Wood shavings or not?

[Gareth]

Hi folks - just been looking at some of the (frankly awesome!) hutches you guys have built, and had a quick question about the use of wood shavings. I bought 2 rabbits about 6 months ago, and since then have, on the advice of the pet store, been covering the entire floors of their 2 storey hutch with about an inch of wood shavings. Obviously that makes for a lot of mess, and a lot of cleaning.

I'm noticing that most of the hutches I'm seeing here don't have anything on the floors, and look much, much tidier! Should I be using shavings everywhere? I use shavings with a covering of bedding hay in their nesting box to make it cosy, but if the bunnies would be just as happy without shavings everywhere else it would make life so much easier!

 

[Watermelons]

Most people don't use anything on the floors of their cages. It creates confusion for a lot of rabbits. There should only be litter/shavings in the litter box. Spaying/neutering your bunnies as well helps with these litter habbits so there is no need to have anything in the rest of the cage.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We use kiln dried pine shavings in litter boxes and the rest of the floor is covered with carpet, or wood if they are carpet terrorists. Much easier to keep neat and tidy.

 

[Aki]

Litter in the litter tray is enough. At first, I felt bad leaving the rest of the cage bare even if my rabbits are free-ranged but I discovered that it is actually better : the rabbits are cleaner, as it hard for them to understand they should do their business in the tray when there is litter everywhere ; it avoids problems like dermatitis because the floor is cleaner and dry everywhere except in the litter box so their paws don't stay damp ; the rabbits like to lay on the bare plastic or wood to cool down in the summer as it is harder for rabbits to stand the heat than the cold ; you can clean the litter box often and the rest of the hutch less often (I sweep things everyday and do the litter box every 3 days or so, but I do the big clean up with vinegar and water only once every two weeks) ; less litter means you'll save money. For me, litter in the litterbox and hay over / inside behind it is a win-win situation. Shavings are not very good for rabbits, though, especially if you put them all over the cage. I would try to find something else :

http://rabbit.org/the-dangers-of-softwood-shavings/

 

[flemishwhite]

Litter in the litter tray is enough. At first, I felt bad leaving the rest of the cage bare even if my rabbits are free-ranged but I discovered that it is actually better : the rabbits are cleaner, as it hard for them to understand they should do their business in the tray when there is litter everywhere ;

http://rabbit.org/the-dangers-of-softwood-shavings/

That's a good quote. Wood in quantity is poisonous for rabbits. That being said, I have several places in the house where I've laid 2X4's of plain untreated pine for the rabbits to chew. This is to satisfy whatever urge they have to chew wood. I don't want them chewing varnished wood...mainly because it's furniture! For chewing, our two baby Flemmish rabbits just love cardboard boxes. Forget the expensive pet store rabbit chew toys. Cardboard boxes here and there. We cut down one end so they can easily jump inside. A long rectangular box?....cut the ends off and they like to crawl through the box.

For us, the ultimate litter box..that the bunnies like, is lined with newspaper and then covered with oat hay. We have three litter boxes throughout the house. As for the wood shavings, we can opt for oat hay since we live near to a horse feed and grain store. If we weren't so lucky, I suppose we'd also have to look for wood shavings or paper pellets.

I've never had baby rabbits before. Our previous rabbit was a rescue and she was at last a year old when we got her. She had some chewing problems, but no where like our previous Flimmish baby rabbits. They have done damage to our house. My large leather couch and matching overstuffed chair was ready for replacement at 35 + years of age. It's taken some big hits from the rabbits...they just like to chew leather!

 

[BetterBunnies]

You could use hay or fleece in place of wood shavings