Wood Pellets -v- Megazorb

[Theresa_F]

I am about to buy my winter bedding and am a great fan of megazorb - only bedding that can cope with piddly clydesdales but am considering trying Liverpool WPs as they do appear cheaper.

My concern is does the bed stay stable with a big horse on it and do they really soak up the pee - clydes do a galleon at a time.

I know they will need water adding which the megazorb does not but can anyone who has used both give me pros and cons and which they find the best please.

At the moment I am on rubber mats and use 1 - 2 bags of megazorb a week due to the large and very wet and dirty Farra. Stinky only needs 1 bag a week.

 

[Maesfen]

One of the things I love about it is it doesn't move once the base is set even with fidgety youngsters that stir it up sometimes so that's one problem solved!
As to soaking up, I'm pretty confident they would cope with Farra but the only way is to try it and see. Pellet beds work best if not dug up but allowed to settle with new added on top and only droppings taken out daily; if you need to take wet out then scrape the good off the top, only take the wet gunk out and then spread the old bed where the wet patch was and add new on top but disturb the base as little as you have to. With my wet mare last year, after the initial soaked bed, I just raked in the new pellets as they were (no, after the first taste, she did not eat it!) and they were absorbed in their own time and the bed did seem to last a lot longer than if I had soaked the new. Also, make sure you take out any loose hay as if it gets hidden in the bed it seems to draw the wet and you'll get a wet patch where you shouldn't have one; don't ask me why, it's just how I found it to happen! I only tried them last year and have already taken 4 tonne ready for this, I wouldn't go back to shavings if I didn't have to although I do admit, I miss the 'new shavings whiteness' when you top up as the bed always looks brown even when new but the horses spend just as much time down and asleep as they used to and they're the ones that count, they don't mind it's not white!.

 

[spaniel]

Ive used Megazorb in the past and been really pleased with it but now have a big ID on pellets and it does seem to work quite well. He is very active in the stable overnight so is probably about as desructive on the bed as a clydie would be.

If you do go over to pellets you will have to accept that your bed will look more brown than white. Its not that its dirty....the pellets are unbleached so when they break down they look like sand rather than snow!

The pellets are just as absorbant IMO as the megazorb and you can manage itin the same way.

 

[Theresa_F]

Thanks, the sound very much like megazorb and how I am using it - leave the base to set, take poo out daily and wet out every week or so. I know about removing hay, not that Farra leaves much.

Does it smell ok - not worried about a white bed, never have had one last more than two days and the megazorb goes brown. They do sound like the cat litter I use.

May I ask how many bag(s) a week you use? Mine are out four days a week 9 until dark and in three days.

Finally does the poo sit on top or get lost in the bedding? I would only be having a 3 - 4" deep bed on the back half of the stable as my mats are designed to be a non-bed system (Stablelite).

Problem is I do like megazorb but like all folks, money is tight and I am wondering if the pellets will prove cheaper but it if is only a couple of quid a week, I may stick with what I know works.

Sorry for all the questions.