# Is Carefresh Complete for Small Animals with Baking Soda formula safe for rabbits?



## RosyRabbits (Dec 27, 2014)

I normally use Carefresh bedding in my bunnies cage. I recently cleaned my rabbits cage and used the last of what we had. My mom offered to buy new bedding since she knew I was busy with a lot of stuff. She got Carefresh but its not the one I normally buy and I never saw this one in our usual store or any other store we've bought our supplies from.

Its called Carefresh Complete for Small Animals and has a baking soda formula in it. 

I wanted to make sure its safe before I use it since I've never used it and my bunny has a habit of chewing on her bedding every so often. There is no baking soda dust on the bedding from what I can see and looks just like the normal bedding I buy only maybe slightly darker in color.

I know Carefresh isn't the recommended bedding but I can never find the wood pellets talked about all the time and I've never had a problem with Carefresh. I just want to make sure this one is safe for rabbits to use.


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## Sophie's Humble Servant (Dec 27, 2014)

I am also wondering about this. Someone else on the forum posted about this awhile back and said that the company is including baking soda in their bedding. I emailed Carefresh twice to ask them WHY and if they were adding it to all the bedding but I have yet to receive a response from them. I personally don't like the idea of this and feel that it's quite unnecessary. I'm also worried that because Sophie ingests some of it, this would not be a good addition to their product.


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## Watermelons (Dec 27, 2014)

Baking soda is supposed to help with odor.
Ive added it myself to the litter boxes of many critters over the years and entire cage bottom with bedding for my rats. Never an issue.


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## Sophie's Humble Servant (Dec 27, 2014)

Watermelons, do your rabbits ingest it though? Sophie eats a few pieces every day so I'm worried about her eating baking soda.


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## Watermelons (Dec 27, 2014)

The worst it would do is make her gassy because of how baking soda reacts with acid. (baking soda and vinegar experiment anyone?) But im sure the amount is so minimal she would need to eat a spoonfull of just bakingsoda for it to cause that issue. Any baking soda remnants would likely negate in the mouth before it even gets to the stomach because its not coated like say omega pills humans may take. So their more likely to get an upset tummu for eating the bedding then because of the baking soda in with it. It doesnt have a good taste either so they may be less likely to eat the bedding. 
My rats used to try and lick it the first few times i used it. But none of my rabbits eat bedding.and if they did a simple grate over the litter box would solve that issue. And i did use copious amounts when i did use it. Never had an issue.


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