who doesnt get on with the wood pellet bedding?

[pegasus1986]

Just wondered who doesnt get on with this bedding and why. Ive been debating moving to this bedding but love my shavings there on.

 

[FabioandFreddy]

I found it got very dusty. Have swapped back to shavings now. (although ours are only in a couple of hours a day so doesn't get 'full' useage)

 

[Lickety-Split]

I don't like them either; firstly I don't like concept of adding water/leaving wee permanently in the bed. I want a nice dry, clean bed and although its cheap I don't need the hassle of soaking the pellets. My friend even found that her bed froze over in winter giving her horse a rock hard bed to stand on :S
Secondly I don't like the dust!

 

[jrp204]

We found them great used on rubber matting, just used 1/3 bag in one corner and skipped out wet and poo every day, a bag would last 10 - 14 days of them being in at night. Never found them dusty. We kept a spare wheelbarrow, checked the pellets in and the water and left them and used from there, they would dry out a bit in the barrow so we never had them freeze.

 

[Lynsey&Smartie]

I like it but you have to use it properly as per the instructions, I found that you need to put a decent first bed down I use 8 15kg bags and then top it up when needed I use 2 bags per week. I take all the wet out once a week and if there is a particularly wet patch at other times will take that out too. The bed maybe doesn't look as nice as a deep fluffy shavings bed but it is soft and very absorbent and not having to take the wet out every day does mean mucking out is quicker and the muck heap is smaller.

 

[jrp204]

" muck heap is smaller. "

Muck heap, what muck heap! Ours is now tiny.

 

[MrsNorris]

My horse, for some reason he will not lie down on a wood pellet bed, but put him on shavings and he's flat out. He's on eva mats as well, so it cant be too hard for him.

I like pellets myself, quick and easy, but he has spoken! Its shavings from now on

 

[starryeyed]

We tried several different brands last year, stuck to the instructions perfectly, but didn't get on with them at all as the beds just got far too dusty, despite watering them down. The horses all had runny eyes and noses and it was just unpleasant for them, so we changed back to shavings and the messy beast is on straw with megazorb underneath which absorbs brilliantly and doesn't get dusty.

 

[Lynsey&Smartie]

" muck heap is smaller. "

Muck heap, what muck heap! Ours is now tiny.

Yes if my horses didn't insist on dragging the haylege out of their nets and trampling it into their beds every night meaning I have to throw loads away mine would be too, the muck heap is virtually all haylege and poo! Wish I could work out a way to stop them doing it as I hate waste, stopped using the hay bars and just use nets now but they still manage it!

 

[Fools Motto]

I hated wood pellet bedding, and am far happier with shavings again now!! Got very dusty, a layer on top of their water every morning. Mucking out wasn't hard, but felt I was forever ferrying water!!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

There are lots of different makes, so you need to find one you are happy with, I am very picky and would remove wet every day, so I used 30-50% more than absolutely essential, I also like a big stable with 1 foot high, and wide bedding walls if they are in overnight which requires a lot of pellets, also I like horse standing on rubber or on bedding, so again this required a bit more, but yes, still a bit cheaper than shavings.
Never had dust, all I did was empty a bag in a barrow and add 2/3 bucket of water for 30mins.

 

[whizzer]

Hated it,either got dusty but didn't like it if I dampened it,just looked horrible & couldn't make proper banks. Made a brilliant base for a proper deep litter bed though & used to put various things in top-shavings,hemcore etc

 

[Hurricanelady]

Tried wood pellets, straw pellets and miscanthus pellets, all on top of thick 34 mm EVA mats. They all had some benefits but am back on Bedmax now and much happier. With all of them, we needed far more than they manufacturers recommended amount of bags per week and in my experience there is no way you could leave/mix in the wee into the bed, appalling smell if you did. Some of the wood pellets were very dusty, even the ones sold as horse bedding specific rather than fuel pellets and I also didn't massively like having to dampen the bed. Straw pellets - nightmare greedy horses were eating them!! Miscanthus pellets, horses didn't eat them but like all the other types I didn't like the hard element in the bed whilst you waited for the pellets to break down -which took quite a long time even with watering. If you didn't turn the beds completely every day, you couldn't get a fork through them, one of my grooms was particularly bad at doing this (I think she just used to take the poo out only!) and I absolutely dreaded having to do mucking out after those particularly days.

I also tried chopped straw and didn't like that either, it was awful to muck out, much heavier than a real straw bed although convenient storage wise as it came in shavings sized bags. I don't believe any pellet bed is suitable for a foaling mare either (I think it needs to be a big straw bed) although I did have a mare and older (3 months+) foals on them. The first time the foal came in wet and rolled in the pellet bed (which had broken down by that stage) poor thing had a complete shock (bed stuck all over his coat) and had a shaking and running round fit for 5 minutes!

Perhaps we were just unlucky - I know a lot of other people like pellet beds. I believe Miscanthus and straw pellets will rot down a lot quicker than wood pellets or shavings. We found it no cheaper than Bedmax.

 

[mightymammoth]

I really like it but also remove all the wet every day, My horse wee's in one area so it's not to bad but if you've got a very messy horse it would be a bit of a nightmare. I find it a bit dusty whilst I'm mucking out but not too dusty for him day to day.

Agree you need a substantial bed to start with but I like it it's like cat litter, we use the liverpool wood pellets. wood shavings are about £7-£8 bale here just can't justify that.

I tip mine into a wheel barrow and add some water probably not the recommended amount but you discover what works best for your horse.