Pelleted bedding????

[thrghbrd]

I just started my “experiment” with pellets and I have to say I AM SOLD!!! I cannot believe how much faster the stalls get cleaned!! I have been mixing the dry pellets with Guardian Swift Pick shavings and its FANTASTIC.

I’m glad I read this thread b/c I now realize that I’m doing a couple of things “wrong”…I have one super messy guy and I’ll have to put him on mats and add WAY MORE pellets. I just wish they were alittle cheaper…$6. 50ish by me…Swift Pick shavings $5.99. I was buying a small flake shaving for $4.75 bag so I was hoping to save a little $ but I think in the long run I will by switching to pellets only.

[smay]

I think that maybe I’m not using enough pelleted bedding in our stalls because I like the way they absorb and clean up and smell and cost…but my one horse has developed some hock sores when I use them in his stall… he likes to lie down. He likes to choose the messiest spots to lie, too. He moves all his bedding to the sides of the stall daily, and seems to lie in bare spots, in manure and urine. I add a bag of pellets to his stall weekly, rake the bedding into the middle and just pick out the wet spots and manure daily and sometimes twice daily, but he still is getting rubs on his hocks. I maybe need to up the amount of bedding overall.

[2DogsFarm]

I cannot believe I read 5 pages on this topic.
But since acquiring the Hackney Pony with the Clydesdale bladder it has become an important issue to me

I used to use pellets only in the pee spots for my former 2 geldings. Worked like a charm.
They were Out more than In anyhow.

Pony seems to go through pellets like there is no tomorrow :eek:
He uses one wall of his stall as his personal urinal and I am forever removing soaked-through (turned to dark red) pellets.
I’ve put an entire bag of pellets in this spot only to have them come out, totally saturated, 2 days later.

I am hoping whoever posted about mixing in kitty litter will come back & tell me:
1)ratio of litter to pellets
2)are you using regular clay litter or the sandy clumping kind

One little 12h pony’s stall is harder to keep clean than the 17h+ WB!

Do Pampers come in Pony Size?

[Auventera_Two]

2Dogs - that is a major sign of Cushings disease. And it is so common in ponies. Excessive urination is usually the first things people notice.

And as for pellets - I hate them. Have tried two different brands on different ocassions. Dusty, disgusting, and dirty. I like fluffy pine shavings.

[Equino]

I agree. I used to think they were a good idea-cheaper, time efficient-until I moved a horse I thought was low maintenance to a barn who uses them. The 1st week, he turned up with the nastiest grunge around his feet and girth (granted, could also by the girl who was supposed to be caring for him’s fault…) and it is so dusty, itchy and everything looks dirty. I come home more filthy now after riding one horse, picking a few stalls and doing some sweeping than I did while working all day by myself, which included all chores cleaning an 8 stall barn, picking paddocks, riding, the works.

I can see the usefulness in a turn out shed type situation, where it’s all open, but I would never want to use in a barn.

I worked at a barn that used the kitty litter stuff and that was much better as far as dust went, much cleaner on a regular basis. But once it was time to strip, so freaking hard to do I cannot tell you.

[2DogsFarm]

@Auventera Two;5006206

2Dogs - that is a major sign of Cushings disease. And it is so common in ponies. Excessive urination is usually the first things people notice.

And as for pellets - I hate them. Have tried two different brands on different ocassions. Dusty, disgusting, and dirty. I like fluffy pine shavings.

Vet saw pony in May - just 2 weeks after he came to live here - and noticed nothing pointing towards Cushings.

Pony shed out normally - he was fuzzy when he got here but is slick now.
His neck is not abnormally cresty, he is now in good weight (skinny when I got him) & no other sign of pituitary issues.

I think he’s just a wet pony who prefers peeing inside - I rarely see him go outdoors - he’ll come in just to pee.

I’m not discounting your advice. Vet is not due until Fall, but I’ll have bloodwork done then just to play safe.

[susanne]

And older lady flower gardeners fight over it…and you don’t want to try to break those fights up, LOL!

LOL!..so do the younger lady [perennial, shrub and ornamental tree] gardeners…

Any manure/used pellet compost that I don’t use in my garden beds is snatched up by my sister, who has dubbed it “Mingus Magic.” My sister-in-law, on the other hand, who acts as if her garden compost “don’t stink,” has lost her access to this black gold.

The spent pellets make a fantastic clay buster, and my garden soil is friable in the mid-winter, when most Oregon soil forms horrid mud balls.

I don’t mix all the pee-soaked bedding in with the manure, I just don’t try to sift manure from bedding.

The pee-soaked stuff gets spread around dry lot gates, where it dries in the sun and improves drainage and reduces mud problems come winter.

Gardening aside, I LOVE pellet bedding and so do my horses.

[Freebird]

@2DogsFarm;5005722

I am hoping whoever posted about mixing in kitty litter will come back & tell me:
1)ratio of litter to pellets
2)are you using regular clay litter or the sandy clumping kind

One little 12h pony’s stall is harder to keep clean than the 17h+ WB!

Do Pampers come in Pony Size?

I guess that was me? We don’t really measure the kitty litter/pellet mix. We put it in a plastic trash can that is tied to a luggage carrier, so that we can just wheel it around to each stall. You have to experiment. Too much litter and it gets slimy. To little and it just doesn’t cut the ammonia smell of the ones who pee rivers. We actually just get the really cheap no name brand litter. I think the cashiers at Wal-Mart must think that our BO is some sort of Crazy Cat Lady hoarder, when she comes out with 15 bags of litter. LOL.

[2DogsFarm]

thanks freebird
“slimy” sounds like the clay litter, which is the cheapest kind anyhow.
I’ll try that in his spot and see if it dries up the River Hackney.

[system]

I absolutely love love love pellets. Have been using them for about 15 years. I have had my share of crappy dusty pellets though. I did my research and found out that most pellets are made from sawmill residuals. When you take a small particle and compress it, common sense says it will become smaller. Hense the dust. I found a company that makes fantastic almost absoultely dust free pellets when I relocated to Virginia. The pellet is called Royal Virginian. Their customer service is fantastic. I never have a problem getting a hold of my sales rep. When I dealt with Guardian it would take me leaving 10 or more messages before I could get an order placed!

I put the bags in the stall and cut and X in it. I pour a bucket of water in the bag and wait about 15 minutes. Shake the bags out and rake. It’s super fluffy dries quickly and really absorbant. It doesn’t stick on blankets, clothes, or my horses either. They’re easy to pick and I don’t waste much. A bag a week added to the stalls to top it off. It only takes me 5 bags to do each stall and have 4-5" thickness. AND a ton is so easy to store…hardly takes up any space at all compared to shavings or piles of sawdust.

[King_s_Ransom]

I have used pellets since I bought my farm four years ago. I love them. I think it’s much easier to keep the stalls clean with pellets. I tried shavings in one stall just “to see” and was shocked, really, at how much more difficult that stall was to clean than the ones with pellets.

About the cost – may be worthwhile to ask if there is a discount for buying a pallet. I can save 50-cents a bag if I buy a pallet at the local store. However, I ran across a deal at another farm store where I was able to get 50 bags for $3.75 per bag (40-lb bags!). Someone apparently ordered a pallet, and then never showed up to pick it up. So they made me a deal … when I asked.

I am not a wheeler-dealer, but it sure does pay to ask sometimes!

[kmw2707]

For those using pellets in frozen tundra, how does it work to wet them down in the middle of winter? If you dump a bucket of water into a fresh bag, doesn’t it just turn into a frozen mass?

It has been in the single digits/teens around here when I feed in the morning/evenings, granted today is a heat wave as it has almost hit 30F.

[Auventera_Two]

I just asked that question of the barn owner where Amadeus is for the winter, as they use pellets. She said they never wet them, just dump them in the stall and over time they break down.

[King_s_Ransom]

I don’t wet mine when it’s super cold. As A2 said, they break down, especially after the horses pee on them!

[kmw2707]

Even when just starting a stall? My guys don’t come in much and the boarders are currently all pasture boarders, but it is suppose to get rather nasty in the next 12 to 24 hours, so wanted to be prepared.

[TXPiaffe]

I have a gelding that poo’s & urinates in his stall and then circles and circles and circles and completely trashes his stall in a matter of days. I have tried everything on him I can think of! Even with the pellets. Any ideas? He is getting moved next weekend to a stall with a run attached to see if that will help, but last year it really didn’t help much…

[Auventera_Two]

@kmp2707;5275240

Even when just starting a stall? My guys don’t come in much and the boarders are currently all pasture boarders, but it is suppose to get rather nasty in the next 12 to 24 hours, so wanted to be prepared.

I have to go get another pallet of shavings tomorrow also. Ugh. That big Percheron pees about 100 gallons at a time I swear.

[MistyBlue]

TXPiaffe, for super-duper-filthy-stall-pigs you can try regular sawdust and bed it deep. It packs as they walk on it leaving the top inch or so looser and sometimes this works because they can really only ruin the top inch of bedding. Then just scrape the entire top level off and toss it.

Ages ago when we did deep litter bedding even the disgusting stall walking filthy horses’ stalls didn’t have tons of ruined bedding because the sawdust was so deep and dense they could only smash manure into the top loose layer and we’d just scoop that off. And the urine can’t get dragged around because it drains to the bottom of the thicker bedding and the hooves don’t go through to there to mix it up, so just dig that pee spots out.

I have one horse now who’s stall looks like a frat party every morning.

[fordtraktor]

I was struggling with how to deal with pellets in winter as well because I usually spray them with the hose in the summer, but hoses and winter don’t mix. I started dumping the pellets in the wheelbarrow and then pouring a bucket of water on them, letting it sit for ten minutes then spreading it out (got that tip from this thread – THANKS someone!!). They soften before freezing. I like it so much I’m going to keep doing it in the summer, because the water gets to all the pellets which is hard to do with the hose. I saturate them pretty well, a full bucket for two bags of pellets, then they kind of redampen the stall a bit and remove dust when I spread them out.

I have not had any success with using pellets without watering them. I go through pellets twice as fast and the stalls aren’t as fluffy. My pellets never expand from horse pee because I remove everything they pee on. Unless I water them, they remain pellets forever until they happen to get peed on. Just doesn’t work for me.

I really like the pellets – stalls remain smelling fresh, are easy to clean and the pellets are easy to store. It’s not cheap, but I don’t think it is more expensive than bagged shavings either. And it is cheaper than building a new shed to store bulk shavings, which I would need to do to go that route.

[MistyBlue]

Ever walk into a stall with new pellets spread out? I’ve done that a time or two and landed right on my arse…like marbles, LOL! (not so for horses though, they weigh enough that they don’t slide on them)

I find the pellets a LOT cheaper than shavings. :yes: Because I use so much less. If I bedding my stalls in shavings and wanted to keep them as deep and clean as they are now, I’d go through 3-4 bags of shavings per week vs 1 bag of pellets. Huge savings.