Covered cat litter box question.

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This topic has 10sd replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 9 months ago by BunnyLiz.

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- 12/21/2008 at 7:57 AM
  luna
  Participant
  147 posts
  Hi,
  
  As some of ye already know, Poppy has been driving us nuts since the first day we got her. she is being really destructive all the time, and her cage is always smelly. Iv been cleaning it out every day which is such a pain. She rips up newspaper all day and although she uses her litter box she also pee’s on the towel and newspaper abit also. Usually within an hour of cleaning her cage it starts to smell again. she is always in the litter box burrowing and it goes out all over the cage. The box we have for her is the same one we have for Henry. It is a corner one with very high sides but she kicks the litter out through the door. Every time she burrows the smell wafts all over the room and it is really irritating me because im cleaning constantly and using so much litter which i can barely afford right now. Im also very conscious of having a clean home and pride myself on that so as you can imagine this is becoming a bit of an obsession for me right now. I really want to get the odour under control especially with it being xmas and having friends and family around over the xmas season.
  
  So today i went to the pet shop and bought a covered cat litter box which has a cat flap as a door. I took off the door as i wanted Poppy to use it first and and get used to getting in and out. After a few hours i put the door on while she was inside but she couldnt get out and was trying to burrow her way out so i took it off. And of course….i came back 5mins later and she had emptied the entire contents of the box out on the carpet. I felt like crying. i hate to say this but my patience is really running out. The place STINKS again
  
  Do rabbits figure out how to use the cat flaps or do people generally leave them off? I might go back to using the storage bin again as she couldnt kick the bedding out of that. Oh i really hope she calms down in the next few weeks. Oh and today when i was feeding her she tried to get out past me and bit my knee. Lucky i was wearing jeans but i still yelled out so she knew it wasnt okay! Hopefully we will make up tomorrow but right now we aren’t friends. I feel like i need respite from her at this stage Sorry guys … needed to vent!
- 12/21/2008 at 8:03 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  oh Poppy! it’s her age and it’s still the hormones. and she’s a dutch, they’ve been known to be a bit… “hard-headed” i guess you could say… i’m so sorry you’re frustrated Luna! i really am.
  
  i don’t have experience with the covered cat boxes. what do you mean the “storage bin”? how did you have it before? also, what kind of litter are you using? i wonder if there’s something else you could use that would be better for odor control? have you tried a grate covering the litter so she can’t dig into it? some members here have made their own grates… i’m sure they’ll see this thread within the next day or two and come and share what they did…
- 12/21/2008 at 8:11 AM
  luna
  Participant
  147 posts
  You know the plastic boxes you can get for storing things in?They are clear plastic…not the most aesthetically pleasing !!! The one i have is about a foot high and has the surface area of a litter box. I had a wooden log roll bridge beside it to make it easy for her to get in. I was using it until she had her surgery. I am using carefresh and critter litter with hay for the litter which does Henry fine for a week and doesnt smell at all. Hers probably wouldnt smell if she wasnt digging it up and disturbing her “toilet” all the time. The first week we had her she wasnt burrowing at it and there wasnt an odour problem so i think its just the fact that she is burrowing all the time. The grate idea does sound good alright. i am open to that…. infact im open to any suggestions at this stage
- 12/21/2008 at 8:31 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  you might need to change it more often than once a week. i don’t believe carefresh does much for odor control, so you might look into something else. what is the critter litter made of? some folks have had good experiences with litter made from aspen.
- 12/21/2008 at 3:20 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  A grate option may work. You may be able to use what you already have and put a cake rack over the litter. If she’s a digger, maybe make a diggy box for her if your taking away her “litter diggy box”. Be aware thou, they’ll sometime pee on the paper in a diggy box too. *sigh*
  
  I saw recently a way to help a dog that was afraid of a doggy door. They replaced the flap part with light weight clear plastic at first, then slowly changed weight of plastic until the door was used to going thru it. Eventually they could put the oringinal flap back on the door. You could try something like that for the litter box flap.
- 12/21/2008 at 5:46 PM
  luna
  Participant
  147 posts
  Thats a great idea for the flap jerseygirl…thanks. I will see how she is getting on with the box tomorrow. She has not kicked out the litter since this morning…phew.
  
  Beka, i think you may have misunderstood how often i clean out Poppys litter box. I clean Henrys out weekly and there is no odour but i clean Poppys out daily at present. More often than not, im cleaning it out twice daily as the smell gets to me so much! Im keeping an eye out for a cheaper, more absorbent bedding. I am going to enquire around about the wood stove pellets as they seem to be the way to go! im sure everything will calm down eventually and i just have to be patient. The stress of xmas and everything that goes with it is prob stressing me out and Poppy is just not helping. Roll on next week! Thanks guys for the advice
  
  ps- Beka i dont have the bag of critter litter to hand now but i will have a look tomorrow for ya I really dont know if it does much good…i only drop a handful of the pearls on top of the litter. Probably not enough to make a difference really!
- 12/21/2008 at 6:36 PM
  MooBunnay
  Participant
  3087 posts
  I have two bunnies that are diggers so I know what a pain it can be!
  
  Here is what my husband and I are currently using for our digging bunnies: http://www.petco.com/product/103817/Lift-n-Sift-Cat-Litter-Pan.aspx
  
  it isn’t perfect because there isn’t a lot of room for litter between the bottom of the litterbox and the grate so the grate peice doesn’t sit perfectly in the box, but it prevents our diggers from tossing their litter out into the middle of the cage.
  
  I think that your main focus should be trying to develop some kind of grate, because when my bunnies keep their litter in the pan, I have no problem with smell, but when they fling it out of the litterbox is when the smell problems start. As was mentioned above, you can often find a good grate by shopping in the kitchen aisle, cookie cooling racks are a good idea, and you never know what else you may find that will work. Just make sure that the space between the lines or squares on the grate is small enough that your bunny’s foot won’t get stuck.
- 12/21/2008 at 8:01 PM
  Kokaneeandkahlua
  Participant
  12067 posts
  I’ll ditto everyone-a grate is a great idea (pun intended ) I have a covered cat litterbox but they’d never use it with the door on it-what a determined bunny you have-emptying a covered litter box!!
  
  I cannot imagine cleaning a litter box twice a day. I do mine once a week and I do the shelter bunnies twice a week-I definitely have my fill of cleaning rabbit poop and I can’t imagine how you feel doing it that often!!! I’ll wish you luck finding the wood stove pellets-those are great for odor!
- 12/22/2008 at 9:09 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  oh i’m sorry! i did misunderstand you Luna! you mentioned about Henry i assumed you were doing the same routine for Poppy.
- 12/23/2008 at 7:07 AM
  Colin
  Participant
  107 posts
  Yoshi is our little litter digger – ironically Digby does not dig much at all. We don’t have a grate for our litterbox, but we do have one that has a clip on top that tapers back in over the box, like the one MooBunnay posted a link for. This really seems to keep Yoshi from getting anything outside the box, although he does still push it around a lot, but I haven’t noticed that it makes the smell any worse.
- 12/23/2008 at 8:41 PM
  BunnyLiz
  Participant
  1212 posts
  OMG i totally understand! I am having the EXACT same problem with Rose. But since i use WSP, instead of smelly bedding everywhere its smelly moist saw dust stuff everywhere! Oh so frustrating. And its so light that she can launch that junk pretty far (and guess who JUST made a mess of the nicely cleaned cage. Literally just did it, she must have known i was telling you guys about her. I should be grateful, I didnt have anything to do after i visited BB and well now i do Anyway i was saying..) she will usually fling that crap about 5 feet from her litter box. So now there is cardboard against the cage to keep it off my shag carpet. Im working on a grid to put over top the litter, but havent gotten my handyman to make it yet. I feel your pain, let me know if their is some magically way to stop this lol.
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