Moving the litterscreens

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 6sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 11 months ago by PB and Z.

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- 04/19/2011 at 7:25 PM
  PB and Z
  Participant
  58 posts
  Hello,
  
  I just put litter screens on the girls litterboxes because of the way their pen is set up and it cuts down on the amount of stuff they drag out with them. I had first tried using plastic canvas because I didn’t want the them standing on metal but they chewed them up to the point that they were useless. So I ordered the ones from the BinkyBunny store store but Buttercup keeps pulling the one up and moving it and as a result dumping the poos back ontop of the litter. Does anyone elses bunny do this?
- 04/20/2011 at 1:02 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  Buttercup doesn’t seem to like the litter screen. Is she then trying to dig in the box?
  Beside removing it altogether, only thing I can think to do is try weight it down somehow. Maybe using a metal picture frame that fits the inner perimeter of the box. without the glass and backing obviously. Another thing to wash though….
  
  She might just start flipping the whole box so watch out for that. What bunny doesn’t like, bunny will let you know!
- 04/20/2011 at 1:51 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  Argh! Been trying to edit my post above for 10 minutes. My connection is being troublesome. I wanted to say that the frame I suggested is prob bad idea. Sharp edges etc. Perhaps you could try a larger screen so it wedges into the box and less likely to move?
  The wire of these screens shouldn’t hurt their feet because it flexes so it’s not like the rigid wire of cage flooring that can cause sore hocks. Plus, they won’t be spending all their time on it either.
  
  A member (Cheyenne?) posted this pic of a litter set up. It’s been reposted several time because it’s such a simple and cheap solution to help contain litter/hay mess.
- 04/20/2011 at 4:31 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  Do you have the screen covered with hay or a second, very thin layer of litter?
- 04/20/2011 at 8:29 AM
  PB and Z
  Participant
  58 posts
  So the girls litterbox set up is like this (see picture below): their litterboxes and hayracks are inside the cage which they can jump into via the “step” from the larger pen area below. Originally, I did not have any type of screens on the litterboxes but whenever they would jump out of the cage area they would drag litter and poo out with them because the one litterbox is directly underneath the cage opening. But the screens cut down on the mess significantly. So what Buttercup is doing is sitting in the one on the left which is “hers” most of the time and pulling the litterscreen from the box on the right toward her into the box she’s in and trying to chew on it too I think but I’m not sure.
  
  Jerseygirl: No, she’s not much of a digger – she’s more of a pulling carpet fibers out with her teeth kind of gal. (Zatanna digs but never at anything that would actually move – its always at linoleum or plastic silly bunny.) And I don’t think she could turn the boxes over if she wanted to because they fit rather snugly against the edges of the cage. When I ordered the litterscreens I followed the directions for sizing which was to order a screen that left 2 inches between the edges of the screen and the outside edges of the box, which is probably why she can pick it up pretty easily.
  
  Beka27: Yep, I put a thin layer of hay on top of the screen but my girls are kind of greedy so they eat it if it doesn’t get wet first
- 04/21/2011 at 8:08 AM
  Lani
  Participant
  305 posts
  My bun did this as well, primarily because she always wanted to dig in her litter box. I also got the screen from BB and it probably would’ve worked really well if Oreo wasn’t so dead set on moving the screen to dig I ended up getting this large size of this corner litter box that they have at petsmart
  
  http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752717
  
  It worked for us because the white plasic piece snaps over the lip of the box so that even if she tries to pull on the grate, it won’t completely come out. It’s not as big as I wanted it to be but the large one is an okay size for my 3lb bun. I’m not sure how big your girls are, but it might be worth checking out
  
  EDIT: I should also mention that the grate on this one is designed to let poos fall through into the litter so it’s not as easy to clean as the BB screen where the poos just sit on top of the screen and you can dump it out without having to scoop out litter as often. I don’t know if this matters to you but to me, the extra bit of cleaning it takes to use this one was a small price to pay if it meant keeping the poos and litter IN the box
- 04/21/2011 at 1:40 PM
  PB and Z
  Participant
  58 posts
  Thanks Lani. I’ve seen the litter boxes you are talking about and I had the slightly smaller version of one without the grate and Zatanna proceeded to use it as her lounge chair and never a litter box even though it had litter in it. Also, I don’t think that they would both use it effectively at the same time and it would be difficult to set them up side by side the way their pen is set up. I mean Buttercup isn’t making mess outside of the litter box when she pulls up the litter screen because she’s just dumping the poos on top of the litter. I was just curious as to what her intention was since she wasn’t digging so that maybe I could keep her from doing it. I’ve been putting more hay on top of the litter and added the remains of a recently torn a part grass mat to “hide” the litter screen and that seems to be working for the moment. Let me know if you guys have any other suggestions! Thanks!
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