Bedding (animals)

Animal bedding, litter or litter (in contrast to scattering ) are materials that are used in animal husbandry to cover the ground in stables and cages and take the excrement of animals. Is the litter saturated with animal excreta, one speaks of crap. Similar in purpose meets the cat litter cat litter.

Materials and applications

Used organic and mineral materials, most cost-effective agricultural or industrial by-products or low-cost raw materials. One of the traditional and widely used materials include ( cereal ) straw, wood chips from hard wood ( such as beech or aspen ) and softwood (such as pine and cedar ) and sand. Other organic materials for animal bedding are hard grasses of wet meadows, scrapings from the hemp and flax production, and corncob granules from processed corn cobs.

Before the introduction of mineral fertilizer, the scattering extraction was an important part of the rural economy. It served not only to litter in stables, but was transferred to this use with animal feces and urine as heck the only available fertilizer. Litter meadows were deliberately created and mowed the most high-growing perennials in autumn, moors the heather was abgeplaggt. The extraction of scattering from low Forestry was as is the use of straw or flax fibers than merely use. For this reason, the ancient grains are hochwüchsig, while the new varieties are dwarfed. With increasing industrialization, their waste products were such as used paper.

When choosing especially the size and type of pets play a role. Important material properties include the capacity of the litter for liquids, the odor, the running and support characteristics for the pets, the lowest possible dust development, the characteristics in terms of rot, mold and insect colonization. The options for disposal or re-use - are also crucial for the choice of material - usually in tandem with the animal waste as fertilizer in small animals in households partly as biowaste.

Large livestock

In the large animal husbandry, especially in cattle, horses and pigs on farms, especially straw is used. In addition, shavings and sawdust, wood pellets and hay constant are used, among other things scattered meadows. In particular, in the horses there are very many demands on the litter. There are flax and hemp shives, but used wood chips of all kinds, which have over the cereal straw a lower susceptibility to mold growth and a very high absorption capacity against liquids of up to 400 percent. Shives are not eaten by horses because of the bitter substances contained in them, hemp shives, however, can be eaten occasionally and cause colic, so that pretreatment with vinegar water may be necessary. Dusted wood shavings, pellets or granules are mainly used in horses that have allergies or respiratory problems, but also to regulate the roughage intake.

Small livestock

In the small animal husbandry, especially in small mammals, especially soft wood chips are used which are available in the pet trade. In addition meadow hay, paper, sand and Hanfschäbenstreu or corn cob granules. In birds, especially bedding sand is used, especially in poultry breeding in turn can play hemp shavings and corn cob granules play a role. Most absorbent granules mineral (bentonite, silica ) or plant-based can be used for dog and cat box. Plant litter is often made of wood, paper, straw or corn cob granules.