spot cleaning litterpan?

[bunnycutie]

 i am going thorough TONS&TONS of litter now that buttons is getting changed 2x a day. does anyone use a scoop to spot clean the pooey corners and then do a full clean every other day or so? i wonder if this might conserve litter  but would it still keep the stink down, ven though i am not doing a full change?   i could pick up a scoop later this week when i am out buying some toys and an “aide” for him to eat to keep pee smell down. mom saw some stuff they eat a petco. im going to take a look at it before i buy it. maybe. what do you guys think? 

[Furface]

I scoop.
What litter do you use?

[LizzieKnittyBun]

Hopefully this doesn’t gross anyone out, but I put on two plastic kitchen gloves and just grab the worse parts and seal them up into a bag.  I tried scoops, but they seemed so inefficient…

Anybody grossed out?  Sorry…

[bunnycutie]

i use wood shavings…not the bad kind. i use the OK kind. i forget which it is though. i am thinking of switching him to feline pine or yesterdays news though.

hands? thatsnot that bad..if they are covered of course. i think the reason im not grossed out yet is because i clean horse stalls evetyday though. a pile of bunny poo is nothing comapared to 50 pounds of horse dung. now are you guys grossed out? LOL

[KatnipCrzy]

I line my litterpans with newspaper on the bottom and then put wood pellets and hay on top of that.  The newspaper is very absorbant and helps me to use less litter- altough the woodstove pellets are dirt cheap anyway.  But the newspaper is “free” since my husband is going to read it- bunnies or not.

To keep odor down- spot cleaning can help- but maybe using newspaper, less litter and spraying with vinegar/water and wiping out once a day might be more efficient???  I know you mentioned that Buttons pees alot- so that may not work for his situation.

The newspaper in the bottom is nice because is peels out in one (soggy) piece and does not leave any soiled/mushy wood pellets in the box.

[Furface]

Wood stove pellets are much cheaper tha FP or YN. All good odor contol too.

My last adoptee came with a full bag of pine shavings.
I know they are not good but I thought I may as well use the bag as that was what she was accustomed to anyway.
I found them to be terrible for odor control – very stinky box – not very scoop cooperative.
If someone donates me more of the shavings – I think I’ll use them for garden mulch. LOL

I do use hemp shavings, not really shavings more like tiny peices of broken up straw for the hampster & mouse cage.
They don’t pee nearly enough to make the “soup” that the bunny turned the shavings into though.

I think my bunnies would make “soup” with the hemp too. LOL
Yours is a big peer too right? Diabetic? That was you right? Did that settle down after the shot?
 

 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LKB-not grossed out at all-I’ve picked up litter with bare hands LOL

I line my litter boxes with papetowel-that helps to keep the smell down a lot. Spot cleaning may work-but the scoop is a pain

Bunnycutie-I LOVE the smell of horse poo-are you grossed out now? heheh

[Elrohwen]

I use YN with a papertowel under it (going to try wood pellets when my YN runs out). The papertowl keeps littler from sitcking to the bottom of the pan and allows me to use only a thin layer of litter. I honestly don’t notice any smell at all until maybe 3 days and I only change his box twice a week. I don’t think shavings are good at odor control, so maybe trying a new kind of litter will keep the smell down. Like the others said, wood pellets might be a good and cheap option. I’m seeings signs for them at the home improvement stores so I know they’re available now.

[Desma]

I am going to have to try the wood pellets especially since the home we bought has a wood stove. I use newspaper on the bottom of the litter pan with Good Mews on top and it last for three days before I change it.

[katie, max & penny]

Haha K&K me too! I use my bare hands a lot… lol!
I use FP right now. I hate it- when it gets wet it explodes! i like YN so I’m going to buy that next time (the generic version).

I definitely recommend the newspaper on the bottom with litter over it. then i do a thin layer of hay over that. it helps!!

[Barbie]

Oh thank goodness I’m not the only one that uses her hands! =P Every now and then Leroy flicks some random little poos out of his boxes and I just go around and pick them up and toss them back into the box. Also, when I change the boxes, i have a layer of newspaper on the bottom with WSP and then hay on top, and I just dig down and get to the newspaper layer and roll it all up like a burrito and toss it all. Spot cleaning ok, but Leroy is a drinking/peeing machine so it doesn’t help much since the newspaper underneath would still be soggy.

Btw, I love love love the smell of horse barns, horse poop and all. The pee not so much, especially when mucking stalls and you dig into a big soggy pile of wet bedding – the ammonia in the pee burns your nose! At least bunnies don’t pee that much!

[Adalaide]

I used to spot clean but I noticed that Freya doesn’t dig in her litterbox at all, so I just started using less litter. I use just enough to cover the bottom of the pan and she’s perfectly happy with that. As for gross smells, since I grew up on a cow farm I just love the smell of cow manure. Of course the neighbors had horses so that’s good too. It reminds me of home and I can’t get enough. I like to go driving out in the country here when I know it’s time that farmers are doing the fields.

[Karla]

I’m disgusting as well – I pick them up with my bare hands also. And love the smell of horses

You guys who use paper towels under the litter, do you change the towels every day then? This might be a really good idea for me as I am using some really bad litter which doesn’t seem to soak so the litter pan is completely wet under the litter.

And may I ask why it might be a trick to put hay over the litter? Doesn’t that smell or mould when it gets wet?? Sorry for stealing your thread, bunniecutie

[LizzieKnittyBun]

Ah! I love the smell of horses too!

You guys get me…

[Desma]

I pick up my Hunny Bunny’s pellets at times with my hands too! She has lovely pooey pellets!! A present for her momma!

[hooty22]

Felony never dug in his litter box, so I used to make a newspaper/baking soda pouch. I’d put some baking soda in between several layers of news paper and then covered it compressed paper pellets. I would usually put another light layer of pellets after a day or so to absorb the smells, so I only had to do full blow pan empties every 3-4 days.

I must say though, if you bun even so much as THINKS about digging in his litter, you should not use the baking soda. Some buns are litter box obsessed, Felony doesn’t like to hang out where he pees…

[bunnycutie]

buttons pees alot. he drinks alot too. thats just cuz of his diabetis. the humalin shot helped level it out a bit, but he will always pee alot.

oh horse poo smells good. really. it does. and besides…what gross about it? its just digested grain and hay and grass. not like meat or anything. 

and picking up bunny poo w/ hands isnt gross. it just dry and hard. nothing too it. its the urine that freaks me out. since buttons isnt nutered(YET) he leaves territorial poos on top of his hidey house and on his cardboard. so i have to pick them up and throw them out. its not gross. i usually do a quick clean up after school. if my friends see they scream their heads off like someones dying. i dont get it. it isnt gross. or maybe thats just what i get for owning a bunny and horses.

 

 

buttons loves his litterpan. i moved his hayrack over it so he can eat hay and pee bunnies can be really gross! 

 

where do i get wood stove pellets? i asked my mom and she said she couldnt think of anywhere other than amish country. were not going all the way out there for litter. i usually dont stop at anything for my bunny, but for this i will have too 

[Furface]

I buy mine at Rona. Home Depot also has them here.

[Jamm]

i use my hands to pick up poops here and there.
other than that, i have to scoop out the areas where donut pees, 2-3 times a day otherwise it really builds up… then i push litter from another corner to fill up to corner which i scooped out. every few days i would just pour in a little bit more of clean litter if there is not enough in the litterbox.
every 2 weeks or so i clean out the whole thing and put in clean and fresh litter, unless i didn’t scoop out the wet areas or there is too much poop.

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

I don’t use a whole lot of litter because my buns don’t dig either, just enough to cover the bottom. I use Carefresh though. And one thing I just started trying that I think I will keep doing is buying the liners for litter boxes. They are just plastic baggies meant to fit litter boxes- meant for cats but hey. It makes the cleaning of litter boxes supppper easy, and keep ths bottom from absorbing the amonia smell. You could try that

[KatnipCrzy]

I would not recommend trying the “plastic bag” litterbox liners- a bunny is too likely to chew and tear at them.  And even with cats they are really only useful for front declawed cats that you use cheap clay litter with- as any folds in the plastic make it difficult to scoop and makes it worse from an odor control aspect.  The only situation that I really liked them for was when I was fostering Momma cats from the Humane Society- and when the kittens are weaning the litterbox is so, so gross and messy it is easy to “throw the whole liner and all away”.

I don’t think that cats prefer the plastic liner- as most cats I have seen- dig a whole to the bottom of the box- eliminate and then cover it.  It is not ideal to teach them to pee on plastic (like a plastic bag that could be on the floor).

I am sure other people have different experiences with cats and litterbox liners- but bunnies are too likely to chew and rip at the plastic.  Plus depending on the bunny- you don’t want the litterbox TOO clean.  Griff is still “in training” so we emtpy his box- peel out the yucky paper lning the bottom, and maybe wipe it down a litter before refilling.  The other bunnies boxes get a better vinegar/water cleaning- but they are much better trained.

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

Just speaking from personal experience, my buns haven’t chewed at the plastic at all. Also, I just throw the liners away every time I clean the box (about twice a week). They’re pretty cheap and it makes cleaning them out easy peasy. But if your bun’s a chewer, I would agree with Katnip.

[lwayne]

I’m a bit of a clean freak.. I dump the litter box in the compost bin every evening, then scrub out the litter box with some dish soap and vinegar, rinse & dry it, then add 1 1/2 scoops (1 scoop = 1 quart) of litter, either Good Mews (news paper pellets) or wood stove pellets, or a combination of the two.

[Barbie]

Karla, I skimmed throught the rest of the post and unles I missed it I don’t think all your questions were answered… so I’ll try to wrap them up for you…

You guys who use paper towels under the litter, do you change the towels every day then? This might be a really good idea for me as I am using some really bad litter which doesn’t seem to soak so the litter pan is completely wet under the litter.
I actually use bunny safe newspaper (make sure the ink is soy based in case your bun decides to chew it) it’s cheaper for me than buying rolls of paper towels. And if you get paper towls, youll want to get the undyed kind. The newspaper/paper towel help with absorbency and also makes cleaning easier since it peels off the bottom in one piece and you don’t have little bits of litter to pick out.

And may I ask why it might be a trick to put hay over the litter? Doesn’t that smell or mould when it gets wet??
The hay, aside from encouraging the buns the use the litter box, helps absorb some of the pee. The buns won’t eat the soiled bits. and it shouldn’t get moldy if you change the box every couple days.

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