Using wood pellet bedding when to remove the wet?

[Leanne]

I've recently started using woodpellet bedding. What I have found is that where my horse urinates its staining the bedding so it looks like a dark sand colour. However it is not even damp and doesnt appear to be saturated and it isn't smelling.
Do I remove this or let it become more saturated? If I remove it, I will be removing a lot of bedding.
I've mixed in a bit of clean bedding but i'm finding that i'm just using more and more clean everyday. I'm jist concerned about the ammonia as he's barefoot.

[steve]

Hi Leanne,
I have been using wood pellets for about 2 months now. First few days was fab, just had to lift off the poo's, but now!!... I take 2 wheelbarrows of wet out a day, I've found the wee has spread all under the bed and most of it is dark colour!! I'm now using 6 10kg bags a week, but the bed is still thick and comfy. I just wonder how many bales of shavings I'd have got thru!! I love it and hate it equally!!

[jenniwren]

:)I've been using shavings in my shelter/stabling and have wondered about other types of bedding. My concrete floor is rubber matted. This year I decided to try reducing the amount used to economise. I am banking it against the wall at the back during the day an pulling down a little at night. They do lay on it but their legs are on the matting. I'm using about three bales a fortnight so far, mixing it in. I do remove some excessively wet bits. The shelter are airy and the ammonia smell does accumulate after a while otherwise it's OK. Shavings are more accessible here (North Wales) than buying anything else. I can't store straw.

6 10 kg bags does seem a lot a week and at what cost? Does it rot down easily?

[gwenoakes]

No experience on that type of bedding, but YIKES that is a lot of bedding per week!

[mollymoo]

Yikes that is sooooo much bedding!! I use one bale of SMALL shavings every 8/9 days....you must spend a fortune Steve!

I dont have any experience with wood pellets, have you tried calling the manufacturer and asking their advice?

[ellibell]

I remove the worst of the wet each day and turn the bed over each day, not lift it. With my dirty wet cob I use 2 -3 bags (2 one week 3 the next) 14kg bags a week, at £3 a bag. The tidier 4 other ponies use 1 bag a week, then 2 th3e next week. I get 2 builder barrows (smaller barrow type) a day of poo and wet, so about 1/2 barrow of wet from 5 ponies. On Shavings the cob was 2 full barrows a DAY, others 1 a day!

[Emily+Meg]

I turn it over and lift out what has clumped. If its just a different colour I leave it. I find that as long as I mix the new bedding in well, it is fine, it doesnt smell and doesnt seem damp, but it is a dark colour.

Meg is using 3 or 4 10kg bags a week but she is in for 4 days out of 7.

[jenniwren]

I forgot to say that I have three horses and one bale per horse every two to three weeks! One Arab 15hh two Tennessee Walking Horses (mother and daughter) 15+ and 16.1. They have the freedom to come and go as they please, but I still get about three barrow loads of muck a day.

I think if the stabling is well aired the ammonia smell will go. I'm lucky in that I don't keep mine stabled these days.

[dingbat]

Hmm - what make of wood pellets?

I use aquamax. He tends to wee in the middle and the wet stays together in a clump and goes really dark. I take the majority of this out but dont worry if i havent got it all (i just mix the bed afterwards) and sweep the matting where the wet patch was. I only use 1 new bag per week though (sometimes 2) and this is fine.

6 bags a week sounds ridiculous. No one should ever use that amount of bedding, no matter what they are using.

[spanisheyes]

Yes but the 6 bags is for 2 (big looking) horses no?

And his are 10kg bags whereas I *think* aquamax are 15kg.

Therefore if you use 2 bags that is 30kg of new bedding for one horse which is exactly the same?!!!

[jaxnbreeze]

It makes a huge difference to the amount you need if you want a comfortable bed for your horse to lie down on or just 'litter' to soak up the wet. I like to see a proper bed and I used a lot of Aquamax which I found to be gritty and smelly. I use Aubiose now - 6 bags a month. It's expensive but it looks and feels clean and comfortable and also rots down very quickly.

[curly]

Hi I have used wood pellets for about a year now. I have a very clean 11.2 gelding who has 1 bag in on a wednesday and 1 in on a Saturday. His stable keeps very nice and light colour. I also have a 15.2 ISH and he is very messy. His stable is massive as well so I add two new ones in on a Wednesday and sometimes 1 or 2 on a saturday. I take out the wet each day and can get both stables into one wheelbarrow.

I would say you are taking out too much of the dark colour. I have a system where I put the dark older wood where they both wee and put brand new soaked pellets to the right of the stable. As I take the dark wee soaked wood, I bring across the whiter clean wood. That way I am rotating the clean and taking out the darker wee'd on wood. I find this works and helps the stable look a bit nicer as it has a top dressing of clean whiter wood each day.

For the both horses I use a maximum of 5 bags a week.

[Leanne]

Thanks for the replies lots very good advice
I use corley bio wood pellets. He can be very wet on hemcore/shavings so I'm guessing thats why its stained so much, it hasn't really clumped or smelling yet though.
I like the idea, just not thought of him lying/standing on ammonia.
I guess it depends on the brand and horse?
Mine has outside access to but chooses to come into the stable to mess lol

Curly the darker wood you mention is that what they have weed on or just clean older stuff that hasn't been weed on?
The darker stuff I mention is what he's weed on its all relatively new beding as its only been down a week and half.

[ella19]

I deep littered Jake on it. He was absolutely fine and bare foot as well. I had a base of wet about 2 inch thick then had clean on top, wet never came all the way though apart from where he would wee and i'd take the top layer off the next morning and then put clean ontop. Bed stayed fairly white but I use aquamax not plain wood pellets so don't know if that makes a difference. I only used 2 5kg bags a month!

[curly]

A friend of mine who worked on an eventing yard said they used it all the time. She advised me to take out the bulk of the wet from the night before and then mix in the rest of the bed. This means that the dryer wood can absorb any slightly damp wood and keeps it fresh. I have a big clear out of all darker wood on a Saturday and a Wednesday. That way it doesn't smell. I think I take out more than I necessarily need to as I like it to be a medium brown colour rather than a dark brown. It turns a dark red when it' really wet.

I used to think about them standing on ammonia but actually if you've taken the wet out and mixed it in with cleaner then they're not standing on hardly any. When I used straw, they were stood on a lot wetter material than the wood. All my horses have really good strong feet. Even when they come in from a muddy field, the wood drys up the mud.