what do you think of compressed woodfibre pellets?

clancysunny2

clancysunny2

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am considering changing from straw to these, but sounds complicated. you need about 9 bags and you open them up, pour in water to rehydrate. leave for 15 mins and then spread over stable and bank up. all you need to do then is remove droppings and the wet areas clump up like cat litter. quite a big initial outlay but supposed to be cheaper and quicker in long run than straw. what do you think?
 
There's been quite a lot of posts recently about these - either click through the history pages in the stable room or do a search for Liverpool Wood Pellets or LWPs - you'll find some good feed back on them
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Kate x
 
I have recently brought some LWP and I have to say they have taken a bit of getting used to as I like nice white fluffy clean beds and a bed made up of wood pellets alone looks like soil. However the plus side is that they are economical, very absorbant, easy to muck out and if left on a semi deep litter system make a good solid bed. As I like a nice clean looking bed I have chosen to lay them under either gd quality straw or large flake shavings and this looks good and is working well. I should imagine that if used in the summer that they may become dusty though.
 
I use Natures best, I have tried woody pet, aquamax, philips and liverpool and i find the Natures best the best of all. They are not dusty, very economical and I only use one bag a week - so about £5.06 a week per horse.
 
goodness you get good feedback on this forum. i think i'll give them a go. hv 2 stables to do and i reckon i spend 5 pounds per wk on straw on each and i find it v time consuming - thats doing sort of deep littering. and an enormous muck heap. thks
 
i was thinking of mixing them with shavings because of the shortage. i also like a nice looking bed, is it brown when it is down?
i am holding off because someone came to our yard offering us bale sized bags of shavings for £1 a bag, it's not dust extracted but i will see what it is like.
 
the pellets are white when you lay them, after a few days they turn an orangey colour and then they go brown and look a bit grim. I don't deep litter mine so they only really get to the orange stage.Can't say i've found them dusty though.
 
i use lwp.they are really easy.i put hot water on them in a wheelbarrow so they swell up quicker and some of the water evaporates off.lol
found it really cheap.i mix with megazorb and the beds stay fairly white/grey colour.
bed is solid with poo on the top for even the dirtiest of the mares.i use one bag lwp £2.75 ish each per week per horse, plus a bag of megazorb every 2/3 weeks.
much cheaper and really easy to muck out, no dust.
 
Ive used them in the past but dont like the idea of mixing some of the urine back in with the bed. Thats why they go brown. The horse is basically standing/sleeping in bedding mixed with urine.
 
The makers of the ones i used recomended to take out the very wet patches and mix the rest of wet in to bed so the bedding absorbed it and the new pellets broke down. I dont like leaving any wet in my stables as feel its healthier for horse if taken out.
 
I dont think you can ever get all the wet pieces out on any bedding !!!

We have just moved to LWP and find them fantastic - I have actually taken some pics of a new bed i started on saturday and will post tomorrow to show how they are !!

I use 2 bags a week and find this keeps the colour - if your not to worried about colour then 1 bag would be fine !!

They are never dusty and have reduced the need to empty my trailer weekly to ev ery 2 weeks !!!

Also my groom mucks out is half the time as she can get 2 horses mucked out in 1 wheelbarrow (less time walking back and forth to muck heap)

I would say if you like a really nice white bed then mix half a bag of shavings in every 2 weeks as well x
 
Im also a pellet convert and believe me there was no way you were going to convince me that they would be acceptable after deep white fluffy Hunter shavings beds!

Well Ive had my big horse on pellets for 8 days now and I have totally got over the fact that they are brown. Im hooked. I was using 2 bags of shavings a week over mats just with this horse so that was costing me £16 let alone bedding the other horse as well (he stays on shavings as he is old and set in his ways - and only uses one bag a week!).

I used my clean shavings to really stiffen the banks, layed 4 bags of wet pellets on the floor, lightly covered the bank shavings and havent looked back. There is absolutely NO dust, the poo just rolls out and the wet patch can stay down for 3 or 4 days unlike shavings where I had to take it out daily.

This is a big horse and he is extremely active in his stable, the pellet bed stays where its put and a friends 18h box walking hunter has totally proved that the pellet bed works.
 
Honestly, paper is so absorbant. Unless the horse has wee'd in the last five minutes there is no wet left underneath and it is really easy to see wet and dry bedding. On shavings i find you end up throwing out good bedding just to get the wet out.
 
I tried paper but it blew around the yard and was hard to keep tidy!
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I did have good success with cardboard bedding though - I really liked this
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Kate x
 
v useful responses - it's 2 wks on monday since i bought 11 bags of five star pellets - £5.25 a 15kg bag. (they've got a website) i am a convert. not necci quicker for me, but appari i'm fussy, but i'm not going to have a muck heap! haven't needed to add anymore, the stable is so much sweeter smellingand softer, the urine patches were 4/5 days until i needed to remove them, and the poo keeps on surface and skipping out is a dream. the horse is defi cleaner and i'm convinced it's a cleaner, easier and healthier alternative - defi no dust. just waiting to use up some straw before putting the pellets in other ponies stables, then i'll get my old enormous muck heap removed and i'll be in no muck heap heaven!
 
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