# Which kind of bedding...



## sherrie (Jul 22, 2008)

...for those really cold day? Straw or wood shavings?


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## petey (May 1, 2010)

My preference for warmth is straw.


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## cstafford (May 30, 2010)

I use shavings with straw on top!


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

cstafford said:


> I use shavings with straw on top!


 :yeahthat


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## carlidoe (Jul 30, 2010)

I use shavings and the grass hay that they drag out of their feeder.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I use straw in the goat barn. Shavings for chickens and dogs. The goats sometimes eat the straw but I don't want them to eat the shavings.


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## Tracy in Idaho (Oct 26, 2007)

Straw.


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

I use straw.


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## KozaGirl (Jan 27, 2011)

My husband who is an "ex cowboy" says straw.


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## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

I put down shavings first to help cut down ammonia from urine and then top with straw for insulation.


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## nuzmom (Sep 17, 2010)

We put shavings down first since our dirt doesn't drain well and then add plenty of dry straw on top.


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## littleman (Sep 10, 2008)

shavings on the bottom, straw or grass hay (from them pulling it out of their feeder).


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## tendermeadowsnigerians (Sep 8, 2010)

For winter here, since everything freezes anyways we put down stall mats then shavings then straw. The stall mat helps insulate the floor. We only use them December - March


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Shavings, then right before the does are due to start kidding, I fill the barns with straw, over the shavings. V


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## JamieH (Nov 29, 2010)

I have a similar bedding question. If it isn't cold out, is a dirt floor ok, or should there always be extra bedding? What about sand?


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I do keep shavings down for the kids year round, but the does live on raked sand. I completely clean out the barns end of April beginning of May down to sand. V


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

As long as it is sharp sand that drains the urine you are find but not packing sand with the same size shape granules. You will have a swamp of urine. If you buy sand be sure it is sharp.


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## JamieH (Nov 29, 2010)

Thanks, I don't mean to take over the thread, but I've been wandering. I want to clean out the shelter daily, and shavings seem like they would just get in the way. Would I need to dig out all the sand and replace it every so often because of the urine? Do stall mats help with urine or make things worse? For my horse, I'm told shavings can dry out the hooves, will the goats have similar problems?


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Dry hooves are great for horses! Shavings won't suck moisture but lime might. With horses the poop sits on top of the straw, the urine runs to the floor and if there isn't any sawdust down there it creates puddles of urine. Stall mats become slick and wet. I would never use straw for horses unless babies are being born on it. For goats, the berries drop through straw, as does the urine, which is soaked up by sawdust on the bottom. You really only need to clean out wet spots with the goats on a daily basis unless you are just using sawdust then there are all those berries rolling around on the top getting laid on. 

I don't clean the shelter/barn areas all winter. The goats get new hay down everyday when they waste their hay on the floor and it builds up and up. I can sit on it, and do so everyday while hugging everyone without getting wet. I feel like natural dirt floors work better than stall mats, cement or wood when building up a deep bed for winter. There are natural microbes in the soil which helps break down the bottom layer and prevent smell. 

Now, if your shelters leak or if you have too many animals in them, the floor will become wet and need daily shoveling. I don't like them to ever get wet in the first place to need cleaning because then the goats will have been lying in it and exposing udders to a lot of bacteria. 

Don't worry about drying out your goats hooves. Dry hooves are always going to be healthier than wet, thrush and foot rot laden hooves. It's impossible to keep them too dry. Shavings and sawdust, provided it's pine or something non-toxic is good for both horses and goats. In the winter though, goats do better with straw over top so they can snuggle down in it for warmth.


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## petey (May 1, 2010)

:yeahthat

Raising, training and showing horses for 30 years, we always used shavings in the stalls unless we were foaling, then we used straw, so there was less chance of infection from stuff being sucked up during foalings. Shavings are a lot more absorbent than straw, but not as warm, and they make stalls a lot easier to clean! Hooves tend to dry out and get brittle more as a result of going from wet to dry, and a good hoof moisturizer always helps.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Our straw also has this greasy quality to it, nothing is prettier than the girls all shined up laying in straw! And besides with straw in the barns customers then tell everyone you don't have one piece of poop in your barn  LOL! V


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

My barn has a dirt floor and I put down shavings and then hay. I've found that I REALLY hate hay as bedding (coastal grass hay) but I've checked 3 different towns and every feed store I can find and no one has straw.....so I've been using hay and it makes a soggy mess  Hope someone gets straw around here soon....its so much easier to make a nice bed that stays fairly clean with straw..


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## Loden Farms (Dec 21, 2010)

I haven't seen any straw around here either.... at first when I saw everyone talking about straw, I immediately thought "hay", lol, because that's all I've EVER seen around here is hay. I guess I wouldn't know what it looked like if I did see it  LOL


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

It's a bright yellow, and just beautiful  Ask around, we have only one local feed store that brings it in. Vicki


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

We used to be able to get great bales of wheat straw locally but they now burn the fields instead of baling because of the cost of fuel. BooHoo it was the best stuff for mulch because it too so long to break down.


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## JamieH (Nov 29, 2010)

Vicki can you pm me the name of the feed store? Thanks!


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

We used to be able to get great straw and I wish I would have stocked up. No one here cut straw this year at all.... I can get coastal, hay grazer & wheat hay (leafy with the seed heads still attached). Going to look at some hay grazer today to see if it would be a bit better than the fine stemmed coastal for bedding. I have such a mess to clean up in my barn and if I can avoid it, I'll never use coastal as bedding again...


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## Becca (Oct 5, 2010)

I use rubber mats in my horse and goat stalls with pine shavings. I clean the goat stalls once a year, adding some shavings daily.....never smells.
I would put hay in the stalls over shavings when my mares were getting close to foaling but
they usually foaled outside anyway
Here straw is more expensive than great quality hay.


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## Tallabred (Jun 12, 2008)

Straw is more expensive than alfalfa here. For my horses and my goats I use a thick layer of the stall pellets and then use hay over that if the are giving birth or thick shavings over the stall pellets for general care. I have stall mats in my barn.


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## grandmajo (May 22, 2008)

I use straw here. It's really cheap at $1.25/bale. I don't like to let the wasted hay build up because as another poster said it makes a soggy mess. We feed alfalfa hay and I think it stinks when it starts decomposing!


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