Great Results From Shredded Office Paper Bedding

[Casper]

Can't find the link to the earlier thread about this but we have been using it for the last few nights and it's been working a treat. We are putting the shredded paper on top of the mats, a small line of shavings along the very front of the paper and then a full straw bed on top of that.

So far it has captured all the wee, goes flat and is really easy to muck out as comes up in one piece!

If you can get your hands on any free shredded office paper, which is guaranteed staple free then I would say go for it. It's working a treat for us, and whilst we won't have enough to use all the time it will save us money when we do have it.

[laura]

I cant get office paper but am curretly supplementing our bedding by shredding all our paper I am clearing out , thin cardboard and old letters, envelopes etc . Every little helps in this climate .

Thinking though , I live near a business park and my daughter works in an office ..... wonder what they do with their paper ?

[sunnylynn11]

It didnt work so well for me, wished it would have, I could have got LOADS from work.
Hubby works for a recycling company, he asked his boss to consider investing in a cardboard cutting machine (the price of cardboard has gone down), his boss said that he's looking into it, I wont get it for free, but hopefully get a discount

[Furiey]

I've not tried office paper, but have spent hours tearing up newspaper for bedding in the days before shredders (25 or so years ago!). The paper my office uses is quite shiny (and usually full of staples by the time we've finished) so I wouldn't have thought it would be absorbant enough. Sounds like the combination you are using works well for you though, just glad mines out 24/7 and I don't have to worry about bedding at the moment.

[sara]

thats really useful to know Casper, thanks

[Azrael]

I tried shredded paper from work once, was fine for Roxy but did blow around the yard and make a mess more than shavings. But I put it in Mia's stable and there was much and amateur dramatics about the horse eating stuff in her stable so gave up on that eventually.

I think cross cut is meant to be better than the long strands of paper i had that were rather annoying. And we don't produce enough waste paper at my work really for it to be worth faffing about having it for the one night every month or so it'd last.

[chrissiew]

Just one word of warning, my mare came up with a severe allergic reaction just before Christmas and my vet and I think that it may have been caused by the office paper that I add to her normal paper bedding. I haven't been able to prove this 100%, but my vet said it was the obvious thing, as the toner/paper used is different from the newspaper that the horse bedding is made off. White paper has more bleach in it etc I think.

I had used it for a while before the allergy, but something could have changed in the toner or paper that is used which triggered it.

Having said that lots of people on our yard use office paper with no problems, just my allergy driven baggage who has a problem!!

[Casper]

Ours are buried underneath so much straw anyway it wouldn't make any difference Chrissie, but a great point for anyone who was perhaps going to use just the paper bedding on its' own.

[gwenoakes]

Pleased its working for you Casper.