Is baking soda safe?

[SeaTurtleSwims]

Listen y’all I have a lot of pets I work hard to keep the animal odor down by vacuuming obsessively and changing litter every day. I sprinkle baking soda on the carpet before I vacuum, mix it with white vinegar to clean, sprinkle it in cat litter to keep the odor down… can I also use it in the bunny’s litter? Haven’t tried it yet, thought I should ask first. I don’t want to make him sick or anything

[jerseygirl]

My feeling is it’s probably best not to. My reasoning is, it has a slightly salty taste which might attract bunnies to eating the litter. Also, their guts need to remain acidic, so ingesting baking soda may upset there gut pH. Finally, rabbit urine is alkaline as is the soda, so you won’t get the affect of neutralisation. If you do want to try it, I would use a screen over the litter.

What type of litter are you currently using for him?

p.s. white vinegar is supposed to be a good odor absorber just from having a bowl somewhere in the room. Obviously out of the way of curious pets!!

[SeaTurtleSwims]

Oo That’s really good information on bunny body chemistry! I didn’t know that! He is on equine pine pellets- they are baked in kiln like wood stove pellets and so the toxic chemicals from pine are neutralized- it’s what I use for the cats too. I could smell bunny odor, so I started changing the litter daily and that honestly seems to have done the trick, but was looking for other preventative ideas. I don’t know if I’d leave it out in a bowl just because the cats would get into it, but I’ve read where you can use white vinegar and baking soda in a water bottle set to mist can be sprayed like fabreeze on the furniture. With your vinegar bowl suggestion I think I’ll give the mister a try. Is white vineger more mild smelling than other kinds?

[jerseygirl]

Im not sure. Still vinegary

Im surprised you’d have to change the wood pellets daily. They’re normally great with odour control.You can mix the wet areas up with the dry and it allows more time before it needs to be changed. 

Does he have a build up of sediment in the box? Sometimes it can smell each time that gets wet again. A soak in straight vinegar seems to get it off.

[SeaTurtleSwims]

You know he does have some build up on the box- honestly it never occurred to me to clean the box itself. There are three litter boxes actually, if you count the others scattered around the room. I bet that should become a monthly maintenance cleaning, eh? 

[Bam]

I second Jersey on the vinegar, the build-up is mostly calcium from the pee (perfectly normal, but it creates a build-up). Vinegar dissolves calcium really well.

I also ditto Jersey on the baking soda. Don’t use it unless you get a litter box with a screen.

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