Pine pelleted bedding...pros or cons

[JMS Miniatures]

Researching on bedding because I think there has to be a better way then shavings and was wondering if anyone has used pelleted bedding? I've even seen people using sand as bedding but not sure if thats a good idea, but they've had great success with using sand. Just looking for opinions for what you like to use as bedding.

 

[Lindi-loo]

I will be watching this thread with great interest as Im also trying to find a better way to bedding..I use deep straw but Im sure there is an easier way with the same comfort..this time of the year the ponies come in muddy and wet most days so I have to renew it daily

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

I used it at a QH show barn and it was WONDERFUL. What I did notice:

1) To make it last longest, you have to leave it in pellet form. Do not add more than a misting of water.

2) Follow the directions RELIGIOUSLY.

3) When the directions end (3-4 weeks? don't recall exactly), its time to strip the stall and start over. Do not try to milk it along.

4) Have a good place to dispose of the waste, cuz it STINKS and gets VERY hot. Composts FAST! Just a day or two and its heated up. Don't do what we did and make a pile in the barn, and scoop it onto a trailer weekly. It'll knock you flat.

 

[albahurst]

Paper shavings here and LOVE them!

I used the pelleted at a show a few yrs back and they worked ok - just not soft.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I use the pelleted bedding, and LOVE it. They do last much longer if you dont wet them first, BUT if you have a horse you think might try to eat them, they do need misted first. I stripped and re bedded stalls October 30, and I clean stalls once a day. I have not needed to strip the stalls since, and there is no odor. If I find a super wet spot, I pick it out, otherwise I just use my fine tines fork to pick the poop out. I do fluff the bedding once or twice a week, it sometimes gets packed down. I did try 1 horse on tractor supply shavings for a week before switching him to the pellets too. Its a colt that I thought might try to eat pellets, thats why I tried shavings at first. I will NEVER use the TSC shavings again. The shavings didnt absorb the pee, instead I had puddles on my matts under the shavings. The stall stunk, was about impossible to clean without just using a shovel to scoop bedding out, and anytime my horse layed down, he would end up stinking like pee, despite me cleaning stalls daily.

 

[targetsmom]

I love the pelleted bedding too, but it looks like everyone has a different technique! First of all, I never buy the pellets used in woodstoves - only the ones sold by reputable livestock suppliers. A tiny bit of the wrong kind of "wood" (e.g. black walnut) could be deadly, and I won't take a risk.

I DON'T use them as straight pellets (too much like ball bearings to me) - I always wet them down first in a big muck bucket until they are like sawdust and just the right color and consistency for me. Also, I rarely if ever strip a stall. What I do is pick the poop out each day (with a fine tines fork), then remove the pee spots and completely stir up the rest of the bedding and fluff it up. I add some more hydrated bedding each day, spreading it on top where it acts as a deodorizer. If it gets a bit dusty, I might add more water to the stall or (don't tell) just leave a bit of pee spot. If I don't have any hydrated bedding, I will add some pellets.

Oh, the pee spots get spread in our sand ring or used to cover mud or icy spots. Only the manure gets spread.

 

[eagles ring farm]

We have used pelleted bedding for about 5-6 years now having switched from shavings

I would never want to switch back.

We do not wet our pellets (except with a young foal to be sure they don't eat them)just mix some more in with what is there when we need more. They break down in a couple days. We also clean our stalls every day without fail.

It is more expensive to start but alot cheaper once your established we just take out really wet spots when they start to turn orange other wet areas just spread around mixed with dry.Pick out the poop and thats it. Maybe we add another bag on average every 3 weeks. Some more often some less often. We like our stalls bedded somewhat deep. We never strip our stalls

We started using Woody Pet but due to price increases our suppier stopped carrying it. The past few years we use Eagle Valley. Very happy with both. Never any odor problems either.

and they take up so much less room to store

 

[ruffian]

I'm with Albahurst. If you can get paper shavings you will never use anything else again.

I tried it all -

Sawdust - Labor intensive, hard to store, not very absorbent. Dusty. Least expensive. Hard to use at shows. Doesn't control odor much. Not sure on pricing

Shavings - look nice, easier to put handle, but pretty much useless in the way of absorption or odor control. Does smell good to me when I put it down, nice piney scent. Easy to use at shows but very ineffective. Expensive - 2 bags per stall at shows and not much coverage. $6-8 bag

Corn Pellets - somewhat effective but dusty. Not much odor control. Horses like to nibble. Expensive needed to use 4-6 bags per stall and directions state to strip stalls after about a month (I think). $5 - 7/bag

Wood pellets - Less effective than corn pellets. VERY VERY DUSTY. Always had scum on top of the water pails. Somewhat effective. I also left them whole and found them to absorb more that way. Never understood why you would need to WET something that you wanted to be absorbent????? Expensive - 6-8 bags per stall and strip stalls in 4-6 weeks. Doesn't absorb odor much. It and corn pellets break down into something resembling sawdust, so very labor intensive to strip out. ($5-7 per bag)

Straw - fairly inexpensive but very labor intensive to clean out. Somewhat absorbent, but once wet stays wet.

Paper Shavings - LOVE THEM ! ONE bag per stall at shows. My stalls are 8 x 8. I use 1/4 to 1/2 bag per stall. My stalls are either attached to runs or the horse is only in at night. Basically Im' lazy and don't pick stalls every day. I strip the stalls about every 10 - 14 days or so and there is NO odor, and NO lingering wetness or soaked spots. no ammonia smell in the barn. Usually about a wheelbarrow load per stall when stripping out. What impressed me the most was ZERO DUST! No dust on the water pails, no scummy water, no water on the stall walls, no dust on the horses!!!!!

:yeah

:yeah I hated emptying pails every day because they were dirty from the bedding, scummy, and just nasty.

I used one bag in my trailer the entire show season. I did pick out the manure and bigger wet spots (hauling 4-6 horses at a time) and fluffed up the balance. Even after being closed up after nationals and I finally remembered that I hadn't cleaned the trailer, I opened it and it didn't smell at all. The shavings and the mats were dry.

$6-8 a bag.

I was a dealer, but just didnt' have time to do it properly so gave up the distributorship, but I certainly still use it and love it.

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

I didn't note any of the negatives you did regarding pellets... they absorbed oder so well we used them for pee spots even when bedding with shavings. They weren't dusty at all, even when dry. Stripping was easy with a flat shovel, much easier than straw or shavings. Yes, 6 bags for a 12x12 stall, but you only added another 4 bags total. So 4-6 weeks, for 10 bags of shavings = a STEAL for bedding price-wise. Compare that to adding a bag a day for bagged shavings.

Never used paper here... they aren't available.

 

[disneyhorse]

I like to use pellets under shavings, with the pellets in the spots they tend to urinate. Otherwise they are just too dusty.

Our feed store now carries very fine shavings which are extremely popular now... Basically the pellets broken down... But again, they are just too dusty for my taste.

 

[Maple Hollow Farm]

I am one that LOVES using just good ol shavings

, I like them to be fairly fine but not rediculously as then they can get dusty if too fine. When using the finer shavings I have never had problems with absorbing the wet spots. Since the shavings are finer it is easy enough to pick stalls everyday. The stalls smell great and it is fluffy and soft for my horses, I know that they prefer it over pellets as well by the way they act when bedded. I used the pellets at first and will never go back!

 

[anoki]

I use softwood pellets for one of my big guys (who is an absolute PIG in his stall). I am able to buy them in a large tote (like farmers buy seed in). I bed very deep, about 4-6 inches. And I mist the pellets to break most of them and dump in the stall. I muck out once a day, and my big guys spend more time in than out (their choice). I also flip the entire stall EVERY DAY, to ensure I am getting all the wet spots, and that the bedding doesn't start packing (and heating).

I like that I can bed deep with it....

BUT, it is very, VERY dusty....and I cannot put my horse with laminitis issues on it....after a month of on again, off again laminitis issues, I got him off it, and he is now on baled shavings with *touch wood* no issues (thankfully he is one of the neatest horses I've ever seen, so he doesn't go through more than 1/2 a bale a day for the most part in a 10x12 stall with about 4-6 inches of bedding as well...though it fluffs around more than the pellets do

).

DO NOT buy wood burning pellets....they contain hardwoods and some can be very harmful to horses (I know you said pine in the subject, but that is for anyone else reading).

~kathryn

 

[wingnut]

I had tried the ABM pellets before and I think I didn't use them right, so I just put down a new batch today and will be trying to follow the directions better this time. One problem that I know I have that I really can't get around is that our "stalls" are actually run-in sheds that have been divided (and one shed has had dutch doors added). There is no *one* horse that is using a stall. So there's never just one wet spot. Although it does seem that each stall does have an area used more than another in that same stall. Anyway, trying the ABM again and am hoping for the best.

 

[Riverdance]

I am a paper bedding fan too, but so far, I have not found it in Florida. In MN, I had so much trouble in a closed barn with ammonia odor and dust, so much dust. Stripped all my stalls and started to use paper bedding. No smell, NO DUST and the stalls were so easy to clean.

only thing, at the World Show last year, I found out my horses were eating the bedding.

 

[Leeana]

We used bag shavings or saw dust from a mill, but have to drive all the way to Amish country which is just short of two hours to get a load, we can get a truckload for $6 but gas in our truck comes out to around $40, so not sure if its really that much cheaper then using and buying bagged shavings.

Right now in the barn I have the TSC "fine" shavings...mostly because the local mill that I buy shavings at was closed over the holiday and I needed to strip stalls badly over the holiday weekend while I had time. I hate hate HATE the TSC shavings, impossible to pick, even what they call "fine" shavings, more like shards.

The shavings I get at my mill are $5/bag and are very nice, easy to sift and pick, I cannot remember what they are called but they are the least dusty shavings i've ever used and don't stick to the horses, the flakes are about the size of an end of a pen and are treated with for bacteria (which I honestly don't know if it makes a difference in all actuality, but its nice to think so). I rarely really strip stalls. after about a week or so I just take out the really wet/dirty area's and put in a new bag. Once you get it built up good enough, its easy. I do stalls 1x-2x a day. Normally AM and PM, OR one or the other depending on my work schedule.

Also I put a bag of lime from TSC, which is about $2 for a bag in the bottom of each stall every once in a while. Very cheap to do this and it helps with the smell, esp those mares that do nothing but urinate ALL day long. Mares are the worst to stall. I have one mare that you just cannot keep her stall clean or dry, I could put down a bag of shavings or straw every day and by the following morning it would be wet.

 

[wildoak]

I've been using the wood pellets for years now - again, everybody has their own system lol. I have mats in the stalls so I don't use a lot of bedding for the minis. I start with a couple of bags per stall, then generally add a bag a week depending on the horse and how much stall time they have. But I put about a quarter of a bag of shavings on top of the pellets. It softens it for the horses until the pellets break down and makes it less like little ball bearings to walk on (can tell you from experience they get slippery!. We had a dust problem before the mats were down but only now if I have a horse who really walks the stall & churns it up. Odor is nil, that's the best part of pellets to me...they clump like kitty litter, easy to pick out and contains odor. My stalls get cleaned daily.

I hate hate HATE the TSC shavings, impossible to pick, even what they call "fine" shavings, more like shards.

Absolutely! Had to buy some this week as my feed store was out, terrible!I've tried the paper shavings and LOVE the zero dust and the economy of them. They were harder to pick out though, and I'm still finding them in corners of the barn from the wind blowing them all over lol.

Jan

 

[MindyLee]

Right now in the barn I have the TSC "fine" shavings...mostly because the local mill that I buy shavings at was closed over the holiday and I needed to strip stalls badly over the holiday weekend while I had time. I hate hate HATE the TSC shavings, impossible to pick, even what they call "fine" shavings, more like shards.

mare that you just cannot keep her stall clean or dry, I could put down a bag of shavings or straw every day and by the following morning it would be wet.

Did you get the white bag or yellow bag at TSC? I only ask cause they both say fine on them. I notice that since TSC started carrying the yellow bags, the folks around here advoid the white bags and only buy them if the yellows are out of stock. They seem to like the yellow ones better and say the are way finner flaked.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Looks like paper shavings and the pellets are everyones favorites. I have no clue where to get paper shaving so may go with the pellets. There is a company like 20 min from me called Guardian and they have both pellets and your regular shavings. With them it says use 5 or 6 bags for a 12X12 stall and you only need to add 1 or 2 bags a week and they say you don't have to strip the stall. But with them they recommend using 1 or 1.5 gallons of water for each bag and that just seems an awfully lot to me. I've seen the pellets at TSC called Equine Fresh and a 40 lb bag isn't cheap and they say 9 bags for a 10X12 stall add 1 or 2 bags a week and they just say mist the pellets and strip every month, ahh no.

I used the shavings at TSC and was not happy with them. I believe the white bag is the flakes and the yellow is the fine. I used the fine.

Thanks!

 

[anoki]

I don't tend to agree with them on how much to put in...but it depends on how you bed. When I started with pellets, I put in about 10 40 lb bags in a 10x12 stall (with a 16.1 hh horse). I put in close to a bag a DAY!

I don't 'strip' the stall at all, but I do flip the entire stall every day and take out a very overloaded wheelbarrow (or more) out of the stall every day....yes....he is that much of a pig.

~kathryn

 

[susanne]

If you have hard or hard-packed floors in your stalls, put down a small amount of pellets and spritz, then once those have broken down, add the rest of your pellets -- voila -- no walking on marbles. I have one horse who would argue with you about the hard pellets being uncomfortable -- he loves to roll on them!

I DO use wood stove pellets, but only those labeled 100% pine or fir with no additives. Here in the NW, land of the Douglas Fir, this is the norm -- you'd have a hard time finding hardwood pellets, but even so I won't buy from anyone who doesn't guarantee the content.

I'm checking into paper pellets...we have a company that's a bit of a drive for us but close to my sister's house, so we just need to combine trips.