# Litter?



## rachillionn (Jul 1, 2015)

Is it safe to use paper, wood or pine based CAT litter for rabbits? I'm thinking the paper should be 99% completely safe but I'm not sure


----------



## Azerane (Jul 1, 2015)

Paper litter made for cats is fine as long as you buy a type that is unscented. You want to avoid scented, clumping and clay-based litters for rabbits. Pine is fine, as long as it's not shavings, but the compressed pine pellets are perfectly safe. You should also never use cedar based litter.


----------



## BlazeBunnies (Jul 1, 2015)

Paper is fine and Pine is fine as long as it isn't shavings. Say away from cedar


----------



## rachillionn (Jul 2, 2015)

Okay, that's what I thought, thanks!


----------



## Ivythelionhead (Jul 2, 2015)

I use newspaper cat litter for my Ivy and for my pigs, it works quite well and it can't hurt them even if they do eat it.


----------



## hamsterdance (Jul 3, 2015)

I've used yesterday's news unscented. I just switched to wood based horse stall pellets because you get more for less and the absorption/odor control is better.


----------



## kdrinkwater (Jul 5, 2015)

thanks  i see that the bedding for rabbits that is sold says that it controls odors. does anyone use this as litter? i heard not to use bedding any where in the cage because they will confuse it with litter and go to the bathroom on it. 
Also, is a bunny considered litter trained when she does most of her restroom duties in the litter or are there actually bunnies who only use the litter? our 10 week old bunnies are mainly using the litter.


----------



## kdrinkwater (Jul 5, 2015)

kdrinkwater said:


> thanks  i see that the bedding for rabbits that is sold says that it controls odors. does anyone use this as litter? i heard not to use bedding any where in the cage because they will confuse it with litter and go to the bathroom on it.
> Also, is a bunny considered litter trained when she does most of her restroom duties in the litter or are there actually bunnies who only use the litter? our 10 week old bunnies are mainly using the litter.



oops. i posted under wrong post but it still has to do with litter so perhaps someone who comes to this conversation will see it and be able to answer it


----------



## hamsterdance (Jul 6, 2015)

kdrinkwater said:


> thanks  i see that the bedding for rabbits that is sold says that it controls odors. does anyone use this as litter? i heard not to use bedding any where in the cage because they will confuse it with litter and go to the bathroom on it.
> Also, is a bunny considered litter trained when she does most of her restroom duties in the litter or are there actually bunnies who only use the litter? our 10 week old bunnies are mainly using the litter.




I have used it in the past but only in their boxes for the reason you mentioned of them pottying on it if I put it outside of their box. However, I do find it to be a bit pricey in comparison to other litter.
And I consider a rabbit really well box trained when only a few poos miss the box each day. For example, for my bonded pairs cage I sweep up about 5 poo pellets for them combined daily. However the pair I'm currently fostering I would consider box trained as well, just not perfectly as they pee only in the box but poo quite a bit out. 
For a 10 week old rabbit using their box most of the time is them being very good with their box. As they age and you work with them more it should get better. I would say a bun who always pees in the box and almost always poos in the box is well trained.


----------



## kdrinkwater (Jul 6, 2015)

i can only find one brand of pellet litter in the rabbit section of our pet store and it's not cheap. should i look in the cat section and get non-clay, non-clumping wood or pellet litter instead? what do you use? do you put hay in their litter box as most people do? i do and then when I change their litter every day obviously the hay gets thrown out because it's scattered all over the litter box. i hate throwing out so much hay and litter. I also have a hay tray above their litter box but they like to mainly eat what I put in the litter. 

thanks for the info re: litter training. i added a second litter box to their enclosure since their enclosure is very big so perhaps that will help them keep their poo in the litter. we've had them 2 weeks and they've only peed once outside the litter so I'm grateful for that. i don't mind sweeping up a few poops every day.


----------



## Blue eyes (Jul 6, 2015)

At their age, don't even worry about the poos. So long as they are urinating in the litter box, they are doing fine. Poos will (mostly) get better as they continue to urinate in one box. Rabbits also naturally mark their territory with poos when first coming to a new location. It's only been two weeks, so don't worry about those poos. Adding an extra litter box won't help with that -- only time will help. 

Yesterdays News unscented litter is actually cheaper in the cat section. It is the exact same stuff as the one for rabbits, but comes in larger bags in the cat section, so costs less. It shouldn't be necessary to dump the whole box every day. That would get very costly. 

The wood pellets that hamsterdance talks about are far cheaper and actually work better. (I use them too.) I only change my litterbox twice per week. *This link* on my site explains how I use the twice-daily additions of hay to prevent the box from smelling between changings. 

If you are concerned about wasting hay, you may want to consider buying it by the bale or half-bale. It is a fraction of the cost of bagged hay.


----------



## kdrinkwater (Jul 7, 2015)

awesome! thanks for the help. i appreciate it


----------



## hamsterdance (Jul 10, 2015)

If you have a farm store or local pet store they may be able to order you bales for cheap. Just make sure it's quality hay- my local farm store sells 50 lb bales for $15 but I've gotten bad ones a few times so I shell out a little extra and order from my local pet store- they get me 50lb bales of oxbow Timothy or orchard for $30.


----------



## thumper110814 (Jul 12, 2015)

I used yesterday's news and change litter box every day


----------



## BlazeBunnies (Jul 12, 2015)

You can order online aswell but I personally like getting it from a local feed store as I know what I am buying but online stores are good too


----------

