Shavings vs Pellets

[elevenelevenxo]

Trying to decide what kind of bedding I want to use for Rebel when I move him. I won't be able to buy a truck load of sawdust because I won't have the space to store it, so I'll have to stick with the bags.

By the bag, shavings are cheaper. But I've heard pellets last longer. I've used Woody Pet and Feline Pine (basically the same thing) for my rabbit in her litterbox and it's amazing stuff for her....but for a big horse, I don't know what to expect. :)

So, what are your opinions? And my apologies if this has been discussed before.

[vicklynn]

I used pellets once. Chris Cox was nice enough to give me some for my haul back home.
I liked them. I have shavings on hand in case I need them. I dont have a need for them daily, so I cant help ya.

[WashingtonBay]

I don't like the pellets. I like shavings or sawdust, but I like to bed them deep and comfortable, I don't just sprinkle-cover the floor like boarding stables do.

[FlapJack]

I tried pellets for a while but didn't like them as much - mostly because the horses didn't seem to, lol. They didn't lie down in their stalls as often as they do with shavings, and I also found the pellets to be a bit dusty (might have been the particular brand I had - not sure).
I'd probably go with shavings, but you could always do a trial of both and see what you prefer.

[miatapony]

I like the woodie pellets they are great in the stall but in the trailer i use shaveings

[gaited07]

I use the wood stove pellets for wet areas and shavings as a bedding. Its tough to keep the bedding here in the open due to our winds.

[APPYT]

I only have one horse who uses a stall regularly. I use pellets and I like them a lot. They take up very little space to store and soak up much better than shavings do. I actually bought a whole pallet early in fall a year ago and still have some left. I didn't use a stall regularly last winter.

I don't bed deeply as I don't shut in for one and because I have noticed that horses do not lay down in deep stuff outside. Why would they need it inside? I have enough down to keep it from being a very hard surface but not so much that it just gets kicked around.

[zoel_222]

I love the pellets. I use them at home and at work. I take 4 bags, wet em down and they expand and get all cushy and fluffy and I only need to add like 2-3 bags a month after that tops. They rock. I'd never go back to shavings. They're also super absorbent. With the shavings/sawdust I'd have to take out a huge spot where the pee was and add more bedding over the empty spot of stuff I took out. With the pellets there's just a teeny little pee-spot because all the pee gets collected and trapped with a small amount of pellets. I just take that stuff out and still have clean pellets underneath. The pellets are also super cost effective. The upfront is pretty expensive but they go such a long way. With shavings or sawdust it was $400 for a load of shavings for a barn with 23 horses. That lasts 3 weeks. With the pellets it's $475 a ton, but a ton lasts two months. My favorite brand is Blue Mountain. I've tried ABM and something else I can't remember but they didn't expand very well.

[offgridgirl]

I don't bed deeply as I don't shut in for one and because I have noticed that horses do not lay down in deep stuff outside. Why would they need it inside? I have enough down to keep it from being a very hard surface but not so much that it just gets kicked around.

My boys will only lie down inside out of the rain/wind. If given the choice, they will always lie in the deep shavings vs outside in the mud. I have tried the wood pellets and found them expensive but handy. I have seen the sawdust cause colic and lung problems. It is great to see the shaving on their faces/ears and along the body on one side in the morning. My guy sometimes has a shavings mustache from doing a face plant.:p

[Vegashorselady]

I love the pellets. In the beginning I dumped a bunch of bags in there and wetted them down with the hose so that they would break apart and make a nice soft bed. After that I only have to ad a bag once in a while to the horses' pee spot and once in a while spread another 2 or 3 bags around the stall. Of course, one of the biggest reasons I prefer them is because they don't blow away in the wind like the shavings do, even when they break down, the little peices don't have enough surface area to catch the wind. When you have open pipe corrals in the desert that is very important!

[elevenelevenxo]

Does wetting the pellets with the hose cause them to not absorb urine as well though?

And about how many bags do you use for what sized stalls?

The new barn has 12'x12' stalls and the owner says the horses are turned out as much as possible. When I visited, I met her after she got off of work at about 5 and got to the barn a few minutes before her actually - all the horses were outside. I'm sure they're out for 8-12 hours a day.

[TheRedHayflinger]

there have been cases of horses actually eating the pellets before...not often though. Barn I worked at used them for a bit, except in one mares stall, she was a former rescue and had been starved in the past...she thought the pellets were chow...lol. Couldn't bed her with straw either as she would eat that (they found that out when they found out she was pregnant when they got her and bedded her stall down with straw for foaling)

[mustangluver]

Pellets was just to much cash for me. So I went got 8ft truck load of sawdust and it FILLED 6 stalls with plenty of cushing. I don't have issues with it and for me it was economical.

[zoel_222]

And about how many bags do you use for what sized stalls?

Originally when we bed the stalls the first time we'll put 3-6 bags depending on the messiness of the horse. The stalls are 12x12 and unfortunately the horses are only out 2-6 hours a day.

Does wetting the pellets with the hose cause them to not absorb urine as well though?


If you don't wet the pellets down it's really hard to pick up the poop, and it's uncomfortable for the horse to stand/lay on. They do absorb better if you don't wet them, but when you do they still absorb everything fantastically and are even better for the horse. You only want to wet them until they expand, not so they get so soaked all the pellets turn into soggy dust.

[cloedoll]

I can't really help since I've only ever used sawdust, but I LOVE sawdust. Not only is it free for me (thank you Amish mills :p), but it makes such a soft bedding for Cloe and I rarely have to strip out her stall completely, I just muck it once a day and every once in a blue moon re-do the entire thing.

[Vegashorselady]

Well, I don't wet the pellets I dumb in the pee spot, I just let them absorbe the urine. Initially I put about 6 bags in the stall (I have 16x24 corrals). Then after that I only have to add 2 or 3 bags a month. In the long run it is more economical. The pellets break down to a very fine bedding and so it is easy to pic the manure out and not waste bedding.

[HeavensEast]

My horses are turned out for 12 hours a day, and they are in stalls for the rest of the day (12 hours :p). I use TSC shavings.. they are $5 a bag, but they are well worth it. I don't really like pellets. In my experience, they are dusty, they get pulverized, and they are very dirty after maybe 2 days. And after that, they stay that way because they don't have to be taken out. In my experience, horses that are stalled in stalls with pellets always had pee/manure stains on them every morning. Yuck.

I start my stalls with 2 1/2 bags in the 10'x11.5' stalls and 2 in our 10'x11' stalls. Yeah, they're small. :( But we've got two ponies in the smaller ones. If my TB has to come home, we are going to build a 12'x12' for him. I don't usually have to strip them. I just add 4 bags a week (for 4 horses) and they're always nice and poofy and they smell good. Not like pee.

JMHO! :)

[Horseaholic]

what about mixing them??

[HeavensEast]

That's an idea, but you would have to wet the pellets first and let them expand before you mixed them. It might be weird though because the shaving pieces are much larger than the pellet particles.

[Mercury]

I have pellets since storage and transportation space is limited. In the space I can fit 3 bags of shavings I can get 6-7 bag of pellets.

As far as eating them, my horses would eat the cob bedding but not the wood bedding.