Highly considering a bunny, but worried about the smell

[Nina S]

After doing a tremendous amount of research, I am highly considering getting a pet bunny. I know the animal itself does not smell, but I’ve read that the urine can be quite pungent. I am worried about this and my husband is especially wary of bringing in any kind of animal that will stink up the apartment.

Do ya’ll find that your bunny’s urine leaves an especially bad smell in the house? How often do they urinate? And how can the smell be eliminated? Looking for specific tips from people with experience on how to eliminate the odor, or what experiences you’ve had with rabbit urine in general and how bad it really is…

Thanks in advance!!

[HipHopBunny]

That is always a good question to consider before a bunny. 😉

“How often do they pee?”  *dry laugh* oh, they pee quite frequently, but they don’t smell that much. In the room I have their x-pens in, you can sort of smell the pee, but it’s not like it hits you in the face like “Oh *gag* yup *cough* she peed…again!” Standing in the room now, I can’t really smell it too much. Certain kinds of litter also help with the smell as well, since my litter, which I already forgot the name of – contains the smell pretty good, I haven’t had to research any brands that help with the odor, hopefully, some other members with more information on that will respond.

Wishing you easing thinking! 🙂

[Wick & Fable]

They pee a lot. Pee smell I find can range, depending on how territorial the rabbit is. I also mention this because pee on hay and pee on poop (especially if the poop is pungent due to the territorial “onion” oil coating) also produces smell. My neutered rabbit Wick doesn’t have smelly urine. My spayed rabbit Fable does have smelly urine. How much she pees is also “bigger” (she’s twice Wick’s size, so naturally, one of her pees is just larger). She also has smellier poops (she still tends to leave territorial poops behind despite being spayed) so when they are covered in urine in the litterbox, you can smell it.

A mixture of water and vinegar typically does the trick. If you do not like the smell of vinegar, than you may need to do a bit more cleaning following the vinegar spray clean to get it out. At this point when I clean litter boxes or pee accidents, I essentially am swapping the urine smell/stain for vinegar smell for a while.

Typically if someone mentions their rabbit being “smelly” or their rabbit room/area being smelly, it’s more to do with the cleaning schedule, how they’re cleaning, and in some cases, the health of their rabbit (ex. the rabbit is ill and is not grooming itself/is peeing itself, leading to soiled fur). Rabbits are not inherently smelly, but they do pee and poop a lot. I personally love that rabbits do not smell. Dogs and cats, I think regardless of who’s it is, there is a “dog” and “cat” smell. My rabbits just smell like… nothing, haha.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Louiethebunny]

My bunnies and I share a room in my house, it’s actually a finished daylight basement so it is pretty separate from the house, so there’s never any smell anywhere else in the house. There usually isn’t a smell in my room either, unless its litter changing day, so I just pop open the window. My Louie had smelly pee for a week-ish, but it turned out the bedding we had been using wasn’t that good. We now use pine pellets. My dad was very against having a rabbit in the house at first because he isn’t an animal person, but me and my mom got Louie when he was on a work trip, and we got Lola on a day he was busy… and he mentioned he is actually very pleased with how little smell/mess there is, which is mostly because I keep the area clean. I did have some pungent onion poops when I adopted my second rabbit, but it went away and both rabbits have normal poops after bonding. Personally, if the only reason you are holding out on a rabbit is smell, there’s usually a way to avoid it, whether it be your cleaning method, how often you air out the place, etc.

[JackRabbit]

All three of mine are spayed/neutered and we have no urine smell (and I have a super sensitive nose!).  In our bunny room, the used litter gets scooped out and replaced every night and all of the litter gets replaced every week (we use the screens from the Binky Bunny store in the lops’ litterboxes).  In the lops’ litterboxes, we use a layer of aspen pelleted litter with paper type litter over it, then the screen, then a pile of hay at the back of the box (the buns scatter a layer of hay).  Kieko’s litterbox only has paper type litter in it and gets dumped nightly.  She prefers a smaller litterbox than we use for the lops, and hers has to have higher sides as she will only pee in a corner.  She also will only poop in one spot in the litterbox and will make a literal poop mountain there.  Kieko will only eat hay out of a single large red casserole dish (she’s an odd one lol).  The lops and Kieko take turns nightly outside the bunny room and share a litterbox out there.  While the lops couldn’t care less, Kieko feels the need to mark every spot where a lop butt has touched.  While she’s a super neat bunny in her area of the bunny room, she is a complete slob elsewhere.  Outside the bunny room, the “common” litterbox contains only paper type litter because of Kieko (pelleted litter makes noise and she will pee on the floor rather than use a noisy potty).  Even though she’s marking against the lops, her pee doesn’t have a strong smell.  Her poop doesn’t have a strong smell either, but Kieko farts and that does have a strong smell, kindof like fermented grass that has started to really decay lol.  What DOES smell with bunnies are their cecotrophs.  While you will rarely see these since they are normally eaten, sometimes a bun will leave one or three for you to step in or bun will sit in an uneaten cecotroph and those reek!  Another bunny thing that can smell bad are scent glands if bun has been less than appropriate with keeping those clean (smells like skunk).

[Danny]

My rabbit Audrey-Hepburn is unspayed, but she doesn’t really smell, even though we live in a carpeted apartment. It probably helps that she’s the only rabbit in the house (so not super territorial). She’s pretty well litter trained too, and I use paper shreds (from junk mail and old print outs and the like) as litter which does need to be changed every day or two but has been absorbing smells very nicely!

Seconding what Louiethebunny said – if a rabbit smells, it’s usually a problem with the owner or the diet. Keep the box clean, maintain a hay-rich diet, and you should be just fine.  Rabbits are a lot like cats, not very smelly as long as you give them the chance to (unlike dogs, rip).

[shasbun]

They pee pretty frequently, mine pees about once each hour. The smell depends on what litter you use and how frequently you clean their litter box.  I found that Yesterday’s News Non- Clumping cat litter is really great for odor control, but it is hard on bunny feet, so I would recommend something soft like CareFresh on top. The only time rabbits’ pee sticks even with good litter and frequent cleaning is if they have any health conditions, so you don’t really have to worry about the smell.

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