Eating wood pellet litter – updates?

[mango]

Hi all,

So I’ve found lots of posts about the safety of wood stove pellet litter and I think I have a pretty good understanding. But most threads are several years old, so I’m wondering if anyone has new info or experiences with your bunnies eating wood stove pellets? In particular, I’m wondering about the potential of the compressed sawdust pellets expanding too much in the stomach and thereby causing GI stasis?

My WSP are all natural kiln-dried hardwood with no chemicals, additives, nor accelerants. It specifies safe for use as pet bedding but generally they mean cats and I’m not sure if they considered the possibility of a rabbit or any pet ingesting it. http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/hardwood-pellets-40-lb-0642776p.html

One of my buns took a liking to eating it, digging down through his hay to get at it. I ignored it at first, thinking it might just be a few test nibbles and he’d maybe get bored eventually. But he was really going to town. So I switched back to Boxo (similar to Carefresh but cheaper) until I can sort this out.

I’m willing to experiment with a litter screen and alternative wood chew toys and anything else to deter my buns from eating the WSP, but if I just don’t have to worry about it to begin with, that would be nice to know.

Thanks!

[Azerane]

I think you’ve done the right thing taking it away. It certainly would expand in the stomach, although many brands of food pellets do too. If you’ve ever scooped a spoonful of pellets into a dish and added some water, you’ll be amazed at how much they expand. That being said, food pellets and wood pellets are a little different and I don’t think it’s worth the risk if he’s ingesting that much. I think it would be worth trying a litter screen if you wanted to continue using wood pellets. While they are safe to ingest in terms of there’s no toxins etc, I doubt that eating many of them at once is very safe given how much they expand. Better safe than sorry.

[mango]

Thanks! Yes, better safe than sorry!

So last night I tried again with the wood stove pellets. This time I poured a bit of water evenly over it all to soften it a bit so they were less like crunchy granola treats. Then I added a thin layer of Boxo on top, which is what they’re used to. And I provided a bunch of willow sticks that they seem to love! So far, so good. They have not munched on the WSP at all. I also have hardware mesh on order to see if they’ll take to a litter screen.

I’m really hoping I gradually can make the switch to just WSP because they’re so cheap and absorbent!

[Author]

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