Litter, Grooming, etc.

[Meg Pressley]

Assuming this is the appropriate place to post this — seeing as how it’s about litter and litter boxes — I have questions to ask.

Okay, so today I went to Walmart with my mother.  I was looking for something I could use for a hay feeder and had no such luck, but I do have something readily available to make into a hay feeder.

Anyway, today I found cat littler boxes that are actually a really good size for the current cages my two buns are in — it’s about three to four inches deep, about seven or eight inches wide, and about a foot in length.  Considering I’m still using a starter cage temporarily until I come into enough money after their spay (in hopefully the next few months considering I’m still saving for that as well) to get them new cages and new items for their cages and the like.  My question is about the kind of litter one should use for such a littler box?  My rabbit are used to using newspaper, and I am wondering if I used a new type of litter for them would I possibly have to restart litter training to get them used to the new litter?  I’m just curious about what’s the best litter, or what is most commonly used, because I don’t want to give them something that’s not good for them or anything…  Also how much litter would I put into the litter box that size?  I’m not really a fan of the make $*&! litter boxes I have for the bunnies now, so I was hoping in the near future I’ll be able to get them these litter boxes.  Thus I am asking.  (I wish I would have gotten a picture of the litter boxes for you).

Also, I got them a brush today…  I read that some of them get tangled hair or it gets matted (that along with me thinking it would be cool and soothing for them to get groomed themselves) that I decided I would buy them a brush…  It’s a wooden brush with soft bristles that I found for cheap in the comb and brushes section at our local Walmart and I was concerned whether or not the bristles might be too long…  I used it gently on my bunnies today and they seemed to be calm and relaxed the whole time; they enjoyed it.  I’m just concerned if the bristles are too long.  (I have pictures of the brush).

I apologize for the shadow, I turned on my light for this one so it wouldn’t be so dark on my camera phone. :]

[tobyluv]

You do have to make sure that you get the correct kind of litter for rabbits. To transition them to a different litter, you could put some cut up/torn up pieces of newspaper on top of the new litter, and also place some droppings and pieces of wet newspaper in the new boxes so that they know what they are for.  After they start using the new itter boxes, you can gradually remove the newspaper pieces, so that they are using the new litter only.  Since the litter boxes you looked at aren’t very deep, you should put no more than a couple of inches of litter in them.  Rabbits like to dig and they frequently shoot litter out of their boxes.

The safe liitters are ones made from paper, such as Carefresh or Yesterday’s News. Straw based pellets such as Critter Country or Oxbow Eco-Straw. Compressed pine pellets such a Feline Pine or Exquisicat. Aspen pellets such as Gentle Touch or Aspen Supreme. The least expensive litter is the wood stove pellets or horse stall pellets. You can find those at feed stores, tractor supply stores and some home stores. Make sure that the wood stove pellets are the plain ones and not treated with any kind of accelerants. Never use pine shavings or cedar shavings or any clay litter or clumping litter.

That brush looks okay to me. As long as the bristles are soft and they don’t tug at the fur, it should be fine.

[Meg Pressley]

Okay, thank you so much for the help. :] I appreciate it.

[Author]

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