Blanket For Bedding?

[Rina Z]

Hi. I have a two year old lion head rabbit named Rufus. When we first got him we used the wood shaving bedding, but then after a while we switched to news paper because someone said it worked best. I realized it wasn’t comport able, so now I put a blanket in the cage. Is this a safe bedding? Is it a dust collector? If so which bedding is best?

[tobyluv]

You can use fleece blankets as bedding. Fleece isn’t as bad as other cloth materials if rabbits chew on it, since it doesn’t contain long strand fibers. You still wouldn’t want your rabbit to ingest much of it though. The fleece blankets are easily washed, so they won’t be dust collectors if you wash them on a regular basis. I normally use either lightly scented laundry detergent or unscented, since I think rabbits might be sensitive to strong smells. For extra comfort or padding, you could place the fleece blankets on top of the newspaper in his cage. I assume that he gets plenty of out of cage time for play and exercise.

[Whitesnowy]

Whatever you use, keep in mind that the material should not be coloring when wet. I mean, if the rabbit decides to chew it, the saliva must not make the chemicals in the material to come out and end up in your rabbit’s mouth. 

How about towels? Consider the above. Also – if you choose towels, you should pick ones that doesn’t have string hooks that may catch a rabbit’s nail. If caught there, bunny may panic and I don’t want to speculate what may happen next. So be careful.

I’m not fan of newspapers. What kind of ink do they use? You can never be sure how safe they are if chewed. Wood shavings are bad too – lots of dust that may end up in bunny’s respiratory or eyes. Also consider this -> http://www.rabbit.org/care/shavings.html .It’s good that you’re looking to change them with something better.

[Bam]

I use fleece blankies and vet beds. For litter I normally use wood stove pellets. I’m trying horse stable straw pellets now, they seem promising so far.

As Whitesnowy says, dyes can be hazardous if ingested, we had a very sad story here some time ago about a bunny who ingested a red bunny igloo and it turned out the red dye was toxic.

I use IKEAs cheapest fleece blankies, white/gray and light blue, I cut them in halves. I wash them once a week and throw them out when there are too many holes in them. Fleece is non-woven which means it’s not a catastrophe if the bun ingests some (but the bunny shouldn’t actually eat large pieces, of course).

[Bam]

Whitesnowy, you mentioned that wood stove pellets have a rough surface – and that is true, they are definitely not comfy and can’t be used as bedding, just in the litter-boxes. The straw stable pellets are softer, they are meant as bedding for horses, but I only use them in the litter-boxes. My buns are free roam but have their favorite snuggle-spots with blankies and vet beds.

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