Feed from petco.com - free delivery!

[atr]

I haven’t used Petco delivery for this exact reason.

But the feed store at the bottom of my street does not and will not carry what I need, because apparently Timothy Pellets and rice bran are too esoteric for their regular customers. The other feed store I pass on the way to the barn (which I have used for 20 years) has got very hit or miss on whether they have things in stock–and when they do have it, they are more crippled than I am so I have to load my own truck, and the TSC near the barn charges me $10 a bag more for Maxiglo Rice bran than Petco would and won’t help me load my truck because there are never any staff in there–and the woman at the checkout desk wants to know if I’ve found God. (Oh, and they’ve been out of Timothy pellets the last couple of times I’ve been in, so I’ve found neither them nor God.)

So, it’s getting very tempting.

[clanter]

regarding the bagged shavings from PetCo, I did order 6 bags which was just over the threshold for Free Shipping, Order took three days for them to process, shipped UPS in PetCo boxes (if you ever need nice large boxes this is an inexpensive method of purchasing them)

UPS took one day to deliver, stacking the boxes neatly by the garage out of the weather.

The 8 cu/ft bags are light… I wondered about that until I used some to see that there is no dust in the bags, just medium flake pine shavings.

So at this point in time I am not displeased nor jumping up and down in happiness.

The price is right at $5.99 delivered (plus a free really nice box)

[ClassyJumper]

Thanks for this tip! I hate all the cardboard so I probably won’t do it often but wow. I ordered on Tues and is scheduled to be delivered Thursday. Not to mention the rice bran is nearly $10 cheaper than tractor supply. Great to have in a pinch when the stores don’t have what you need!

[trubandloki]

Thank you for updating us on this.

[islgrl]

I ordered a bale of standlee alfalfa and then three bags for shavings to get the free shipping. The bags were so small that I probably would only order them again if I need to make up an order for free shipping. It all came super fast though!

[Texarkana]

@clanter

The price is right at $5.99 delivered (plus a free really nice box)

That is considerably less than what I pay for a bag of shavings, about $8.50. Though my bags are pretty big.

I like to support my local feed store but I am also loyal to my wallet. In normal times, my horses live out 24/7 and I don’t go through many shavings. Ordering sporadically is appealing. Of course, my horses are hell bent on making sure nothing is normal on my farm lately.

[trubandloki]

The price ($5.99) is equal to what I pay locally for what I believe is the same size bag of shavings. But now I am wondering since someone just said the bags were so small.

I ordered some to see what they are like.

[cutter99]

As someone who has hand unloaded entire tractor trailers of shavings, I wonder if they have found a way to compress then tightly to reduce size and potential shipping costs. They are bulky and unwieldy to handle, so compressing them tight would be to everyone’s bonus!

[trubandloki]

I will report back as soon as my order get to me.

If they are the same size as I buy locally, I might be a really happy person, because my little car does not like it when I try to shove it full of shavings, and Mr. Trub does not like it when I drag him (and his truck) to get shavings.

[clanter]

@Texarkana

I like to support my local feed store but I am also loyal to my wallet.

Same here, there are two primary feed stores that I use plus there is always TSC and Atwoods (a regional farm/ranch store) and then there are many large tack store we use but primary is Teskey’s in Weatherford, we know several of the department heads who insure we get preferred pricing

The primary feed stores, first is Russel’s which is privately held chain in north Texas—Very Competitive pricing… gives TSC a run for their money… and every December this chain has an end of year sale with everything but Hay 20% limited to a dollar cap per customer (varies year to year from $500 to $1000 per customer)

The second feed store we use is D&L -Denton… as they handle the Teff hay we use and will deliver … their staff is top notch… very, very good. I arrange our shipments to when they are coming in town to pick up feed from Purina whose regional horse feed mill is just a few miles from our place. (This Purina mill Only makes horse feeds, they also mix/bag Triple Crown there)

The two feed stores know we are using two sources.

[islgrl]

They haven’t really. I bought two bags, the mini flakes and the medium flakes. I normally use two bags of shavings a week. I used both of these bags in three days… And the stall was no more dirty than usual. its fine, because they were a lot less expensive and I wasn’t expecting them to be a regular size bag but they really are small. I’m totally not complaining though, I don’t expect petco to have horse bedding so it is what it is…

@cutter99

As someone who has hand unloaded entire tractor trailers of shavings, I wonder if they have found a way to compress then tightly to reduce size and potential shipping costs. They are bulky and unwieldy to handle, so compressing them tight would be to everyone’s bonus!

[trubandloki]

My shavings arrived today. So order to arrival was very quick (two days).

I agree that the bags are smaller.

I have not tried them yet. I will report back once I open a bag.

[stargzng386]

Do you have any idea how much smaller? Can you measure them? These are the exact shavings I usually buy and would love delivery but not if they’re smaller than the ones I usually get

[cutter99]

We want details- all the details! Pictures too!

[clanter]

@stargzng386

Do you have any idea how much smaller? Can you measure them?

the medium shavings I got were 8 cubic foot bags, these were not compressed nearly as much as local bags nor did these have any dust to add weight

They “appear” to be about 2/3rds the coverage of a local 8cu/ft bag …nothing scientific in measuring just looking at the coverage. These Did fluff up nicely

The product’s primary advantage… Free shipping to the door for the times when a run to the feed store or TSC is no in the cards.

[SusanO]

How many cubic feet does the bag say? I have found shavings to be anywhere from 5 to 10 cubic feet per bag. The TSC bags don’t hold much - I think they are 5 cubic feet. Once I had to buy some “special” pine shavings because everything else was out. Each bag held about 3 shovel fulls of chopped up shavings/ sawdust. Nice stuff but I thought " this isn’t sustainable". If a bag says 5 cubic feet you aren’t getting much. It is hard to compare without looking at what the bag says.

[trubandloki]

The bag for the medium flakes states they expands to 8cf. (Right now I only have fine Tractor Supply shavings and the expand to number on that is lower, but that is to be expected with the fine shavings.)

I will measure a bag this evening when I am out there.

The one bag of shavings that I took out of the box really looks like they simply did not fill the bag all the way, there is a flap of plastic at the end.

I will also try to remember to bring my phone out so I can take a photo next to a bag of Tractor Supply shavings.

[Texarkana]

@trubandloki

The bag for the medium flakes states they expands to 8cf. (Right now I only have fine Tractor Supply shavings and the expand to number on that is lower, but that is to be expected with the fine shavings.)

I will measure a bag this evening when I am out there.

The one bag of shavings that I took out of the box really looks like they simply did not fill the bag all the way, there is a flap of plastic at the end.

I will also try to remember to bring my phone out so I can take a photo next to a bag of Tractor Supply shavings.

They appear to be the same brand that some of the local stores around here sell (Americas Choice), and I’ve noticed the same thing: the bags aren’t very compressed and seem partially full.

Petco’s price is better than the local prices on them.

[trubandloki]

@Texarkana

@trubandloki

The bag for the medium flakes states they expands to 8cf. (Right now I only have fine Tractor Supply shavings and the expand to number on that is lower, but that is to be expected with the fine shavings.)

I will measure a bag this evening when I am out there.

The one bag of shavings that I took out of the box really looks like they simply did not fill the bag all the way, there is a flap of plastic at the end.

I will also try to remember to bring my phone out so I can take a photo next to a bag of Tractor Supply shavings.

They appear to be the same brand that some of the local stores around here sell (Americas Choice), and I’ve noticed the same thing: the bags aren’t very compressed and seem partially full.

I do not think any of the supply places near me sell this brand so I would not be able to compare them to what is at the stores.
I can totally see them mailing out the smaller bales.

[trubandloki]

I measured using a weight tape and did the heavy duty math (kidding) of converting hands to dimensions.
I opened a second box to see if the one box I opened was an anomaly, it was not.
The bags are approximately 19" x 26" x 13" . (the box is labelled 25x12x17 so… )

Here is a photo of one bag with its box. You can see how there is a flap of plastic at the end.

Here is a photo comparing the product from PetCo (middle) bag to a bag of Tractor Supply fine and a bag of Plainville. The Americas Choice weighs quite a bit less then the Plainville and the Tractor Supply is noticeably more than the Americas Choice but not as much as the Plainville. (No numbers, just the word of the person who carried them to this spot in the aisle to take the photo.)

The Tractor Supply bag is not that much bigger than the Americas Choice bag. The Tractor Supply bag is much more firmly packed.

Here is a photo of the Americas Choice bag on top of the Tractor Supply bag.
(They are better aligned than my poor photo angle makes them look on the right side.)

That all aside. I used a bag of these today. There are less shavings. But darn they are lovely shavings. Perfect size flake. Closer to a small flake than a medium flake. The flakes have a little shape to them which makes them puffy in the stall. No dust when I poured out the bag too.