Cleaning a Messy Pen

Hey guys!

It's only been a couple of days, but my bun has made a HUGE mess of his x-pen! There is hay and litter all over the place, and his little poops are scattered all over. Right now, he's on a fleece blanket (to help prevent sore hocks), but I realized that it's difficult to sweep up the mess. I don't want to take him out of his pen, since he just got used to it. So how would I go about cleaning everything up? I was thinking about vacuuming, but not only do I not want him out of his pen, I'm afraid the noise may be too much for him (especially when he was pretty scared yesterday).

:vacuum:

You could use a different material besides fleece; there are cheap rugs you can get that have a slippery quality, so hay doesn't stick. You could just shake it off every couple of days and/or vacuum it. Personally, I would just use a hard surface and sweep every day. Offer a contained sleeping space (so less hay can get in) and try giving your bunny raised levels to hang out on. You can use wood, bricks, stone tiles, a small kitchen rack, etc., and they can be lined with whatever you want, from linoleum to fleece. There are ways to contain hay better, as well. I could show you pictures of my bunny's setup, if you wanted some ideas. I'm kind of a neat freak so I'm serious business about keeping his cage easy to maintain.

Forgot to add: You will want a transport cage or holding pen of sorts for your rabbit. Might as well get one now. Cat carriers work well. In the meantime you can have someone hold the rabbit or keep him in the bathroom/bathtub while you clean. A cardboard box works, too.

I heard hard surfaces can be really hard on their hocks causing sore hocks because it doesn't let there feet move the way it should like they would in the wild.

Hard or solid surfaces can be perfectly fine, you simply have to make sure that your bunny has areas that he can "escape" the hard surface such as a blanket folded in a spot, or a foam/rubber mat etc etc. Lots of options. Carpet can just as easily cause sore hocks because it's rough, just like getting carpet burn on your knees bandit spends most of his time on tiles. I give him blankets and mats but he prefers the tiles to sit on.

Not all rabbits are prone to sore hocks or will develop them. But it is good to provide a soft surface for your bun, though may not always be necessary. It's just something you want to always keep an eye on, and get a quick peek at the heels during your regular health checks, to make sure it's not developing. If you do start to see red inflamed heels, then you will need to make changes to your buns flooring surface.

I've found the best and easiest flooring setup is a smooth surface like a textured lino, or foam puzzle mats if your bun isn't a chewer, as chewing and ingesting the bits could be dangerous. Both are easy to sweep up a mess on, and puzzle mats can provide a softer surface for buns that may have sore hock issues.

Lino can work well to, and if you want to provide a soft surface you can lay down some fleece blankets that you just pick up and shake out onto the smooth floor or even outside, then sweep up.

I would suspect though, that if your little bun is really making that big of a mess so quickly, that there may be some changes that you could make in your set up, to minimize this mess a great deal. If you post some good pics of your set up, including the litter box and hay eating area, we may be able to give you some tips on changes you can make.

i notice my loki makes more of a mess when he's bored. i let him out to run around the house about an hour or 2 a day and i sweep his floor and clean up then. i notice though if i miss a day of letting him out he will deliberately make more of a mess lol he picks up his litter and slams it down etc etc i would try getting cheap indoor outdoor rug for part of his enclosure and just sweep it out every day, also maybe think of changing his cage set up adding a floor or two to give him something to do while in there my loki loves running up and down his floors here is a pic of his cage so you know what i mean

thatkiidsean said:

I heard hard surfaces can be really hard on their hocks causing sore hocks because it doesn't let there feet move the way it should like they would in the wild.

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I would say your rabbit is only at risk of getting sore feet if he's sitting in urine, which can eat away at the fur and skin. Also probably at a higher risk if your rabbit is obese and/or sits around a lot. Keep your bun healthy and clean, offer it space to run around, and offer a variety of surfaces. You'll be fine. You'll also notice that your bunny gets hay everywhere...so part of the time they're walking around on hay anyway.

Here, I'll show you my setup now. (Don't worry, I hadn't forgotten about you!) I started with just one "room" because the smaller space makes it easier to litter train them. At first, he peed in his bed and on the floor of his cage a few times. You just put some of the urine (if you can absorb it and then dab it in the litter box) where you want him to go and thoroughly clean where you don't want him to go. I also threw as many of his poops as I could in the box. In fact, I've noticed that since I clean up all his poops every day (often throwing them in the box, especially when he's out and about), he's stopped laying them everywhere. Occasionally he does it when he's out, but he doesn't do it in his cage anymore, and any hay he pulls out, he eats. I hardly have to sweep up after him anymore.



Okay, so the first thing you'll notice here is that I have his hay and water over his litter box! So most of it falls into his box (and the water bottle can drip into it). Not only that, but rabbits like to poop when they graze, so it naturally makes him want to defecate there. If you're wondering what I used for his hay, it's an egg basket. I popped a piece of tag board in the bottom to keep the hay in better. I'm not a fan of typical hay racks which hang on the side of the cage and just get hay all over the floor, or open racks where the rabbit can just pull all the hay out right away. I prefer to hang them as close to the middle of the cage as I can to keep the hay contained. I actually have it on a tight spring (I want to say it goes to a water bottle I once had) so it can swing and bounce! Lastly, because I actually have two separate rooms for him, all the hay stays in the smaller kitchen/bathroom area.

Here's his hallway. I wanted to put bricks in his cage for something to wear his nails down and rub against. Turns out they worked well for creating a hallway he can't escape from.


His bedroom. His bed is a stacking bin (with a slick rug in it) and his levels are just wire kitchen racks. Thinking of putting some sort of flooring on them, but since they're optional for him to sit on, I'm not too worried about it for now.


And the whole thing, so you know what the heck you're looking at.



Hopefully you can get some good ideas. I really don't even have to do very much upkeep anymore, just change out his litter every few days.

I got a great little pet hair vacuum that I mounted next to my bunny cage and I do a little vacuum zip up daily when I scoop the litter pans. The first couple days everyone was terrified of the vacuum. Then Darla got brave and sniffed it and decided it's not so bad, it just startles her when I fisrt turn it on. Lola has NO FEAR of just about anything, she goes right up to the little handheld vac and will stick her face in the sucking part. She chins and nibbles and then watches patiently while I clean up her mess. I bet with regular use and a little positive reinforcement your bun would have no problem with the vacuum =) I would use a handheld vac though, a giant pusher model would probably be very frightening.

I also use fleece and blankets to line our bunnies cage and I just take the fleece blanket and shake it outside.
Litter training and putting a litter box in his cage would also really help with the mess. Having a bunny litter trained makes cleaning cages a breeze!

I recommend wooden flooring or tile. I understand you want to be soft for your bunnies hocks. So you can just put fleece where you would like and then when he's not on the fleece then just take it out and shake it off. I hoped this helped