Your thoughts on wood pellet bedding??

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WelshTilly

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Hi all

Im currently using paper bedding which is ok however she is being stabled for longer and my mare is quite wet. The opportunity has come up to switch across to wooden pellet type bedding so i would like everyones thoughts on the pro's and con's and any tips on cheapest suppliers etc i would bulk buy ...

Thank you g&t to those who reply!!:D

K x
 
I use the wood pellets in conjunction with shavings, they are much cheaper and also absorb the weeeee. I do a complete muck out every day, pick out the wettest bit and then spread out the rest, come the evening, the damp bit is bone dry. There is only a small damp patch as the pellets are so absorbent
 
Eeyore.1 said:
I use the wood pellets in conjunction with shavings, they are much cheaper and also absorb the weeeee. I do a complete muck out every day, pick out the wettest bit and then spread out the rest, come the evening, the damp bit is bone dry. There is only a small damp patch as the pellets are so absorbent
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Thanks Eeyore do you find the stable is easy to keep clean? what about the smell? Out of interest how much do you pay / bag and who do you use as a supplier? i notice your from Devon....:D

K x
 
last winter i mixed pelletsand shavings. Shavings around the edges and pellets in the middle where he wee'd it was great really easy to do. I wouldn't use it as a full bed personally as it doesn't fluff up or look comfortable (to me). This year I am using straw with pellets underneath to soak up the wetness so will only have to lift the wee every couple of days.
 
I love it !

I empty one bag of the pellets into my wheel barrow and add 1 small black bucket of cold water to it. I leave it for 5-10 minutes then empty it into the stable. I then repeat this until I have enough to deep bed and make nice banks around the area of the floor I want to cover.

I usually just take the pooh out every day and then every 3rd day scrape back the good bedding on top and remove the wet underneath which usually has compacted and turned red. If when you tread on the bed it squelches then you need to remove that as well.

I do fluff up the banks and I mix in the new bedding in pellet form without any water so that it absorbs the most urine.

I have been using this bedding for over a year now and tried all different methods. Unlike straw it is not dusty and it has never attracted flies like shavings.

The cheapest I have found are from a company in Liverpool who deliver nationwide. I have found that the cheaper bags are just as absorbent as the premium ones. It does not suit everybody but I am reluctant to change back now.
 
I've just changed and so far I LOVE IT!!!

4 days in and there is no smell at all. I muck out everyday as my big boy is a piglet and we used to get through about 3/4 bales of straw a week.

The delivery man laid my 1st bed to show me how and it looked quite thin compared to the think straw ones I'm used to, but if you tread on it it's so dense like a memory foam mattress. It's probably about 7 inches deep with banks. In straw i used to take out between 2 and 3 barrows out a day between my 2 boys but i've gone through completely for 3 days and had about 1 and a half TUBs a day :D

So far i'm very happy! See if you can find a supplier that will sell you it as fuel as then it's VAT free too!
 
yep i love it - i used just pellets last year, now i use pellets at the base and shavings over the top - poo out daily and wet out at weekends. with the shavings on top the wet stays put more. put a bale of shavings in once a month and 2 new pellet bags each week. I dont put them in dry because the horses crush them with their weight and then they dont absorb so much.
 
It doesn't smell at all, I used to buy mine from Houghton Saddlery at Launceston but since they closed down, a friend of mine buys hers on a big pallet a d then I pay half with her which works out about £3.00 per bag but I don't know where she gets them from. If you google wood pellets it should come up with a local supplier. Will try to find out and PM you
 
The pellets are, functionally, brilliant. Clean, easy, economical and smell free. But the beds don't look pretty.

I also use them with shavings, nice banks of shavings and a fluffy bed over a pellet base. As the pellets break down they mix well with the shavings. I put a bag of new, unsoakedellets in the pee spot, and let it mix naturally.

This method means I use 1/2 a bag of shavings (maximum) and 1 bag of owl gets per week, per horse....whereas with just shavings, one of my boys was getting through four bags of shavings per week, and still had a manky bed! (other boy was clean on shavings, and is even cleaner on the mix)
 
Love it, works out somewhat more expensive for me than other options but it means I don't have to spend 45 minutes SKIPPING out, shovelling wee and stinking to high heavens!

He's so wet that I just laid about 8 bags, sprayed the hose on it for a few minutes and left it.
 
Yes I have used wood pellets for a couple years now. I take the poop out everyday and only remove the clumped pee. The rest of the pee I mix through the bed. I use I bag of pellets a week and add to bed in pellet form. Mix the pellets through the whole bed and bank. Every few days I take down a bank and mix the bedding through.

Here are a few pics of my wood pellet bed. Mare has been on boxrest for a few weeks and this is how is faired up so far.

Please excuse the poo satined walls. they are a lovely reminder of my last horse when he was ill last year and I never got round to painting it again.

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and one of my helper in my bed

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I use liverpool wood pellets and cost £3.60 a bag I think but I buy in bulk.
 
well all u dont seem to have any props but I did might of been the amount if time my mare needed to be in due to box rest and the cheap wood pellets I found i had to use more bags than they say so more money they were really easy to muck out but mare started to get a crack on her back heals when the farrier came to change shoes I kept asking wot it was .. he said think it's my bedding I carried on for a while but the farrier then said it looks like it's turning into white line I had to change bedding to chippings and have all the
disease cut away been ok since... we all thought it was coz it stayed slightly wet causing fungus to grow ????
 
I have used them for years and find it fantastic

I take the wet out every day
The stables never smell

Sometimes it can be a bit of a faff to put new bedding in if you're short on time as you have to take time soaking it but other than that I can't fault it!
 
I absolutely hated them, but then my mare was a filthy, stinking rotten, pi**y mare, and despite using bags of them each week her bed ended up looking and feeling like wet soil, when I eventually cleaned out the stable to get rid of them I had a slow worm living in the bottom it was that rank and damp, that has put me off them for life but I have a friend who uses them who's horse is extremely clean and she gets on fine with them.
 
I tried them & hated them. Yes no smell & easy to skip out but I found I had to take the worst of the wet out a couple of times a week & it was really heavy. Also found it more expensive than shavings - to keep a half-decent bed I had to put in 3 sacks a week.

Cheers for the g&t ;)
 
Thanks all for your replies, think im going to trial it and see how it goes...

My mare is wet but clean, she pee's on one side and poohs on the other, currently she doesn't lay down despite me trying all sorts, she is used to shavings previously and laid down....

I think its interesting how many of you mix pellets and shavings i hadnt thought of that ....i do like to have big banks and a clean bed... im known to wash my stable out on a regular basis!!! :D

Looks like Corley Biowood are the cheapest unless anyone knows anywhere else??

Oscarwild - thanks for your piccie love your helper!!!
Kx
 
JennBags said:
I tried them & hated them. Yes no smell & easy to skip out but I found I had to take the worst of the wet out a couple of times a week & it was really heavy. Also found it more expensive than shavings - to keep a half-decent bed I had to put in 3 sacks a week.

Cheers for the g&t ;)
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Your welcome, thanks for your honest opinion, its good to hear everyones experiences ...k x
 
I've been using Liverpool Wood Pellets for three years now. I've used straw, shavings and chopped straw in the past but I could never go back now.

Cheap to buy, easy to work with, no smell, minimal waste and comfortable to lie on.

I'm currently trialling straw pellets and I'm finding them good too.

FYI Both of my geldings are dirty and very wet.
 
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