Best bang for your buck (litterwise)

[Alicia]

I’ve had these bunnies for over a year and during that year I’ve gone back and forth a billion times trying to find a litter that both they like and that I like and is a good value.

Last week I ran out and decided to just use newspaper for the week until I could get back to the pet store..the first few days it was going really well..I even thought that maybe I’d just keep doing that and wouldn’t go back to litter at all since I didn’t mind changing their litter boxes every day..

Well then last night happened…holy canoli those bunnies were poop and pee machines last night!  I changed them yesterday afternoon and by last night it already looked like they couuld really use a change but I was exhausted after work and decided they could wait until morning..well by morning they were so bad that Tucker didn’t even USE it last night..ugh stupid me, should have changed it!, and I realized that no…newspaper was not going to work.  I still might add some in because Tucker loves to rip it up..but there needs to be some litter in there as well.

And if I am going to lose litter I’d like to use something that will either be really cheap, or will last me a long time so that it’s still a good value.   Anyone have any suggestions? What works best for you and seems to keep the box fresh the longest?

They’re in my daughter’s room so I need the boxes to stay pretty fresh, usually that means I have to change them every few days (when I had yesterday’s news)..but maybe if I had a good litter..I could make it to like ..twice a week? That would be AWESOME….

I do NOT have anywhere that sells stove pellets here, I’ve called and called and called..but since we’re in Coastal Carolina..wood stoves aren’t that popular!  So, those are out  As sad as that is.

 EDIT:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/ind…Id=3399930

Does that look like it’s the same thing as feline pine?  That seems like a good price…10.39 for 25 lbs….Seems like it would probably last me quite a while.

[Beka27]

I think Feline Pine would be your next best bet, but really the pellets are much cheaper: approx 6 bucks for 40lbs. Can you locate bags of horse stall bedding? Are there any farms or stables within reasonable driving distance that you might be able to call? That’s the same thing as the WSP. Your other option might be to actually get a bale of hay and use that in the litterbox…

[Alicia]

I’ll call around to a few feed stores and see what they have, or maybe I’ll just see if we can stop by a few this weekend. 

Whenever there is hay in the litter box and they pee on it it really stinks, so I want to avoid having them go on that if at all possible.

 

I think I’ll probably end up with the exquisicat pine pellets if I can’t get any horse pellets..it seems like it’ll probably be my cheapest bet and I was thinking I could maybe line the box with newspaper first and then put the pellets over top..that should cut down on the amount of pellets I need and also make it easier to keep clean.

[Beka27]

I put a very small amount of WSP in my buns’ boxes. I do three folded sections of newspaper in each box (so I probably have a solid quarter inch of newspaper) and then I use about 3 cups of pellets on top. That makes a single layer of pellets, and it barely covers the newspaper. The pellets expand so much tho when wet, that when it’s time to change, the box is about a quarter full of expanded litter, but it’s still dry to the touch! If you have horses or farms near to you, they have to get their bedding from SOMEWHERE…

[Alicia]

I just found one called Carolina Town and Country and it says it has Purina Feeds, Animal Chows, Pet Feed, Pet Supplies, Livestock, Hay, Horse & Tack Supplies, Supplements, Minerals, and Wild and Domestic Bird Feed…so that looks promising! I’m definitely going to check that one out and it’s right on the way to my mom’s house too..and we’re dropping the boys off for a sleepover on Saturday so it won’t even be a wasted trip even if it doesn’t pan out! YAY!

 

[Beka27]

That’s great! You might also be able to talk to them about hay, they might be able to order you larger sizes of horse-quality hay and you could save some money that way too! If you don’t see the horse bedding out, talk to one of the people there, they may need to order it for you.

[Sarita]

Yes, alot of the horse bedding or pelleted sawdust brands seem to be regional. I buy a brand call Lone Star Bedding (as you can guess this is in Texas and the surrounding areas) and it’s great. They have another brand at the store I purchase it at called Northwest or something like that which I don’t like as much – doesn’t absorb the odor as well.

They do carry hay but I’ve never been happy with the quality even though it’s cheap enough and you have to buy a huge bale so I just continue purchasing my American Pet Diner on-line because the quality of that hay is so much better.

[Barbie]

I want to try the wood stove pellets since I’ve been hearing a lot about them, but I’m concerned about the type of wood they use to make the pellets. I know the aromatic oils in pine and cedar can cause liver damage/disease in rabbits and other small animals… should I be concerned about that with other woods? I found 50 lb bags for sale at Menards (a hardware/home improvement store) for $4.99/bag, but when I called, no one could tell me what kind of wood it was made out of. The person I talked to who seemed to know the most about them said the wood pellets are just scraps of wood in pellet form.

[Sarita]

This is from the House Rabbit Society website:

Compressed sawdust pellets – inexpensive, highly absorbent litters used in many foster homes. They are made from softwood or hardwood sawdust, but they are not toxic because the phenolic compounds are removed during their manufacture. Their wood composition helps control bacterial growth and odors. Wood stove fuel pellets and Feline Pine are two examples of this product.

That is what those wood stove pellets are made from – you do want to make sure however that they do not have an accelerant (sp?).

[Barbie]

Ok thanks! I think I’ll try them then! I gotta check them out when I go to the store and make sure there’s not an accelerant added though

I found this a chart at the bottom of this page that compares litters, which was useful, but I wasn’t sure if “Wood Stove Pellets” was the same as “Compressed Sawdust Pellets”  http://www.rabbit.org/journal/1/liver-disease.html

[jerseygirl]

I use a pelleted wood product called Woody Pet.  You can look up suppliers on their website:  http://www.woodypet.com

Also, you can get Aspen in pelleted form.

[katie, max & penny]

the exquisicat kind is the same as feline pine. just the generic version

[Monkeybun]

I went to the local pet store today to check out new bedding for the litter box for Monkey, but unfortunately, most pellet types wont work for me. Monkey lieks the soft stuff, you see

So, I’m being a good bunny slave and continuing to get her the slightly pricey Carefresh Ultra for her box… spoiled little bun.

[Beka27]

Monkeybun: you could try a layering method in the litterbox. Do a layer of newspaper, a thin layer of inexpensive litter, and then a thin layer of “the soft stuff” on top. That might be better for you for odor-control and absorption (and $$$), and Monkey still gets the softness he likes.

[Alicia]

Well today we go check out the farm store!  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they have something good!!  We went to petsmart and petco this weekend and that was a huge bust..nothing at a good price and hardly any bunny toys.  Bleh!

[RabbitPam]

I switched to the Aspen pellets and she’s fine with it. They also make aspen shavings, which are safe, and softer if you want to give that a try.
Aspen is a safe wood.

[flippersmom]

We get wood stove pellets at our Menard’s stores. They are usually 4.99 for a 40-50# bag (depends of brand), but we found that if there are torn bags, you can usually negotiate a deal with them!!!! Yesterday we got 5 torn bags for half price!!! Hubby said, not much could have fallen out as they still felt the same weight when he picked them up!!!! Since he does construction work, he’s at Menards at least once a week, so he always checks for torn bags and snags them up!!!! Nerver pays more than 3.99!!! Not sure about other stores negotiatng to get rid of torn bags, but it’s worth a try!!!!!!

[Alicia]

Well we got there just as they were closing but we got the litter!  It was 5.99 for a 30 lb bag..so not too bad.

I noticed that they had big bags of alfalfa pellets too so I asked if she had Timothy pellets or just the alfalfa, she said she can get both but hasn’t ordered the Timothy in a while so she said to give her a call on Monday and she’ll let me know how much they’ll cost.  I forgot to ask about Hay so I’ll ask her about that on Monday too.  I just bought a big giant bag of hay and a 5 lb bag of pellets so I won’t really need either for a few weeks anyway.

 

I also went to the farmer’s market and got a whole bunch of collards for 2.00

[Barbie]

Yay! Good shopping Alicia! Flippersmom, I’m going to try to get to Menards today for some woodstove pellets; thanks for the tip about the torn bags, I’ll be on the lookout for those. Still, $5 is a great deal on 50lbs of litter… I paid $18 for a 27.5 liter bag of SoftZorb (and it doesn’t even work very well!), so I’m looking for ANYTHING more affordable than that.

[Alicia]

So far the buns are not very pleased with their new litter..well Tucker and Drue aren’t.  This looks exactly like the stuff that was in Thumper’s box at the pet store so I think it might be the same stuff so he’s loving it..he’s been going in his litter box faithfully since I put it in

 

Drue and Tucker however…less then thrilled…  I don’t know why because they’ve used pelleted litter before..but they’re just…I dunno..not digging it.  There is poop and pees in there but you can just tell tehy’re not a fan..they get in with their heads out of the box and go real quick and then jump back out.  They used to like take their time in there and sit and heat some hay..now they’ve been getting the hay from leaning down off their shelf and then jumping in the box for the potty business ONLY..so strange…

[Beka27]

It might take some getting used to. What did you end up with, the horse stall bedding? You could do a very thin layer of hay on top and slowly reduce it until there’s no more hay laying in the box.

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