Woody Pet

K

katiex2

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 August 2007
Messages
187
Location
High Wycombe, Bucks
Visit site
Ok - i have just put down a woody pet bed for my mare. I have half mats and half bed. Does anyone else use it? What are your experiences of it? I seem to be the guinea pig for this product at our yard as no-one else is using it as yet! Any tips gratefully received!!!
 
Hi, I used to use something very similar but it was made for cats. As with most things there are good and bad things about it!

First the good, its absorption is excellent, so you def use less of it.
I used to soak mine in a clean wheelbarrow before putting it down and I always mixed it with shavings. It's really easy to muck out and not at all wasteful.

The bad, it can leave horses covered in a fine dust, although not really dusty, if you catch my drift. You need quite a bit to make a decent bed out of this alone.

For me, the good outweighed the bad and have recently contemplated going back to it.

Hope this helps.

ETS, we have a local supplier too, so it's easy to get hold of and I don't have to buy loads of bags to save on the amount of trips to buy it
smile.gif
 
I recently looked after my friends to horses for a week and they are both stabled on it.

I found it very quick to muck out, dust free, absorbent and they seem comfy on it as they do lay down etc. It was also easy to lift totally and you can very easily top it up during the week too.

If I wasn't such a sucker for my straw bed I'd chose that over shavings definitely.
 
I've used it for years. Ideally what you want is for the horse to pee on the bedding, so initially try the bedding in the middle of the stable, but look out for your horse chosing a different spot to pee and move the bedding there. Mine all pee over their little spot which makes mucking out really quick and easy. Also, keep in mind that it will take you a few weeks to figure out how the bedding works, so don't despair. If you find your bedding gets smaller and smaller, resist the temptation to take more wet out and the put new in, but but the new in and mix it with the wet - this is the only way to make more bedding. New bedding on its own won't get bigger, it has to be mixed in with wet. I hate deep litter beds where old, pee-soaked bedding forms the bottom of the bed, but have no problem avoiding this with this kind of bedding - I remove any peed on bedding that has clumped together and leave in any loose stuff. When mixed in with the rest the whole thing dries out again and gets bigger in about 15-30 minutes (depending on ventilation in stable).

Hope it suits you!
 
I have used it for the last two winters for our horse with serious COPD. Its excellent for her, not coughing at all. She isnt paricularly wet which is even better. I start the bed with about 8 -12 bags and water it with a watering can, dig in and repeate many times! I then just take out the poo and mix in the wet, I add a new bale every week. if some of the bed ges really wet take it out in a wheelbarrow, let it dry and put it back in! I think it works out at less than £5 a bag?
 
Two girls on my old yard tried it a few years ago, we were all wetting ourselves (including them)watching them water it with a watering can. It was great at first but then it became a stinky mess and they then spent hours shovelling it out. Sounds like they did something wrong though reading the views above
smile.gif
 
Woody Pet
http://www.woodypet.co.uk/

Aquamax is very similar stuff (identical I would say)
www.aquamax.co.uk

Some people use Nature's Best and say it is the same thing but cheaper, but I've never used it so can't comment.

It will become disgusting if you don't take any of the wet out, but it is very easy to take out. I find my beds have a 3-4 day cycle. Day 1: bed is very dry with a lot of bits of pellets in amongst the 'sand'. Day 2: wetter with pee, but nothing to take out yet. Day 3: quite a bit of wet, take out the clumped bits, put in new stuff and mix in. Day 4: Back to being dry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top