My bunny’s bedding! help

[EdgarWabbit2]

I just need some opinions; I’ve had my 2 year old male dwarf rabbit for a month and I’ve cycled through about three or four different bedding options so as to differ from his litter material and for his sensitive little feet (litter is yesterdays news). So today I bought him the white Carefresh bedding and placed it in the cage floor, and now he pees and poos in it, and eats the darn stuff! (he also digs at it and pushes it into the sides of his cage rendering it useless). I guess he wasn’t litter trained by the previous owners making it quit difficult in terms of keeping his area clean, he just poops at will! while I’m holding him, on the wood floor, as he’s moseying along in the kitchen etc.

Anyway,maybe I’ll try dust free aspen shavings? He might chew that but he won’t eat it. Please help, I’d appreciate any and all replies and opinions.

  

[Sarita]

I would not use bedding at all – too expensive, not necessary, and hard to clean.

[blubudgie]

I don’t use bedding anywhere other than the litter box. If you want something soft, maybe you can get a soft mat at petco or a small blanket?
But apparently rabbits like to pee/poo on soft things so it’s possible he will still use the blankets as a bathroom. My rabbit was pretty good about only going in her litter box so I didn’t have a problem using blankets, but she’s recently starting pooping/peeing wherever she wants so I have to wash her blankets frequently.
Otherwise I think it’s fine to use a hard, flat (not on wire) surface outside of the litter box. As long as he’s not slipping on it a lot?

[JackRabbit]

Marlee was my hardest to litterbox train. We removed all bedding except in the litterbox when she went from a cage to an xl dog crate and gave her hay mats and a fleece blanket — she peed on both and would lay on the plastic floor of the crate. I felt bad, but took everything out except the litterbox. It took two days and a few “litterbox talks” but she got the message and got her hay mats and fleece back. Marlee and Moshi now live in a large 3-xpen area with fleece covering the entire floor. We still get the occasional stray poop and the few poops that get kicked out of the litterbox, but pee is always in the litterbox unless there’s something wrong (she just got over a UTI and the pee dribbles were the “sign”).

Like the others said, bedding only goes in the litterbox. You could provide hay mats to sleep on until he gets the message. Make sure to put some of his poops in the litterbox and let him see you do it. If he pees outside the litterbox, wipe it up with a paper towel and put that in the litterbox too. Ince he gets the message, pooping everywhere should significantly improve, but you may still have a few random poops around — sometimes they just need to mark, and sometimes one just “falls out”.

[emm_renn]

I use yesterday’s news in a litter box with news paper lining. Litter boxes are so much easier to clean than having to clean the whole cage, and it is nice if you want to free/partial roam your rabbit like many of us on here do. I used other kinds of litters which worked alright but when I went back to the all living things recycled litter after my rabbit was fixed, she decided to eat the stuff! The only reason I was worried was because on the back of the bag it said “see vet if consumed”. So I switched to yesterday’s news and now I don’t have to worry about her consuming it.

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