First time bunny owner ~ not sure about bedding

[mayayoung]

Hi all! Just to very briefly introduce myself, I’m Maya, and I will be a first time bunny owner soon, because I’m planning to adopt a bunny from our local shelter, which is why I’ve joined this forum My question today is regarding bedding in my (future) bunny’s cage. I don’t mean litter bedding, but instead a blanket or towel for comfort. Would you recommend I start out with some kind of towel/fleece inside the cage of my rabbit? According to the shelter, their rabbits are already litter trained, but considering the stress of a new environment and a totally different litter box and cage, I think my rabbit will have at least a few accidents. That makes me a little hesitant to line my cage, but I do want my bunny to be comfortable in its cage. Maybe I could line half the cage, to hopefully minimise the chances of an accident happening on it?

Thanks so much for reading!

PS: any new owner/new bunny tips would be greatly appreciated!

PPS: don’t worry, I fully intend to buy a big enough cage for my bunny, and to make it as comfy as possible The reason why I’ve decided to have my bunny’s cage be its main home is because my family members are not familiar with bunnies at all, and I worry about accidents while I’m at school (also, we have an extraordinary amount of non-bunny friendly things, and it really wouldn’t be practical to bunny proof everyone else’s things too). My bunny will have plenty of out of cage time when I’m home and supervising!

[Serenity]

Well, depending on the flooring and age/size/breed of your bun, you might not need bedding at all. Fleece or towel might not be a good idea because I know my buns like to chew and sometimes they might ingest it. If you do use a towel, make sure to check up on it frequently and make sure he/she isn’t eating it. If you’re using a wire floor I do suggest bedding because it can give them sore hocks (not going into that, it can be traumatic). I usually use shavings that I find in stores but I’ve heard cedar isn’t good. Shredded newspaper is also good I used that for a while but then I had to upgrade my cage and it got too tedious to keep filling and I eventually stopped using bedding altogether. The bigger the bunny, the more likely it is you will need bedding but some rabbits straight up just don’t like it and tend to pile it into one corner and sleep directly on the floor. I like pine shavings, as long as they have nothing artificial done to them and are just naturally dried and not treated or anything special like that. Hope this helped! And the best of luck to you and the lucky new adoptee!

[Mikey]

A fleece blanket at most if youre using a plastic or coroplast bottom cage. Fleece on cardboard if youre using a wire cage; even if the cage is on a soft surface, as the wires can hurt their feet pretty badly. Rabbits love to pee on soft things and get very confused which is why you shouldnt use cage bedding unless you need to. If you have bedding in the cage, theyll likely use the entire cage as their litter box, which could be hard to train them out of it.

[mayayoung]

Thanks so much for the replies!

[joea64]

Panda and Fernando seem to do pretty well sleeping in their litterbox (which always has a thick hay cushion on top of the Carefresh litter), or in their hidey boxes which are set up on the carpeted upper deck of their bunny condo, either of which they plainly find comfortable enough for any ordinary purpose. I’ve been monitoring to make sure they don’t start chewing that carpet, but so far no issue with that that I can see.

[mayayoung]

Posted By joea64 on 9/08/2017 8:42 AM

Panda and Fernando seem to do pretty well sleeping in their litterbox (which always has a thick hay cushion on top of the Carefresh litter), or in their hidey boxes which are set up on the carpeted upper deck of their bunny condo, either of which they plainly find comfortable enough for any ordinary purpose. I’ve been monitoring to make sure they don’t start chewing that carpet, but so far no issue with that that I can see.

thank you for reply to both my posts

[Andrea]

Hi! We are first time bunny owners also. She’s been with us for about 2 mo now. I started with a large plastic bottom house with carefresh. Even though I read no bedding, I just felt like I didn’t want her sleeping on the plastic. We quickly learned SHE preferred the plastic bottom. So after a week of carefresh all over the place I pulled it out and bought a small Timothy mat for one corner. We bought a litter pan for one side and use horse bedding pellets covered with a plastic canvas and some hay on top. Her food, hay manager and water bottle are all accesible only from litter pan. THE BEST THING I DID. She never urinates anywhere but her litter pan but her litter pan. We also bought one for outside her cage. We also are working on bunny proofing and playtime but that will take time. She’s out a few hours a night when we are all home and weekends when being watched. We have other animals too so we are slowly building those relationships. She does also have a small shelf in her cage that has a T Shirt on it that she does sleep on BUT I must say bedding is not necessary nor do they like it. Best of luck to you and your new bun.

[Bianca]

Depending on size of cage I wouldn’t worry about bedding.

Mine live in my study, no cage. So they have a few towels which are well away from the litter tray. I’m bonding Greebo to my trio so there have been some territorial wees on the towels occasionally but that’s stopping and they are just using the litter trays today. Terry does eat the towels a bit so I have to watch it but usually if he had lots of toys and hay he leaves the towels alone. Greebo is the only one who sleeps on them usually.

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