Eating oxbow paper bedding

[Ella]

I recently switched from carefresh in my rabbits litter box to the oxbow bedding. I was excited because it’s a bit cheaper, doesn’t seem as dusty, and there is more packed in there than the carefresh. 

Today, I noticed my bun digging around in his litter box which is normal but then he started to nibble at the pieces of litter and it seemed as if he was eating them. I even went over and tried to shoo him away from doing that (I never bother him when he is in his litter box but I didn’t want him to eat it!). Even when I was trying to shoo him away he was determined to keep nibbling.

It seems like a great litter and is not all that different from carefresh in color and texture so I don’t understand the difference in why he would be nibbling on this but not carefresh?

Has anyone used this litter and noticed their rabbit eating it?

[Luna]

He might be nibbling on it to investigate it because it is something new? Luna uses carefresh and tried eating wood stove pellets when I switched to it, but she kept trying to eat it so I switched back to carefresh.

[sarahthegemini]

My bunnies both tried nibbling on wood pellets when I first switched from carefresh as it was new and exciting lol. They soon realised it wasn’t tasty pellets and they should be peeing on it instead. Maybe it’s just curiosity like Luna said?

[Ella]

I think it was just curiosity. I read someone a few years ago saying how their rabbit ate a bunch of their paper bedding so I got nervous that he might decide to that. I think that he decided it wasn’t very tasty!

[Muj Mom N Bun]

My Bun nibbled on her paper litter from time to time for quite a length of time when I first litter box trained her, so much that we began calling her “Potty Mouth”! I considered changing over to the stove pellets but they looked too delicious to her eyes and immediately she started to eat them so I switched back to our Kaytee Clean and Cozy paper litter. These days since I no longer make any changes to her litter, she no longer tries to nibble at it, so I would guess it is all out of curiosity. At first I was really always worried about what if it causes a blockage or something, but so far they usually just nibble and bunnies are great at chewing down really finely what they have eaten so it can pass thru easily. For me, I think because her litter was not food, it looked like she was eating so much of it that she could get sick and I press the panic button… but to BunBun, it’s just a tiny quality check nibble.

[Author]

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