Rabbit could care less for bedding.

[Jhulbe]

Odd. Picked him up about 3 months ago. He’s my first rabbit. I got a big package of that carefresh bedding. I’ll break it up and cover the bottom for him, but he’ll push it all to side. Most of time throw it out of the cage. The cage has a little ledge on it, and he spends most of his time there.

Is it ok, or should I try different beddings? I work nights, and the girlfriend works days. He’s probably only caged 6hours a day, if that. We have a small cat bed for him in a box under the couch that he loves to hangout in, and he loves it under the chair. While in his cage though he seems to just enjoy the hard plastic. Just seems like he’s waiting to get out and play.

There’s a litter box in the corner of the cage with wood chips (aspen maybe?) he’ll sit in there and eat hay from his ball and poop and drink water, but then he’ll just go lay on the plastic.

So, should I let it go and accept i’ll be saving money on beding? Or try and get something he likes?

Pictures of him waiting to come out and play on his little ledge:

[Barbie]

Hahaha I love his little foot sticking out of the cage in the last picture!  He is so cute!

As for bedding… Somre rabbits really do just prefer laying on the cool hard plastic, so you probably don’t have to put anything in the bottom of the cage =) If you want to, or if it looks like he’s having trouble with the slick surface, you could try putting down a towel and see if he’d like that .  If your bun enjoys chewing fabric, you can use an old fleece blanket or some fleece scraps – you could probably get some pieces for a few bucks from a fabric/sewing store from their leftovers.  The thing with towels is that they have strings that can cause an intenstinal blockage or get wrapped around teeth if chewed.

Also, having litter in his box and then bedding in his cage might confuse him – some rabbits like to pee on soft things, so it might help with litter box training if you only put the litter in the liter box.

I would actually stay away from any sort of wood chips for bedding.  Some woods like cedar have aromatic oils and may cause liver/kidney damage if used long term – I hate that pet stores sell wood chip bedding as if it’s really ok for rabbits   There is a list of bun safe woods that you can use as treats (like untreated apple tree branches)… I’ll try to find that for you.

If you want to cut costs, use wood stove pellets instead of the more expensive pet store litters like carefresh.  I swear by WSP (they’re processed differently from wood chips so they’re safe to use).  Theyre super absorbant and really cheap.  Check your local home improvement store.  I can get a 40lb bag for $4 from Menards – less if the bag is ripped and a few have spilled out.  I always look for the messed up bags if they havent lost too much, since the store will usually give me a discount for it.  If your bun is picky and doesnt like the hard litter (cus WSP are a bit hard until they get wet and then they swell up like crazy!) you could do a layer of WSP and then a smal handfull of the softer carefresh and hay on top.  Oh and if you don’t already, I’d suggest using a few layers of newspaper or paper towels under the litter, it all peels out in one piece and you dont have to worry about scraping out any stuck bits from the bottom of the litter box.

Whew. Long post (that I wrote twice cus I accidentally hit the back button!).  Hope that helps!

 

ETA: I can’t find a list of rabbit safe woods… anyone else know where to find one?

[MooBunnay]

I’m not sure the entire list of rabbit safe wood, but willow wood and sticks from apple trees are what I usually give my bunnies.

I agree with Barbie, your bun will probably be easier to liter train if you only put the litter in his litterbox, he will probably get confused and start peeing on the cage floor if you’ve got litter on there.

For some ideas on flooring and other habitats click on this link here: https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO…fault.aspx

I usually carpet my bunny’s cages, but if your bunny is a big digger or chewer he might nibble on them, so the fleece might be a better choice.

[Jhulbe]

We use aspen chips in the litterbox, and the carefresh as just normal bedding. He was pretty receptive to litter training by day 2.

We just waited to see what corner he went to go poop in the first day, and then placed his litterbox in that corner. Now anytime we see stray poop we just place it in the litterbox. We use a different kind of bedding for the litter box then the cage just so he doesn’t get confused. It works like 98% of the time.

I didn’t even think about the wood being unsafe.

[Kiley Rose]

I gave Marlee a baby blanket for the bottom floor of her cage to cover the tile and she loves pushing it around and/or laying on it. She doesn’t really chew on it at all and it’s super cute to watch her playing with it.

[Elrohwen]

I think everyone gave you great advice. Using carefresh for bedding on the bottom of the cage is totally unnecessary for buns and will just be a waste of your money I think. You’re better off going with a towel or fleece blanket to provide some traction (though be prepared for your bun to push that aside for sleeping as well). Towels and blankets are completely reuseable and provide some traction for running and jumping around; carefresh just moves around, so it’s not actually providing traction to him.

And aspen shavings are fine for buns as far as toxicity, but they really don’t make good litter because they’re not particularly absorbent and don’t keep down the smell. Wood pellets are awesome, or you can try Yesterday’s News or using the Carefresh in his litter box.

[Pebble and Dante]

Great pics… I thought the same for Pebbles, she would enjoy having something soft to lay on… No …. she doesn’t care of towels or any bedding of any type… she does like to lay in a shallow cardboard box (the box top of a papershipment box) when it is cool, and lino or tile when it is warm. Dumb me also bought her a nice cat bed that was a hide away style.. yeah, she promptly shredded the bottom of that… I’ve removed it since then because I want to remove all the “stuffing” – not sure what kind of fibric but it seems to be syenthetic. But, keep trying different things – keeps buns entertained watching hoomins try to figure them out.

[Author]

Messages