How often do you change the litter boxes?

Well, an easy solution would be to do it every day…I used to do so, but now it is every second or third day, and it does smell on the final day. In the summer time you can let fresh air into the room, but you don’t have that option now. So really, just do it more often

Also, cut down on the smelly greens. When I feed mine cabbage, the room stinks! So if I know we have guests coming over, cabbage is not on the menu

Now that Lulu is spayed it should help decrease some of the odor as well.

What type of litter are you using.

And as always changing a litter box more often always helps with odor control.

I would change their boxes at least every other day and see how it is.

Well, with spayed and neutered buns, that’s really all that should smell. Hay does have an odor, but there’s not really anything you can do about that – hay will always smell like hay.

Are you cleaning their cage area daily? I clean my cages twice a day every day. I vacuum and clean anything else as needed, wipe down any urine or other stains.

What is in their cages? What are you using as flooring?

Wow, Sarita, you’re much more on top of things than I am! I probably totally clean Otto’s cage every 2 weeks (litter box far more often, of course). He just flings hay and cardboard all over, so cleaning seems like a losing battle 😛 But he doesn’t pee in his cage – if he were peeing outside of the litter box I would clean every day.

I clean Chacha’s cage once a week, but change her litter box everyday, and clean the actual litter box holder twice a week. She poops a lot… 😮 lol.

Do you clean the container the litter is in?

Pine has an odor to it, if I am not mistaken. I use aspen.

Rabbits do not have an odor, unless it is the urine.

Also, when you clean the boxes, are you scrubbing them out with white vinegar? White vinegar works wonders on getting the gunk/stink out from the bottom. You don’t have to do it every single time necessarily… but scrubbing them out once a week should be fine. You said in another thread that Lulu was peeing over the back of the box. If there are spots that she peed that were not thoroughly cleaned up, that could smell too.

Keep in mind, some people are more sensitive to smells than others. Even if you don’t smell anything, if your mom does, than I think it’s important they get cleaned out more frequently. Altered bunnies usually do not smell. As Lulu’s hormones calm down, there should be less of a smell with her too.

I change my litter boxes everyday and I use Yesterday’s News as litter. Just a small amount in the box to soak up the urine and some hay on top. I never have a problem with smell.

I really hope, for your rabbit’s sake, that you can remedy the problem and they can stay inside.

Try moving the cages and everything else in the room to check to make sure there are not any “hidden” puddles that you did not know about- so elimate any possible unseen problem.

Then I second what everyone else is saying- change the litterbox more often- if you put newspaper underneath the litter it helps to peel the soggy mess right out into a garbage bag.  I use 50/50 vinegar/water solution in a spray bottle to clean.  But if something has the nasty urine build up let in soak in straight vinegar for as long as you can- you would not believe how clean that will make it where scrubbing makes no difference- the vinegar breaks down the urine build up.

Another thing that helps absorb room odours is to leave out some bowls of vinegar. You can also use just bicarbonate soda if you prefer.  Obviously both these should be out of reach where nobunny can get to them!

That’s great!

she’ll get there. just keep cleaning it up, and use vinegar on the spots to get rid of the scent.

It’s still very, very early. These things take time, and there is a small chance she may never be 100% with the litterbox. Free roam may not be an option, and I’m not even sure I’d encourage you to have them free-roam, just for the fact it is not your house. You could do a pen and allow them to be free roam in the evening hours when you’re home.

It can take about a month for her hormones to die down so just give her a little more time.

I also recommend cleaning (or at least scooping out the urine soaked litter) every day. My bunny room would definitely be stinky if I only cleaned it twice a week because Jack urinates so much and sprays. I scoop out urine soaked litter every morning, and throw out old hay from their litterbox that they may have peed on and put in new hay. (I fully clean their boxes once a week – sometimes twice if Jack has really urinated alot alot — he’s unique in the fact that he gets LOTS of liquids to help flush his sludge out)

We also have a rosemary bush and I grab a handful of rosemary every morning and add that to their litterbox and put the rest in a little basket on a shelf by the door. Makes the place smell nice.

You will also need to make sure to rotate out soft bedding that may have been urinated on. When my bunnies were in a cage/pen, I would have many fleece mini-blankets, so I could always put in a clean one.

Also, look for “spray” on the walls and furniture. IF any of the bunnies are spraying, that can make things smell and you’ll want to keep a check on that.

OH…I also use Yesterday’s News which I think works great for odor. My favorite is Apsen Supreme but they’ve gotten so pricey that I don’t get it anymore unless there is a sale.

I just recommend scooping out urine soaked litter daily and cleaning the cage daily. I know it’s a pain, but it sounds like your mom is serious and they have the potential of having to be forced outside, (when we know they would be happier with you). So keep them safe and happy with you by getting on a regular cleaning schedule. It’s not so bad once you have it down. — just set aside 20 minutes everyday at a certain time and stay on schedule. Put on your favorite tunes during “cleaning” time to help motivate and make less torturous.

Also, get a little mini fan that you can put in your room (but don’t aim directly at the bunnies) and if you can get some rosemary, you can put it near the fan and that will also help offer some “air freshener” without the dangers of real air freshener sprays.

Posted By mocha200 on 03/20/2010 07:35 PM
they would only be in my room. not the whole house

Even your room does not belong to you, because it is “their house”.  Your parents would need to be aware that the baseboards, walls, carpeting, and furniture that they have purchased would be at risk of being chewed.  I would hate for you to allow them free roam in your room and something get ruined and your parents make you give up your rabbits or make them move back outside.  Because it has happened in the past.  Even altered bunnies can chew and dig.  Since you live with your parents, you have to do everything possible to make sure your buns cause absolutely no problem for them.  You’ve already had issues with the litterbox odor, which is something easily corrected.  It is not a simple fix to repair baseboards or carpeting.

Good for you that you managed to get the smell under control. I was going to suggest also checking the hay a few times a day…wet hay really smells.

As for the litter training, give it time. Perhaps put a litter box in the corner, if she insists peeing there until she gets a hang of it. I finally gave in and gave mine a litterbox in a specific corner outside the cage, and now I can finally say they are 100 % litter trained. And that way you can protect the flooring.

I’m sure you can let them be free roam eventually, but right now it is better to focus on litter training and then the bonding. No reason to worry your mum with too many bunny matters all at once.

Good! It sounds like she’s catching on!

Posted By jerseygirl on 03/20/2010 03:12 AM

Another thing that helps absorb room odours is to leave out some bowls of vinegar. You can also use just bicarbonate soda if you prefer.  Obviously both these should be out of reach where nobunny can get to them!

I’m trying this. Does it really work? how much vinegar do I have to put out?

Petzy, just a little dish will do the trick. It works really well for kitchen odors too!

Just make it routine, like after dinner or right when you wake up. Makes it easier to remember if you do it at the same time each day

I use Yesterday’s News and I highly recommend it.  Bindi is in the kitchen – well the kitchen is in Bindi’s room , and I never smell anything.  I do clean it out every day and even while I’m dumping it,  I don’t smell urine at all.  Keep up the good work!  

Great tip about the dish of white vinegar, it does work! Wish I had know about it before.

Okay, this vinegar trick sounds interesting…does it smell like vinegar though? I want to try this as well.

no, it doesn’t, that’s what I was afraid of. I put a wide dish with large surface area on the floor beside my rabbits’ litter cage, on the outside of course.

Okay, I’m going to give this a try. I have a very wide window sill in the rabbit room that I could easily put a shallow dish on and no bunny could get to it.

How does this work? And who figured it out? I’m going to try it on my ferrets!

I think it was Jersey’s idea. You put a wide bowl filled with white vinegar near the litterbox where the animal can’t get to it.

Really it works? How often do you have to change the vinegar?

Yeah, it works – but not my idea – lol. It’s been around for some time I believe, along with 100 other uses for vinegar. Someone else on the board mentioned it’s odour absorbancy (Annette or Wendy?). I tried it some weeks back, I just put some in an ice tray. It seemed to have evaporated some. I think you iuse less if you pour it into a largish shallow container. You can supposedly spray neat vinegar around (even on furniture) like a aerosol air freshner but pretty sure you’ll get that vinegar smell doing that. With a dish, you can’t smell it.

Vinegar apparently has many household applications. I would imagine the cup of vinegar has to placed near the litterbox, or if you want to freshen a larger room, you would put two bowls of vinegar instead of just one. One website recommends spraying undiluted white vinegar in the air. It is true that the vinegar smell evaporates quickly but it also takes bad odors with it.

Just remember never mix vinegar and bleach.

A nasty chemical reaction occurs I believe… and bleach is just bad for buns anyway. If you clean stuff with bleach, make sure to thoroughly rinse it and let it air out.

Yeah you don’t want to be mixing those two together. It makes chlorine gas, very noxious, nasty stuff. A member here once did it by accident and nearly passed out.

never mix bleach with ammonia, like windex… same reaction

I’ll have to try the vinegar in a dish too. I don’t think I’d use it for air-freshener though. LOL. Also, I don’t think I’d want all that acidic mix on the ground where the bunnies could run around on it, wipe their eyes and…ouch. But maybe it’s just such a small amount it’s not worth worrying about…but never the less, I’ll stick with the bowl.

I haven’t tried the dish of vinegar.
I have used a box of baking soda for years to help with odor control. usually I put an open one on the shelf where I keep her supplies, and sprinkle some into the bottom of the litter pail before I dump it in. Like you do in the fridge. The close lidded pail really helps contain any smell.

Yeah I mop the floors with a ~1/2 cup of vinegar in the bucket instead of using soap. It is supposedly good for hardwood floors. I also use it to wash out the litterbox every time I clean it.

I have also heard sprinkling baking soda on the carpet and then vacuuming it up to clean and freshen it. I haven’t tried it yet though.

I’ve also used a glass of cider vinegar to get rid of fruit flies. They’re attracted to it and then you can catch them in the vinegar and they drown. We had horrible fruit flies last year and had glasses of vinegar sitting out everywhere. All sorts of uses for vinegar!

Just don’t make that a habit :~) I think at least cleaning your rabbit’s cage once a day is a necessity – I clean my twice a day, but that’s just my weird OCD when it comes to cleanliness.