £8 + per bale. It's not a huge saving on the face of it, but have been tempted make the change.

What stops me is that my highland is totally food focussed and I'm afraid he will just hog himself on his bed and make himself ill. The new yard offers unlimited hay or haylage as they believe in feeding ad hoc forage and he gets enough to keep him munching over night (significantly more than at the old yard!) so I'm hoping that the abundant hay will prevent him from eating his straw. I have never used straw bedding before so am nervous about making the change, but am wondering if my nervousness is misplaced and whether a bit of clean straw won't really do him any harm.

Should I just start using straw and see how it goes, of stick with the shavings? Any advice would be very welcome.

 

[PolarSkye]

I'm a huge fan of straw . . . Pops eats his (well, nibbles really) if there is no hay or haylage in his stable (because I haven't got round to putting it in/have put him in first because I'm short of time) but otherwise doesn't touch it and I keep his bed scrupulously clean so it's not like the straw is manky and therefore unpalatable. It's (relatively) cheap, makes a lovely deep, cosy bed and smells heavenly when it goes down.

Having the odd snack on his bed has done Kal no harm at all . . . and I do think he rarely does it because I don't notice his bed depleting and I feed him pretty much ad lib (hay and haylage).

I would give it a go.

P

 

[bakewell]

Mine quite regularly help themselves to their bed, and I sometimes use chopped straw in their hay if it's a bit rich/ off the wrong field.
No harm done at all. Poops unaffected.
I have taken to putting a bit of wood pellets in their favourite wee patch to give a bit of longevity/ freshness but that's more to do with the chosen site and slope/ pitting of our floor.

Makes the manure heap much more desirable to gardeners too!

 

[kobi]

I would remove the rubber mats where the straw bed will be and just keep mats down where there won't be any bed. Rubber mats plus straw = soggy, smelly yuk.

 

[Rouletterose]

Only have the rubber mats at the front and then a lovely thick deep straw bed on the floor. Nothing like a thick deep straw bed with high banks, I have two on straw and I wouldn't go back to shavings. Straw is so easy to muck out too, I remember wet shavings being so heavy. Then there's the saving on costs, I would say at least half the cost for a good straw bed.

 

[Greylegs]

Thanks all. Think I might put a bit of the straw on the floor in his stable overnight with his regular forage nets to see if he does actually eat it ... Which I suspect he will!! Or I could ask one of the other owners, who use straw, if I can put him in their stable for an hour to see how he reacts to the new floor covering. For the £40-50 per month saving I don't want to risk poorly tummies, but I suspect I'm over thinking the whole thing. 😄

 

[ljohnsonsj]

I moved my 3 big mucky mares off my old yard where they was on shavings (and costing me an arm and a leg for a bed that never seemed to stay clean) to where i am now where straw is included. I had a terrible hatred for straw because everywhere i have been it always stunk! However i have straw ontop of mats now, they have it pretty much totally emptied every day, left up for the floor to dry and bedded down on a night and i love it. Much cleaner than shavings! And my tb's terrible feet are looking 100% better on straw. So i am a convert Yes mine eat it too because they are greedy so and so's! But they are all fine and clean

 

[NellRosk]

Thanks all. Think I might put a bit of the straw on the floor in his stable overnight with his regular forage nets to see if he does actually eat it ... Which I suspect he will!! Or I could ask one of the other owners, who use straw, if I can put him in their stable for an hour to see how he reacts to the new floor covering. For the £40-50 per month saving I don't want to risk poorly tummies, but I suspect I'm over thinking the whole thing. ��

I don't think you'll have a poorly tummy, last winter I fed my horse haylage and straw 50/50 because my yard only had haylage and he's a greedy ID. The yard I'm at now has straw and he decimates his bed most nights and is 100% fine. As long as he has regular turnout and is moving about and keeping things moving gutwise he shouldn't have any impaction colic.

 

[chocolategirl]

Big fan of straw though 2 of mine have to be on shavings due to dust allergies but the other 3 are on straw. Been using straw beds for over 40 years with no problem and if I had my way all of mine would be bedded down on it! It's also no coincidence that a lot of professionals use straw and I read somewhere that in Germany it's virtually all that's used. Don't know how true that is TBF.

 

[be positive]

Thanks all. Think I might put a bit of the straw on the floor in his stable overnight with his regular forage nets to see if he does actually eat it ... Which I suspect he will!! Or I could ask one of the other owners, who use straw, if I can put him in their stable for an hour to see how he reacts to the new floor covering. For the £40-50 per month saving I don't want to risk poorly tummies, but I suspect I'm over thinking the whole thing. ��

He probably will eat it if you just put in a small amount, novelty value as much as anything but no reason to expect him to gorge once he is bedded on it properly as long as he gets plenty of hay just picking through the straw should cause no issues and may be beneficial if he does run out of hay overnight he will have something to nibble at.
I use straw for mine and have no problems even with the ponies who get restricted hay they are happy enough to eat some straw but are never hungry enough to gorge and get colic, usually it is the first night they eat it so make sure he has plenty of hay so he is not eating too much, once the bed has settled most will not be fresh so less to eat, give it a week or two and see how it goes once the novelty wears off.

 

[tallyho!]

I am aware that horses colic on straw and that is really sad, however, wheat straw is actually the best straw to feed if you want to feed straw or use as bedding. Oat straw has little hooks and not as 'safe' but people prefer to feed it.

Anyway, that was just an aside.

Up until this year, I bedded on straw. No mats though (very smelly and yukky) just deep littered. And i mean DEEP littered. The bed would build up over a number of weeks once they came in at night until it got to the stage where the horse could dig to Australia if she wanted but the bed didn't move. I only removed poo which was easy, and removed wet in the spring! That was quite a task but at lest I only got smelly once a year and it's a great workout lol! It was about a foot deep and toasty warm from the heat the underneath of the bed. You couldn't really smell it and it was tested by taking non-horsey people round and they said "doesn't smell as bad as I thought!". We all did this as it worked so well and the deep littering stopped wee from running under doors and on to the yard.

She was quite greedy and ate the straw but I didn't mind as it was cheaper than hay and still provided fibre through the night. Win-win really! I did end up using about 2/3 bales a week because of the voracious appetite.

 

[tallyho!]

I am aware that horses colic on straw and that is really sad, however, wheat straw is actually the best straw to feed if you want to feed straw or use as bedding. Oat straw has little hooks and not as 'safe' but people prefer to feed it.

Anyway, that was just an aside.

Up until this year, I bedded on straw. No mats though (very smelly and yukky) just deep littered. And i mean DEEP littered. The bed would build up over a number of weeks once they came in at night until it got to the stage where the horse could dig to Australia if she wanted but the bed didn't move. I only removed poo which was easy, and removed wet in the spring! That was quite a task but at lest I only got smelly once a year and it's a great workout lol! It was about a foot deep and toasty warm from the heat the underneath of the bed. You couldn't really smell it and it was tested by taking non-horsey people round and they said "doesn't smell as bad as I thought!". We all did this as it worked so well and the deep littering stopped wee from running under doors and on to the yard.

She was quite greedy and ate the straw but I didn't mind as it was cheaper than hay and still provided fibre through the night. Win-win really! I did end up using about 2/3 bales a week because of the voracious appetite.

 

[Greylegs]

So, last night I gave him an armful of straw along with his normal forage ration. He sniffed at it and went back to the haylage and this morning it was mostly mixed in with the shavings!! (Lovely mucking out job ... Not!!!) so think I'll give it a go. Thanks again for all the thoughts.

 

[Marmi452]

On this topic - I am on straw bedding - deep bed with high banks or standard beds ? we normally have standard beds but my yard neighbour says they need big beds at this time of year..

 

[Elsbells]

I have straw on mats, but she has a huge deep bed that she lays out in and I've been known to fall asleep in!

 

[tashcat]

Mine kept on eating a lot of his straw bed - bless him he cannot have hay in any form (due to allergies) and he is not overly interested in his haylage so the straw seemed too tempting to resist!

I am glad I tried it, otherwise I would always wonder - but its not for me and my horse. Is there any harm in trying? Even after mine's attempt of gorging straw he was fine, and I know now how I feel about it.

 

[PolarSkye]

On this topic - I am on straw bedding - deep bed with high banks or standard beds ? we normally have standard beds but my yard neighbour says they need big beds at this time of year..

Well, I give Kali a deep bed, but only because he is so dirty that if I don't his bed is a nasty, disgusting soup in the morning . . . but, honestly, you should do whatever you think is best for your horse. What may work for your yard neighbour and her horse, may not work for you.

P