What’s your cleaning routine and/or set-up? Share tips.

[BinkyBunny]

Since the our bunnies’ set-up is in the kitchen, most everything is there.   We have two smaller plastic trash bins that hold the litter and hay which our near larger trash bins.  Since everything is all in one place it just makes it more convenient. 

 We have a wall hanging shopvac – my husband rigged it so the wider hose fits, and he doubled it up with duck tape, so that I just turn on the shopvac and the hose reaches everything.    He also shortened the plastic catch guard  INSIDE of the shopvac so the hay wouldn’t get stuck so easily.

And I keep a water bottle with 50% water/50% vinegar in it on top of the fridge.   That really does the trick with any urine mishaps.

So what’s your routine? 

[Anita Stark]

I clean the cage each evening.  It has sliding bottoms on the main part and the nest box so it’s pretty easy.  All poopy wet litter is dumped in a garbage can that’s kept in the room next to the cage.  I take the bottom of the nest box to the laudry tub and wash it out with water and vineger.  (Still trying to get him to stop peeing in there and he is getter better about it.)  Once the cage is ready, in he goes .. same bed time each night so he has a routine.  Once a week I take the whole cage apart and clean it all up.

While I’m putting him to bed, my husband cleans up the play pen area in the living room so it’s ready for him the next morning. 

[Shannon Marcum]

My buns  are in 36 X 30 stacking cages.

The pans get cleaned once a week with a vinager solution to keep the stinkies away.

The pans are lined with pine chips or (when I can afford it ) woody pellets (stove pellets), great for absorbtion and smell.

They all have a toy and either some sort of material or something to dig in and sleep with along with wood litter boxes with peg board bottoms. Depending on the personality they use them as litter boxes or homes and make there nests there.

When it’s hot my hoto likes to sit in his water crock so I gave up and put a shallow plastic pan in there with a little water in the bottom and he lays in that most of the day.

I water everyone in the morning and check them in the after noon again when I give the pig some mud to play in. I free feed everyone so I have large J-feeders attached to the cages.

I only feed king feed for my small breeds. I have wooled breeds (lionheads) and the king lifelong feed is just WONDERFUL and keeps everyone in condition all year long. I always have shiny silky fur and wool and have never had a problem with bad feed like you can get in purina an a few others. Plus it has papya in it along with Doc’s Enhancer and the way it’s processed the enzymes do not get distroyed.  VERY GOOD STUFF.

I bring everyone inside and groom, clip nails if needed, Do a health check (check teeth, condition, genatals) and then let them run around for about an hour in pairs.

That’s pritty much my day when I’m home..lol

[Deleted User]

I clean th litter box tue. & sat. my bunny Orange Juice pees in there but she does not always poop in there most of the time she does poop in there. I have to pick up the poop and put it in her litter box every day. I clean the cage once a week .

[BinkyBunny]

What an adorable name! Orange Juice.    I think that is the most unique and cutest name I’ve ever heard so far.  Is Lpuff orange?    How old is she?

[Anita Stark]

Slight change in our routine.. Now that I have had to put a lid on Sable’s pen we leave him in there all day.  He is getting really good at using the litter box, always uses it for his pee.  Best part is that now the cleanup in the cage is easier, the nest box is dry.  Finally!  No more swabbing it out every night.  All I have to do is remove the few pellets he leaves and clean it out every other day or so.

Now I’m thinking of ways to combine the play pen with the cage so that his space can be expanded.

[BinkyBunny]

That’s great that Sable is getting better at using his litterbox.  YEAH!  What a relief it is.   I know it can really be a pain to clean up when they are not trained.

Right now do you attach the x-pen to the cage or ? ?  

[Anita Stark]

Right now the cage is in a spare room and the pen is in the living room.  We had hoped he could roam the house, so the pen was an addition to allow him to be near us in the living room during his “confinement”.  So far he doesn’t seem to mind being picked up and carried between them.  It’s like he understands the routine.  When I open the cage in the morning, he goes to the same spot every time and I just reach in and scoop him up.  Then he snuggles in for a cuddle while he’s transported to the playpen.  Once deposited in the play pen, he binkies around a bit, runs a few laps, chows down and then flops out for a nap.  I have to get a video!

Once he is ready for freedom, I am hoping to attach the pen to the cage in the spare room and install a door on it so that he can come and go.

He has a new litterbox in the pen, we had to trade up to a bigger one now that he’s using just one most of the time.  This one seems to be fascinating him.  He has started taking toys into it .. kind of like grabbing a magazine before heading to the bathroom I guess.

Once the cage and pen are combined, we will have 2 spare litterboxes to use elsewhere in the house if necessary.

[Gravehearted]

I change my kids twice a week, but am not very organized about it!

Hareiette lives in a huge cage – so I put newspaper lining along the bottom. She has two litterboxes – one is her bed and the other she actually uses as a litterbox! I don’t always change the litter in her “bed” but always try to get the big fur collection out of there.

Viktor and Dori live in a three story NIC condo with the umm plastic sheeting stuff that my brain is totally spacing on right now! Hareiette was a trendstarter since they now won’t go in the litterbox on the second floor and prefer to snooze in it!

I also use vinegar and water to clean up messes and grime. I always wash and scrub everyone’s bowls. About once a month I do a real scrub on the litterboxes.

[Sarah Jones]

it’s correx gravehearted

i clean him out once a week, and each day he poos on a mat just outside the litter tray (bless his LITTLE heart) and i pour that into the litter tray.

he has newspaper laid down, and this week i’ve tried something new – he has his tunnel, kept in place by a load of tiles, and then three sisal mats around a big wicker tunnel and room. inside the tunnel and room he has hay and paper nesting. he was in there this morning which is good. he then has two levels to lie out on that are just correx (for summer, this along with the tiles, keep him cool) and then two small layers of sisal mat tied to the cubing (i have a cube cage too) and he just sits on these little ones to chew the mat.

at the moment he has pellets and water bowl downstairs, but i give him some nicer food upstairs as well just free on the correx to nibble on. it all keeps him busy!

his litter tray has it’s own little roof door to get easy access but rarely use it and cover roof with towel and all down the sides is correx so it’s a little cave off to side of cage. he has littler pellets and some hay in there.

phew!

[Gravehearted]

I’m remembering now that’s it coroplast – correx might be a trade name for it (or vice versa)

[BinkyBunny]

Wow, it sounds like he has a great set-up.   If you ever take pictures of his snazzy digs, send ’em over and we’ll post them in the “Cool  Habitats” section of this site.

[Bunnies4ever]

I change Chloe and Kahlua’s litterboxes every evening.  They know the routine and know they will get fresh hay and a treat when I’m finished so they sit and wait until I’m done.  The cages have a pull out bottom which makes it easier to clean.  Every weekend, their cages get the “full treatment”.  They hate that because they have special places where they like their toys and I try to remember to place them back in the same spot, but sometimes I forget, so they will rearrange their toys until they get them just right.  They are a joy to watch!

[BinkyBunny]

Wow, they sit and wait? How nice is that?!  Mine have to be right in the middle of everything inspecting, and pushing things around.   I always try to do it when they are out and about, but they always come back around and check me out when I am messing with their stuff.

[Bunnies4ever]

Yeah, I think they are pretty funny when it comes to us messing with their stuff. Sometimes, Kahlua “grunts” at me when I moving his toys around. I just say “stop” and he stops. Usually when he really grunts at me, I’ll respect his privacy and space and will leave and come back later to clean up. Chloe on the other hand, could care less. She will rearrange her toys til she gets them just right. I would love to know what they say to each other during the night. There is always a commotion coming from my office late in the night.

[Theresa Moan]

When we do the cages on the weekend, my boyfriend or I has the job to clean while the other has the duty to “distract” them, so they are less annoying. Mine love to be in the thick of things, or they love to go behind the cages where they aren’t sposedta go while I have my hands full (and yucky).

[BinkyBunny]

I know, mine are like that too, they just want to get right in the way and see what I am doing with "their stuff"

[Stacey]

my bunnies are in the basement. its a cool place in the summer and pretty warm in the winter. The females are on one side of the basement in a rigged up enclosed area with their cages inside. This way the have an area to get exercise. The male is on the other side of the basement in his own cage. He’s sort of around a corner. In one of the small cold store rooms i have a trash can that is full of whatever bedding. their is an old microwave stand that has a drawer and cabinets that is near the rabbits. It has the garbage bags, paper towels, small kitchen trash bags and a litter scoop, plus a broom and dust pan are down there too.  Our basement for the most part is wide open space.

I try and change/clean cages every Monday night (garbage day is Tues). I have 2 cages with trays and they are lined with a lawn and garden bag so i just untaped them from the tray and wrap them up. Some times the bag liner might leak and i will have urine etc sitting in the tray so i will clean that up with hot water and soap. I was using a 1/2 and 1/2 solution of bleach and water to help kill germs but stop. Replace with a new bag and bedding. I did use aspen but recently changed to a recycle paper type. Suppose to be more absorbent and help with odor. The other cage is a cage top and a plastic bottom. That one will get scooped out and washed with soap and water. then refilled.

But if they get really stinky or yucky they will get change sooner.

I will every other week or so take the trays will get a good cleaning. I’ll even let them sit out side for a little bit to air. The plastic tray gets a good cleaning to. Again i use to clean it with a 1/2 and 1/2 solution of bleach and water. but i now learned about the vinegar so I’m going to try that.

[wendyzski]

Well, I’m still working out our routine, but here’s what we have so far.

Litterbox gets a folded sheet of newspaper with Feline Pine on top of it.  A-L has yet to pee outside her litterbox and she pretty much poos in it too – stray poos from the floor of the cube-condo (upholstery vinyl on the floor with seagrass mats for lounging) get tossed in the box daily when she’s out of the cage.  No stinkies yet, and it looks like I empty the litterbox every 3 days or so.

She gets fresh hay every evening, though I’m still working out how – if it’s in the litterbox it gets tossed around or peed on, and the hay-rack I made isn’t great.  Since I’m buying the expensive hay I’d rather she eat it rather than pee on it.

Her cube-condo is in my kitchen, built up against the wall with a shelf bolted to the windowsill for lounging – that’s where she spends most of her in-cage time.  A big rubbermaid tub of hay sits next to it, her carrier on top of it, and the litter bag on top of that.  Pellets, treats, first-aid stuff and extra toys are on a shelf above them, to keep them out of her reach.  There is a perfect tub-sized gap between the condo and the wall, since there is a small radiator there.

She gets 1/8 cup pellets in the morning, and 1/8 cup at night as a bribe to get her to go back into her cage.  We’re just introducing her to the rest of the apartment, but so far she always goes back to her cage to eat and poo.

[BinkyBunny]

Sounds like good set up!  For hay racks, I made these little bags out of burlap and cut a oval slit in the bottom 1/3 and hang it on the side of the cage within the litter box space.  This holds the hay well, and keeps hay in – less wasted.   However, I realize some bunnies will try and chew on the burlap, but you can try it.    And if you don’t want sew anything  –  you can try a clean sock – stuff it with hay and cut a slit/circle in it toward the bottom and hang it.  Again, just watch to make sure that your bunny doesn’t actually try and eat the sock.

You can also stuff hay in a toilet paper roll and tie it to the side.  Most bunnies like to tear up the roll though so it might be used as a toy instead.

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