a question about litter

[sallysmom]

You guys are going to be so sick of my questions before I get the hang of being a bun parent…lol Anyway, the first couple of days that I had Sally, I put the hay all in her litterbox, with some newspaper lining. I could tell when she peed in there, because it was wet. Well, i went to the store and bought some Yesterday’s News for rabbits. This stuff is confusing…lol  Probably overthinking it or just having a “special” moment, but how can one tell if her rabbit pees in the litterbox with this stuff in there? I did a good cleaning of her cage today and I couldn’t tell a bit. I have a paper towel with her pee on it, and put it in her box, and some poos in her box, to maybe, hopefully get her to go in there, but I can’t tell if she pees. Does it clump? i’m wanting to say I ready somewhere that it just disinigrates, but I want to make sure. Thanks for all you help. You guys are wonderful!

[Alicia Conklin]

I haven’t used yesterday’s news in a while but I am pretty sure it kind of disintegrates into like a kind of clumpy/kind of like chopped up wet newspaper.

[Lightchick]

Yesterday’s News, strangely, looks the same on the top layer (maybe the buns knock the litter around, and the dry stuff moves to cover the wet stuff?), but if you dig at it, it sort of disintergrates into a clumpy grey mush. My buns like to pee in the corners. They back up until butt hits plastic, and pee there, so that is where I look first. I love Yesterdays News, but it’s expensive, so I use a plastic grocery sack as a glove, and dig out the wet clumped bits for daily cleaning, rather than dumping the entire bin. You could use a litter-box shovel, too, I guess.

With the Yesterdays News, do know that there is a “rabbit” and a “cat” variety. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that the rabbit variety is in a smaller bag with a higher price. I buy the cat version.

Hope that helps!

[sallysmom]

Thank you so much for your advice. I’m going to go through her litter box a lot better today. I didn’t realize that Yesterday’s News was so expensive until I bought it…lol  I think I paid $9 for 10 pounds. I think I”m going to try different options. Like newspaper and baking soda or something. It’s hard to tell what kind of litter she likes whens he won’t hardly use it…lol She goes through spurts of laying in her box, to laying on the floor, to laying in her litter….we must be more alike than I though, I can never make up my mind either…LOL. Anyway, thanks for your suggestions.

[KatnipCrzy]

A great alternative to Yesterdays News is pellets for wood stoves- commonly sold under brands such as “Stove Chow”, etc.  It usually labeled as “hardwood pellets” and you do not want stove pellets with accellerants (although I have never personally seen any for sale).  They can be hard to find as they are considered a seasonal product- but I paid less than $6 for 40lbs.  I bought them at a local home improvement store- Home Depot and other local store.  The brand I have now is Greenway and it is 100% natural, 100% hardwood.

Stove pellets work great for odor control and they are extremely absorbant.  a 40lb bag last me 2-3 months for 1 bunny.  The pellets are maybe a little bigger around than Yesterdays News- but that should make no difference to the bunny.  Since they are seasonal- I bought 6 bags in February or so- and I still have 3 full bags stored on a high shelf in my garage.  And they are so cheap it is not too expensive to stock up on them when they are available.

I would probably not add baking soda to your bunnys litter box- as bunnies have such furry feet if they get any baking soda (wet or dry) on their feet they might groom it off.  It could possibly make them nauseous- but even if it does not it contains a lot of salt which your bunny does not need.

I know alot of BinkyBunny members use Stove Pellets (at least those of us that can find them) and there have been no reported problems and I think they have comparable odor control to Feline Pine or Yesterdays News.

When you store them or buy them- you have to make sure the bag is dry as if the pellets get wet they turn to mush as they would in a litterbox.  That is why I bought all my other bags at another store other than Home Depot- as they store theirs on a pallet INSIDE the store- Home Depots was on a pallet in the garden center and exposed to weather.  And although the bag was fine- I did not want to stock up on bags that had been exposed to the weather (so I bought them from a local home improvement chain called Menards).

This is by far one of the best money saving tips that I have gotten for my bunny- and I have not sacrificed quality to save money.

 

[Lightchick]

I’ve actually got on my “to-do list” to look for stove pellets…as I said, I love Yesterday’s News, but it is fairly expensive! Thank you, KatnipCrzy, for the specfics of brand names, so I have a more educated place to start looking!

[FergieJen]

I buy Equine Pine and I LOVE IT. It is only about $8 for a 50 lb bag and it lasts quite a while. It creates a mushy mess once it is soaked with urine though, so you might want to clean it out every day. Besides that, it is a WONDERFULLY inexpensive alternative to Yesterday’s News (which I used to buy and just can’t afford anymore with 5 foster rabbits).

Good luck! (BTW, we buy our Equine Pine from a feed store – the same place we buy our hay)

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