wood pellets for horses v wood pellet kitty litter

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Cinderellarockafella

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Does anyone know if there is any difference between wood pellets for horse bedding and wood pellet kitty litter. I want to change my horses bedding and like the sound of wood pellets, but dont want to make the long trip to pick up horse wood pellets until I know they agree with my horse.

To find out if the wood pellets agree with my horse would pine kitty litter pellets work as a one off?

Are there any types of wood to avoid?

Are wood pellets dusty?

Thanks
 
I have not wood based product for my cat but I think its formualted diferently. The horse bedding turns into sawdust when wet the cat litter doesnt I dont think.
Not sure how you could try it out.......You would need an awful lot of kittly litter sacks to get a bit big enough for horse to pee on, lie on etc - you need approx 10 bags of Aquamax to start a 10 x 12 stable.

What problem do you think your horse might have?
 
Looks exactly the same to me? They might add stuff to it to make it smell better though. You should be able to pick it up in the same size bags as the horse equivalent horse stuff.....have to admit i was tempted to try the same as you lol.
 
The kitty litter comes in 15kg sacks same as the horse bedding :)

My mare is quite wet, I dont know how absorbent wood pellets are compared to other bedding. Also are the wood pellets dusty, as I am trying to avoid dust as the horse opposite has COPD.
 
just to say that i almost made a similar mistake to what your thinking!

horse pellets have been designed especially for horses with any toxic take out and not used for the horse bedding, if you use anything else you are asking for trouble,
i was going to order the stovies for fires as they are slightly cheaper and then i googled and found that there are differences in the make up even tho to use they look the same, so best to buy horsey stuff :D
 
I think it's exactly the same. I use Liverpool wood pellets and they are the same ones they use in stoves. I used them all last winter and will never go back to shavings. The cat litter we used to use looks the same. It's also used for chicken litter in poultry houses.

They only seem to go dusty in the summer especially if the horse rarely uses the stable. To combat this simply spray the bed with water. During winter it isn't a problem.
 
But the cat pellet stuff is also used for animals, and my cats dnt have any adverse reaction to them, so surely anything toxic must be removed?

Coffeeandbagel - cat litter wood pellets do turn to sawdust once they've been wee'd on ;)

The only thing I think would be an issue would be buying them - I think looking at the prices the cat stuff is rather more expensive than the horse bedding. But I guess if you want to trial some first then it may still work out better than ordering a pallet and then finding its not suitable :). And yes they do come in big sacks - pet smart do have an offer on for 2 or their big bags reduced, I think they're 30litre, not sure what weight they are - but they are quite heavy :)
 
Cat litter pellets must be non toxic too as cats pads come in to contact with them

Pets at home do a budget cat litter but I would imagine that its very similar to the situation with horsey wood pellets in that some brands are better than others

I can understand the woodburner pellets may well be different of course
 
I have used Cat litter for guinea pigs, ducks, lambs and for my horse when I was desperate for bedding and nowhere had shavings.
Its all the same stuff!!

Google White Horse Bedding - their premium pellets look lovely! x
 
I have used Pets at Home wood cat litter, morrisons, waitrose,wilkinsons, what ever is cheap and on my travels. If you do not want to order a lot or are just running out they are a good alternative you just need to check the bag sizes and work out the cost perkg or litre.
Another benifit is you can hide the cost in the food shop.
 
Although the technology is the same, there are some differences between wood pellets for fuel and those for bedding. To begin with, almost any wood is suitable for fuel pellets, whereas bedding pellets are made from softwood (typically white pine) as it is more absorbent than hardwood and less dusty. In addition, bedding pellets specifically avoid woods which are toxic to horses, which is not always true of wood pellets produced for fuel. Consequently, when using wood pellets for bedding, one should ensure that the wood pellets are bedding wood pellets and not fuel wood pellets.


taken from a simple google search, (what is the difference between fuel and horse wood pellets) just thought i would share in case you think i am mad< well maybe your right :D

never tried them but am just about too buy a bulk load which is why i also was looking into the difference :)


interesting to see the cat litter, never even thought about that :)
 
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I've always used Liverpool Wood Pellets and their bedding pellets are exactly the same as the fuel pellets, I've never had any problems! However, I'm now switching to straw pellets as they are less dusty and don't need wetting.
 
Slightly Foxed said:
There is no difference between cat litter, bedding and fuel pellets. There isn't a different pelleting machine for each product!
Click to expand...

That is not true! Most of the 'kitty litters' and indeed some of the fuel pellets are made from recycled wood and could contain all sorts of contaminants. Not such an issue with cat litter as they only use it as a toilet and don`t sleep on it!

I certainly wouldn`t bed my horses on it :eek:
 
Whenever I have done a price comparison, the cat litter has always worked out much more expensive than the horse product. Maybe that is just where I live though.
 
You do need to keep on top of the dusty-ness . We use a watering can with the sprinkler bit on the end. On dark dull days you don't notice but when it's sunny you see there is a lot of dust in the air .
 
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