How often do you guys change bedding of a litter trained bun?

[LJ]

My 3 month old Holland Lop is perfectly litter trained. I know those days are short and sweet as we approach her 5-6 months, but I plan to get her spayed. Anyway, she is pretty darn good in her hutch as far as using the litter box. There are a few, and I mean very few, droppings that are easily cleaned up (mostly near her willow tunnel which she loves to chew on). My boyfriend has built her the best rabbit cottage ever. Two stories, super cute. She LOVES it and it is definitely her home. It’s not that it’s hard to clean (thankfully beau listened to me and made pull out drawers), but it is a LOT of bedding and gets expensive. I was wondering how long bedding lasts for? In our first week or so together, I changed it every few days bc of accidents and excessive pooping. But I have one tidy bunny now. She won’t eat wo her back end in the litter box. Her bedding isn’t soiled but I am just worried that leaving it longer than a week is going to be dangerous to her health. I’m using Kaytee Clean N Cozy, the shredded paper. Thanks guys! ?

[Timber]

Are you using bedding outside of the littler box?

[Bam]

LJ, I’m wondering the same thing as Timber. Most of use here don’t use bedding except in the litter-box. It makes it easier for buns to tell the difference between the toilet and the rest of the house + buns in nature don’t line their warrens with anything except when a mama-bun is having babies, then she will wrap the newborns in her own fur that she pulls from her chest. Bunnies however like to dig and should be given the opportunity. You can make a digging box with shredded newspaper or bedding in it. My buns are free roam so they of course can’t have bedding, but they have fleece blankies if they want to dig and make blankie-mounds. They have vet beds to lounge on. Non-woven materials are preferred over woven since threads in woven fabric can cause trouble if ingested.

If she’s really good with her litter-box habits, I don’t think you need to exchange all the “house bedding” once a week.

[LJ]

I use Oxbow Wheat Pellets in her litter box and paper bedding throughout the rest of the hutch. Should I be using something else? If so, what should I use? Her hutch is made from wood but it has a protective coating called Kennel Seal on it, which makes it water proof.

[Bam]

In stead of paper bedding you could use just fleece blankies, the cheapest kind you can find. I cut them up in halves. Then the bun can arrage them to his liking. Bunnies don’t mind hard surfaces, but if there’s very little grip so she’d skate around in the cage without bedding, I’d opt for vet beds cut to size. I buy vet beds for dogs. (They’re like thick sherpa fleece with rubbery stripes underneath so they don’t slide.) Then you can add pieces of cheap fleece for burrowing in. It’d save you some money because you just throw all of it in the washer and then tumble dry. I have vet beds that are 8 years old and still good. The fleece blankies I toss when they have too many holes bit in them.

You can start by making a transition: Add half a blankie, put in a little less paper pellets. Observe her so she doesn’t eat the blankie (a nibble is fine, but she mustn’t devour it). Then gradually diminish amount of paper pellets, add another half of blankie. I don’t think she’ll mind. 

[Timber]

bam, I love the idea of reusable/washable bedding.

I’m new to this bunny thing, but I’ve been trying to get to the minimum-needed disposable product to minimize cost and waste. I’ve only been using a thin layer of bedding in the litter box, over a layer of newspaper (the real thing, not bedding made from paper ) and under a layer of hay. I’m not even sure I need the bedding in there, since the newspaper seems to absorb the pee. Maybe the bedding is what keeps it from being stinky, though. I’ll have to experiment with that. Before I started researching housing for bunnies, I, too, thought the bunny abodes would be covered in some kind of bedding! Timber seems very happy with his floors of vinyl and (reused) carpet and they are so easy to clean.

[Bam]

Traditionally where I live, buns get bedding in all of their cages, but that’s probably because litter-training rabbits is a concept that not many people are aware of. When I tell people (non-bunny owners) that my buns are litter trained, they are always baffled =) And if you have a bun that pees and poops all over the place, naturally you’ll want bedding all over the place.

I use hardwood stove pellets in the litterboxes. They are very absorbant of pee and smell and the used litter can be composted. When I first got bam, I started out with newpaper with fabric on it, but then he stopped wanting the fabric (tossed it out) and it didn’t seem like the newspaper was absorbant enough to keep his feet dry. So I started using wood stove pellets, the type actually intended to burn in a stove, much same thing is sold in pet stores nowadays, for cats, but at a much higher price. I scoop out the peed-on litter and refill, I very seldom empty out the lot.

[Bunbun]

I clean up my rabbit’s litter box once a week. To be honest, he doesn’t use it much… 

[LJ]

Bam–
I too use pellet litter. What I’m using now is wheat pellet by Oxbow—but I went ahead and bought Wood Stove Pellets at Lowes because it was a 40lb bag for $3 ?? Thank you so much for your ideas about bedding! The paper bedding gets so expensive but I didn’t want my bun to be on a hard surface all the time. I’m worried she might nibble on the fleece but I will try it and see! Do you think towels would work the same or is there a particular reason you’ve chosen fleece?

[LJ]

Bam–one more question, how often do you wash your vetbeds and blankies?

[Bam]

Blankies once a week – 10 days, depending. Vet beds a lot more seldom. Once a month at the most. Dirt doesn’t stick to them since there’s no pee on them, so hay and stuff can be shaken/brushed off.

[FloppyBunny]

I do pretty much the same thing as Bam. I use old folded sheets and pet beds as bedding. I wash them maybe once a week. They don’t really get dirty, mostly just hay and fur. In the litter box, I use a regular newspaper (not shredded) with hay on top. The hay keeps them from getting wet feet and helps with the smell, and the newspaper absorbs it. That I change every day if they are inside all day, but less when they go outside all day.

[Bam]

Oh, missed the q about fleece: I use fleece because it doesn’t have threads. Threads can get stuck in the GI system of the bun if the bun eats it. Since my buns are chewers I don’t want to risk it. My Yohio does chew my bed sheets, but he doesn’t ingest, he just makes holes. Risk is bigger with a young bun though because a young bun wants to explore what’s edible and what”s not and so tends to sample most stuff.

[Vienna Blue in France]

My bun has a carpet tile in her sleeping area (nice grip for her) and a big rectangular carpet rug in the kitchen – she doesn’t like slippery surfaces.
In her living area : Nothing “soft and squidgey” as she particularly likes to pee on “soft and squidgey”… but she has got a towel that she nibbles tiny bits of every now and again. So no bedding whatsoever really….
A flleece no threads….? Hmmm, never thought about it how is it made then…? A huge lump of plastic mulch and squashed through tight rollers? I know its made pretty much of plastic, if you’ve ever got it near heat or an out of control iron (!) you’ll see the fabric melts….

[Q8bunny]

My bun is 100% free range in a large flat that’s glossy-tiled throughout, with a couple of shaggy wool rugs, one low-pile rug, a few sheepskins, and a woven-rag rug that Chewie just loves to lounge on. His litter box is one of those stackable white plastic IKEA storage boxes (the smaller one) that have a lowered lip on one end (sorry, I forget the name). I put a bit of IKEA paper on the bottom (I buy the roll from the kids art area), then several handfuls of the purple Katee paper litter, then the uneaten/rejected hay (mostly stems) from my little prince’s snack box (they keep the litter from flying out when he launches himself out of the box after he’s done his very important business )

I completely clean out his box every other day – this way it’s never too heavily soiled so it’s inviting (I don’t want to risk Chewie’s wonderful litter habits), but it’s also very economical since there’s never any wasted product.

[Author]

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