hello, I am trying to find the most cost efficient wood pellets for my two horses… my number one priority is safe for the horses. I’ve read a ton of opposing views… some say pine only and others say any white soft wood. What flew everyone think? Tips on the best place to buy? Things To look for… etc?
The softwood wood stove pellets I’ve seen for sale have always been comparable in price to the horse bedding pellets…sometimes even more costly.
The hardwood pellets are usually less by a buck or two a bag, but carry a risk of being unsafe.
If your #1 priority is being safe, I’d go with something labeled for horses. If you have a place to store a pallet of pellets, you can usually get a discount by buying a pallet at a time. Call around and see who has the best price–around here, it’s a swing of maybe three bucks a bag. And confirm you like the specific brand before you go all in…they’re not all exactly the same. (I really dislike the Tractor Supply pellets, for example. They smell weird to me.)
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It would be advisable to only use pellets that are approved for horse bedding. You don’t want to take the chance of using pellets intended for another use, such as pellets intended for stoves, only to find out those pellets contain walnut or some other type of ingredient that is toxic to horses.
We buy by the tractor trailer load. Equustock and Lignetics are our preferred vendors. I believe you will find the brands available will vary by region.
Southern States currently carries a brand (which I forget ) which is one of the better ones I’ve used. Either the particles are a little bigger, or it’s a different variety of wood than their previous brand, as it’s not nearly as dusty.
I’ve had this stuff in one stall for almost 2 years right now (2 years in Nov). That stall was nearly empty in Nov '15, as my horses are in for breakfast only, barring truly awful weather (rare), so as stuff got scooped out, I don’t replace it until they are going to be in for the night. One horse came down with a gigantic fever (later discovered to be anaplasmosis) so for the short term, he was in quarantine and because his temp was SO high (107) I bedded him very deep, along with ice, to help prevent laminitis. The point of all that is to say - I put a LOT of bedding in there, probably 10 bags of this pellet. Maybe 8.But you get the idea. A LOT.
Here, 18-19 months later, what’s still in there (which again, is a LOT) is just not nearly as dusty as previous brands were in far less time.
I really do agree that unless you personally know the mill out of which the wood stove pellets come, and know without a shadow of a doubt they don’t do hardwood at all, I would just not take the chance.
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Use only bedding labeled pellets!! Stove wood pellets are unsafe, according to the local TSC folk because some ingredient (adhesive?) Is bad for skin of animals. Sorry, this was back in May, I forget the exact details. They caught me at the Cash register by asking if I planned to use the pellets for bedding? I said yes, so they explained why I did not want to do that!! I had not used pellets for years, did not know to ask for bedding pellets.
They had contacted the pellet maker to ask about use for bedding. TSC got an emphatic NO for bedding use. Got specifics of why to tell us customers. I was very glad they were well educated on pellets!! It prevented my making such a poor/wrong choice to use under straw for a foaling stall. I did buy seveal bags of bedding labeled pellets that worked for the foaling stall. They were actually cheaper than stove wood pellets.
Not to mention, hardwood pellets are just not nearly as absorbent as pine - they don’t fluff up as much, and don’t absorb as much. I tested a bag someone gave me once and was disappointed. It wouldn’t be worth the savings, even if there wasn’t a risk factor involved.
(ETA: and they were an icky brown color and didn’t smell as clean as pine. These are relatively unimportant, in comparison, but they didn’t help the cause. 
)
I had the chance to buy some damaged bags of hardwood stove pellets. I called the company (Ozark Wood Products? Maybe?) and they said it was safe to use as horse bedding - like in a totally unsurprised way. They were aware of the black walnut issue.
Sadly, they didn’t last half as long as the horse bedding pellets from TSC, lol, so no money was saved in the end
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This was my issue too.
The one brand (of horse pellets) is not all softwood. I get them from time to time because the store that sells them is more convenient. I hate that they are an icky brown color and do not have the nice pine smell.
The fact that they do not absorb as well is just the icing on the cake.
