# what bedding to use- mini horse= big problem



## giant snail (Oct 25, 2009)

iv had seabird for a while now. she has been on straw all her life. but at the breeders home where she was never fed enough all she does is eat eat eat all day she would kill her self if she had adlib hay or straw.
i bedded her on straw for a while but this was when she was majorly underweight.

she is now perfect weight and condition. she is SO clean on straw take two scoops out and its done
i put her on shavings. :gasp: iv never seen such a messy bed i had to throw the WHOLE bale i put in the previous night out. it was awful. she has plenty of room in her stable for 1/2 concrete 1/2 bedding as it was made for 13.2 pony she is 32 inches.............

i put her back on straw but she still eats like a pig. she ate 1/2 a bale of straw in one night. + her small hay net and hard feed and had signs of colid and a MASSIVE belly

i cant give her more hay. she will get fat also eat the hay and her straw still causing more problems.

she is currently shut in most of the day unless im there then she is tetherd, iv spent hundreds on electric fencing. they have the tallest poly posts going and 5 or 6 strands of thick and thin tape all electric too with a strong energiser. their feild isnt huge so its not strugling to power it. she keeps getting out snaping the tame and breaking my posts, in with my big mare who would kill her if she got the chance. she had made so many holes in the hedge to get into the other feild whre we are growing thier winter grass and eating it most of the night by the number of poo's out there. i dont want her on it for that long as IDK how prone to laminitus ( spelling) she is. she is driving me mad. so untill i can work out/ afford another type of fencing she will have to be stabled or sold.

meanwhile what bedding can she go on that she WONT eat. i refuse to use shavings by the state of her bed, the cost and time it takes to muck it out. a bale lasts my 15hh mare and my other mini 7-10 days if they are stabled every night.

i dont know what to use

i can get most stuff from work
we have someone order this excel bedding but its straw and shavings mixed in baged up.
megazorb?
auboise
cardboard
wood pellets
paper

iv considred about buying rubber matting and then giving her a small amount of shavings............ but i would rather she had a whole bed as it will be softer.........

i would try spraying her bed with jeys fluid or something as a yard i worked at used to do so. but my bets are she would still eat it anyway.


any help would be great


----------



## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

I would personally put her on rubber matting and shavings just make sure u still have banks incase she gets cast. I know the feeling though my mare just trashes shavings its like she has a midnight party lmao.


----------



## cathspythons (Jun 29, 2008)

I use easi-bed in the kennels and find it brilliant. Its designed for horse bedding (much better than shavings). The cheapest place ive found that sell it is Decathlon.


----------



## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

cathspythons said:


> I use easi-bed in the kennels and find it brilliant. Its designed for horse bedding (much better than shavings). The cheapest place ive found that sell it is Decathlon.


My mare eats it lol. A lot of people use easy bed for deep littering mostly.


----------



## gecko lady (Jun 26, 2010)

rubber mating and little bit of shavings works a treat! so much easier, i dont know why your worrying about it being "softer" as horses will lie down on dirt and grass in the wild. It will be far more cost effective and worth it


----------



## alita (Aug 1, 2011)

*Found this info, hope this helps..
*
Wood pellets were initially produced as fuel, for heating. However, it was found that they also make good stall bedding, so the wood fuel pellet technology has been used to produce wood pellets for bedding. In both cases, the pellets are produced by converting wood into shavings and then compacting the shavings into pellets, with lignin (a component of wood) used to bind the pellets together.

Although the technology is the same, there are some differences between wood pellets for fuel and those for bedding. To begin with, almost any wood is suitable for fuel pellets, whereas bedding pellets are made from softwood (typically white pine) as it is more absorbent than hardwood and less dusty. In addition, bedding pellets specifically avoid woods which are toxic to horses, which is not always true of wood pellets produced for fuel. Consequently, when using wood pellets for bedding, one should ensure that the wood pellets are bedding wood pellets and not fuel wood pellets.


----------



## rach666 (Dec 12, 2006)

rubber matting and shavings,the last horse i had was on rubber matting its not as hard as you think it is,its really quite soft well the good stuff is.seems the best option for you as anything that is edible your horse is gunne try and eat.


----------



## Callia (Aug 8, 2009)

My miniature horse was the greediest horse I have ever owned :lol2:
She would literally go through a section of hay in under an hour, even in a small holed net and then scream at me for more!! The previous owner said how important it was to keep her weight down and that she only needed one section twice a day through the winter and through the spring/summer months she was living out on restricted grazing or with a grazing muzzle on. She was just such a pig !!!

I have rubber matting in the stables and used a bale of shavings on top in one corner just so she had a comfy patch to lay down really. Megazorb is fab though. Either worked quite well and didnt cost a fortune even when she lived in for 6 weeks through the really wet weather :2thumb:


----------



## giant snail (Oct 25, 2009)

Callia said:


> My miniature horse was the greediest horse I have ever owned :lol2:
> She would literally go through a section of hay in under an hour, even in a small holed net and then scream at me for more!! The previous owner said how important it was to keep her weight down and that she only needed one section twice a day through the winter and through the spring/summer months she was living out on restricted grazing or with a grazing muzzle on. She was just such a pig !!!
> 
> I have rubber matting in the stables and used a bale of shavings on top in one corner just so she had a comfy patch to lay down really. Megazorb is fab though. Either worked quite well and didnt cost a fortune even when she lived in for 6 weeks through the really wet weather :2thumb:




2 sections a day wow. mine only get 1 in day 1 at night. yeah might look at getting some rubber matting 

where is the best place thats good quality but a fair price? we have rubber mats in our walk way but to be honest they are pretty hard.


----------



## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

I recommend you get the most expensive mats you can afford. The cheaper ones tend to fall to bits.


----------



## bionic_bunny (Feb 7, 2009)

There is a bedding called Belvoir bedding that is chopped up straw but is dust extracted and tastes bad making it less palatable to horses. I think it works out at a similar price to shavings.


----------



## giant snail (Oct 25, 2009)

bionic_bunny said:


> There is a bedding called Belvoir bedding that is chopped up straw but is dust extracted and tastes bad making it less palatable to horses. I think it works out at a similar price to shavings.


she would still eat it...... i soaked her straw in disenfectant and she still ate it so had to take it out. she has half a wedge of straw tonight but that will be gone by morning. just trying to fond somewhere that does rubber matting that isnt 80.00 + per mat!!!


----------



## Callia (Aug 8, 2009)

I used a company called Quattro for my matting. It was quite reasonable I thought and it is the type of matting that is actually stuck on the ground so no need to lift the mats and wash underneath (trust me that is nasty!)
They have been fantastic after 10 years they are still like new, they can be pressure washed if needed and I have just put them in the kennels too.


----------



## giant snail (Oct 25, 2009)

Callia said:


> I used a company called Quattro for my matting. It was quite reasonable I thought and it is the type of matting that is actually stuck on the ground so no need to lift the mats and wash underneath (trust me that is nasty!)
> They have been fantastic after 10 years they are still like new, they can be pressure washed if needed and I have just put them in the kennels too.


thats great thanks. are you able to get them up at all? as i wouldnt want to leave them there if we moved yards ( not that we move much only ever moved once but you never know) :2thumb: il take a look thank you


EDIT= what ones did you buy there are so many LOL doesnt really tell u the difference either.


----------



## Callia (Aug 8, 2009)

You can get them up but not easily. They are stuck down with a really tough resin type stuff. Having said that my 7 month old bulldog managed to get it up (the little bu**er) so you could always borrow her if you need too :lol2:


----------

