Straw pellet trial comparison - *pics*

Paint Me Proud

Paint Me Proud

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Following on from Oberon's excellent thread about her straw pellet bed trial I thought i would do the same for a comparative view of the pellets.

I purchased Premium Miscanthus Pellets from http://www.pelletbeds.com/.

My stable is 10ft x 14ft and 4/5th rubber matted

Here is my stable after i had removed previous shavings bed
(notice how messy the mats have got due to the constant wet bed and mess my gelding causes)
stableempty.jpg


I used 8 x 15kg bags to start off my bed
stablebags.jpg


Opened the bags and then distributed the pellets to where i wanted them. Ended up with a bed approx 1 inch thick.
stablebeddown.jpg


I bought Chico in who had a big spook when he stepped on it as it made a 'scary' noise. But with some treats i got him to walk on it and he realised it wasnt an evil new bed and you could stand on it!

He had a nibble on a few pellets and spat a few back out. He sniffed at it several times but didnt attempt to eat any more.

Here is a photo taken from the tack room at the back of stable - Chico doing his best impression of a hippo (he is on a diet now!)
You can see that despite being walked on several times by Chico the pellets havent really moved very much.
stablechico.jpg


Will wait and see what it is like in the morning and how easy it is to muck out.
 
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Do you not need to pre soak these like you do with wood pellets? I am going to get some sort of pellet for bedding this winter and still unsure which. Why did you chose these over wood pellets?
 
It said on the info sheet that came with them to add water but i have been advised by all other straw pellet users that you do not need to water them.
I havent watered these and am going to see how they are dry.

I chose straw pellets over wood pellets due to the 'no watering' thing.

Also straw pellets are supposed to break down much quicker on the muck heap :)
 
hiya i use wood pellets like this, not soaked, they are brill, just put the pellets down ,and muck out, after a few days they break down every week, i add fresh bags to it, it works fantastic like this, hardly and bed taken out, if you soak them, they can not absorbe the wet

I use Liverpool wood pellets, £3.75 a bag, so use 2 a week, i down on wed, i down on sunday wether i need them or not

Really pleased with them, iv used them soaked and it does not work, putting them down dry is the way forward
 
nokia said:
hiya i use wood pellets like this, not soaked, they are brill, just put the pellets down ,and muck out, after a few days they break down every week, i add fresh bags to it, it works fantastic like this, hardly and bed taken out, if you soak them, they can not absorbe the wet

I use Liverpool wood pellets, £3.75 a bag, so use 2 a week, i down on wed, i down on sunday wether i need them or not

Really pleased with them, iv used them soaked and it does not work, putting them down dry is the way forward
Click to expand...

I've been using LWP for two years and I don't wet either (too lazy);)
 
First day mucking it out today and WOW it was so quick! 5 minutes and i'd removed the poop a couple of scoops of wet and swept everything back in place. Normally takes me at least 15 minutes on shavings.

The pellets have started to break down and the under layer is now a soft sawdust like material. The bed has definately grown as well, bulked out and much thicker.

Will take a photo tomorrow

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naryafluffy -
I would suggest phoning them, always easy to get hold of and the man does phone back if you leave a message.

I paid £169 for 33 x 15kg bags.
I paid £3.99 per bag and £35 delivery
HOWEVER....

I got the premium miscanthus pellets but only paid the value range price.
I phoned the guy and I dont think he was concentrating when he agreed to premium product for value price!! I made him uphold his offer though :D
 
Okay so two night in on the straw pellets and it's going well.

The bulk of the bed has now 'fluffed up' but around the edges there is a goof foot of pellets that havent broken up and are acting as a fresh bed store!

I took out the poop and dug out 3 scoops of wet then covered it all over again. Scooped some of the 'fresh' pellets from the edges to the middle and swept up.

I am pleased with it so far. I am finding it about comparable with shavings in terms of ease of use but it's much much more absorbent. For the first time in months the bare bit of concrete floor at the front of my stable was dry :eek:

I need to get a pellet fork that has narrower prongs as the little bits of poop keep dropping through my shavings fork - but other than that i am happy so far :)

Here is tonight bed after much out (note the tiny poop bits that my fork cant pick up!)
2daybeds.jpg
 
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shadowboy said:
How does it compare in terms of cost- i.e. how many bags a week do you think you will need to use?
Click to expand...

The bed has been down for 3 days so far but judging by how it is at the moment I dont think I will need to add another bag for at least a week at the earliest.

I am working on adding one bag a week but not sure i will even need that much
 
ok i am one of these people that uses straw bedding and i give my horsey a deep bed! He doesnt have any rubber matting down in this stable yet though!
I wouldnt be happy having my boy sleep on 1 inch of bedding even on rubber mats. maybe thats because he is 17.1 but still.
When i make his bed for winter the first time once i am happy with it i will fall onto it to ensure it is soft enough for him to 'fall' onto when lying down. I dont think i would want to fall onto your bed though!!
Feel free to tell me otherwise if it is infact comfy enough for a big horse i could be tempted to change!!
 
looks good :)

but i used natural flake shavings - a bale (max) a month @ £7 !

(rubber matting too obvs!!!) im not that cruel :D

takes me 5 mins to muck out and my (her) bed is 1+ inches thick with banks :)

id reccomend them over anything else tbh.
 
When I used wood pellets before, I didnt take out any wee for the 1 st week just mixed it in, thats what makes it fluff up, I have to admit the bed doesn't look very thick, oberon's seemed much thicker, maybe she put more bags down ??
 
I think Orberon used alot more bags than i did but i am not going for a super thick bed, i wanted a reasonable bed that absorbed better.

Dizzydancer - the bed he had before was only about 2 metres square about 1/2 inch thick shavings and he has always been happy to lie down on it. This bed is massive compared to his shavings bed.

The way i figure it is that when he is living out he only has the hard ground to lie down on so he doesnt need a massive thick bed inside, rubber mats are equivalent to grass. I think it is just us humanising them thinking they need a big comfy bed to bounce around on!

However, the bed is thicker than it looks, i reckon it has fluffed up to about 4 inches now.

Noodle - I dont like deep littering bed - and without deep littering him i get through a bale a week of shavings because he is so messy.
 
okay....so i didnt throw myself on the bed.....but i did sit down on it :D:D

And i discovered that straw pellet bedding really sticks to your jodhpurs! :D

I found that today it was quite dusty while i was actively mucking out and sweeping but the dust settled again very quickly.

I found poop stays on top of the bed so is easy to scoop off and today I went to dig out the wet but decided to leave it in and see what happens!
 
Paint Me Proud said:
okay....so i didnt throw myself on the bed.....but i did sit down on it :D:D

And i discovered that straw pellet bedding really sticks to your jodhpurs! :D

I found that today it was quite dusty while i was actively mucking out and sweeping but the dust settled again very quickly.

I found poop stays on top of the bed so is easy to scoop off and today I went to dig out the wet but decided to leave it in and see what happens!
Click to expand...

Ah you see thats how our straw pellets went.........they were fine for 5 days or so and then went really REALLY dusty! And I hated that they stuck to everything. I put a brand new rug on my horse and the next day it was disgusting from the dust! We're going to use ours up under bedding to soak the wee up but not actually use it as a whole bedding.

I just need to decided whether to get another load of flax (which I do really love) or go for a brand of shavings.
 
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