Wood Pellet Bedding

[dustys_girlly]

anyone use them?

i do and love it. it make cleaning stalls so much easier and there is little to no waste! there is no place in town that sells the pellets that are made for bedding but after looking at wood pellets make for stoves i realized that they are the same things and so much cheaper. when my boss finally got some after me bugging him about them for months it was about $10 for a 50 lbs bag but the stove pellets are only $6.75 a bag so guess what i got. but not all stove pellets will work, you have to get the all natural ones. golden fire pellets is the brand that i have been using and they work great. they are so much easier than shavings or straw.

[TLC97]

WOW, what a great idea. I have tried the Woody pet before and did not like it, plus I felt it didn't save me money. Glad you made out so well

[gaited07]

I will use the wood stove pellets for wet areas. Works great.

[Vegashorselady]

Oh yeah, started using the wood stove pellets a couple of years ago because the shavings blow away in the wind here but the pellets don't. They have made my stalls so nice and soft and soak up the wet spots better than anything else.

[Toodlestoo]

I'm a big fan of the wood pellets too. We use them in our stalls as well as the dog kennels. They're so absorbent and really keep the odor down. It's a heck of a lot easier cleaning up with them too. We get the ones for the wood stoves and they work just as well. Just make sure there's no walnut in them.

[~*Domino*~]

Wow, great info! I am so going to have to try this! Thanks!

[vicklynn]

Ok, so how are they used?

[dustys_girlly]

i just put them down instead of shavings and then you can lightly spray them with water to get them to start to break down, but once you have some in there you can just add a bag. when i first put them in Dusty's stall i did not wet them and she would slid if she moved to fast. so wetting them is a good thing. but they just break down and become wood powder and it is soft, absorbent, smells good, little waste, and so easy to clean.

[moka]

That sound really interesting. How long does it take to break down?

[WashingtonBay]

I'm a skeptic that I would like it. How deep to you put them in? By volume, I think it's a lot more expensive than shavings, and I like to bed my stalls deep so the horses can lay down comfortably. Where I've seen pellets used, they just barely cover the pee spots with them, so it's not a 'bed'.

[mandisue]

I've never used them but know people who have and love them. We're actually going to be making and selling wood pellets for stoves and pine pellets for horse owners!!

[MyMia]

I'm curious how you use them, too. Both horses like to lay down in their stalls, and I always thought they must be uncomfortable to lay on.

Also, if they break down into a woody powder, how is it different from sawdust? I've used that (hubby has a sawmill) but I didn't like it because you needed a shovel to pick up the dirty parts--couldn't sift with a fork.

I like the smell of pine shavings, too. What do the pellets smell like?

[lisakaye]

I used them at the old barn with Easter because the owner was onlu using a handful of shavings. I used the ones from Tractor Supply.The initail outlay for the mats and sand and 10 bags to start with was a little costly but after that I put 1 bag of new pellets in every Saturday and I loved it. Soo much easier to clean up and a lot less smell.

[mandisue]

Well they're made of sawdust so when they break apart that's generally what it will look like

[Mercury]

I use the cob bedding from TSC. I buy it in bulk so its only $6 a bag that way. It breaks down like sand (but its not...) and the horses sleep in a sandy type stall. I bed it pretty thick adn go through a bag a week per horse. Cleaning it is like cleaning a litter box. All the good stuff falls through the fork and the bad stuff clumps up. The good thing is that if you have a horse that has a tendency to eat bedding it doesn't have any ill side effects since it is just cobs.

[Toodlestoo]

It breaks down like sawdust but is so much more absorbent. Plus, it's like cleaning a huge litter box. The wet areas and the poop cling together so there's not much waste. So in the long run, it's very economical because you don't have to change it as much as sawdust.

[lovesfortune]

Very interesting to know. i never would have thought of using wood pellets for horse bedding before.

[SuperSTB]

Back in the northeast- we used them for our boarding facility for several years. At first we bought Woody Pet but then moved onto purchasing pallets of stove pellets. The same company that made the stove pellets also rebagged them with a little horse picture on the front as bedding. Each bag was 10lbs more and at least a dollar or two less than WP. The only difference I found is that WP is a bit 'softer'.

Anyway we did a 50/50 mix of the pellets and fine shavings. Gave us a nicely bedded stall and the pellets absorbed very nicely. Also the manure waste pile broke down quicker for recycling for garden use. One of the local equine mags had us in an article for how to best use pelleted bedded with shavings- darn if I can't find what I did with that magazine copy.

Easier on barns with limited storage space. 200 bags of pellets takes up a heck of a lot less room than 200 bags of shavings! Our barn space was at a premium so in the winter we also split forage (hay) to using chopped bagged stuff from Lucern and Triple Crown. Since you should feed by weight- a 50lb bag of chopped forage also takes up less room than a 50lb of hay- horses also waste less forage. Another 50/50 split we did. Just another little savings tidbit.

[sgttibbs521]

we used the pellet shavings before and i like them much more than the regular shavings. you don't waste as much shavings and the pellets last longer.

[APPYT]

I use the wood stove pellets. They are mainly oak I think. I don't stall regularly and shavings seemed to fly around too much due to my barn being fairly open. These pellets soak up wet spots much better than shavings and I was having a terrible time finding shavings as well. They are cheaper, cleaner, take up way less space in the muck bucket and basically break down to look like a nice dark dirt. I rarely remove any of it, just rake the wet spots into some dry and toss dry on the spot. Lightly misting to help speed up the breakdown when you first start using it so they don't roll on the pellets as they walk is important. Then I add a bag whenever I feel the need, rake it around a bit, mist if I feel it needs it and I'm done.

[jeezitsjacki]

our barn owner uses wood pellets too. I like them a lot, but I think shavings may be more comfortable. Pellets are way easier to use though and still keep the stalls nice. We just put a thin layer down on the entire stall and it works well.