Wood pellets...

Queenbee

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Ok so firstly can I say I'm stupidly excited that my ton of pellets is arriving tomorrow.... It's a sad life when I get this excited about a load of compacted wood...

Anyhow, just musing really, the companies say wet the whole lot and fluff up, some people do this, in fact have just read a post on another thread that says "for best results soak first". Other people don't add any water and just put the pellets in as they are and let nature do the work for them:rolleyes:, me personally, I put the pellets in, sprinkle the top and fluff the top up, leaving the pellets underneath dry... I feel that this gives a nice start to the bed... It's comfy but still has a lot of absorbency left in it.... I just don't get why people wet it completely through to begin with, to me this is just a waste of bedding... Or am I missing some big trick here?

For those of you with pellet beds... How do you do it and why?
 
I just chuck a bucketful of pellets on top of the rubber matting at the back of the box and that's it- job done! I don't do any wetting or anything- seems to work fine.... For me anyway!
 
I put a small slit in the bag and stick a hose in for 15-20 seconds. Then I leave them overnight to fluff up. The top half isn't broken down that much but the bottom half is. I tried adding them unsoaked but then spent ages picking off dry pellets from the poos.
 
I've used the same method this year as I did two years ago... I went out at the weekend and bought ten bags to start the bed with as I knew his shavings bed wouldn't last till the delivery. I suppose I always wet the top slightly and fluff it up as he lies down a lot, but whenever I top up I don't add any water... Other than that the only time I've had to add water is summer time when it's super dry. My theory is that the less liquid you add in the beginning, the longer it lasts... I just don't get the soaking it all to begin with... Is it purely a cosmetic thing, ie it looks more comfy and bed like or is there a logic behind it?
 
I wet the pellets when starting a new bed then add dry pellets to top up as and when. I still have a lot of pellets not broken down in the bed and it irritates me when I throw a few good pellets out which are stuck to poo :(

I do still think it's the best, cheapest, quickest and easiest bedding there is though!
 
I wet the pellets to put the bed down then made the mistake of not wetting a bag of pellets to top the bed up-they have taken days to break down and haven't fluffed up anywhere nere as much or absorbed as much wee. I have a lovely little garden sieve to get the little pieces of muck out as my horse is absolutley filthy but now I can't sieve because the unsoaked pellets don't fall through.
 
If it's a whole new bed you need to put down roughly 12 bags and 1 bucket of water. Leave for 15 mins then fork over making the bed. When you need to add more pellets you don't need to add extra water
 
I wet the pellets when I start a new bed off, but then all subsequent bags of pellets just go in dry. I don't have any issues with the pellets sticking to poo? I wish I'd changed to pellet bedding earlier, its so much easier!
 
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