Chew toys and litter

[kukupecpec]

Hey there!





I am a new bunny owner and I have two baby rabbit mixes named Bugsy and Dipsy. Bugsy - the white one, her butts not dirty, she has some cute little caramel spots on her - loves people and head rubs! Dipsy could really care less about people but LOVES to throw paper balls up in the air and run circles around it before doing it again.

I had a couple of questions - I had rabbits many years ago as a very small child but I know that there are so many awesome things out there these days I wanted to suck in some of your expert rabbit knowledge.

I know a lot of people are against outdoor rabbits, but when mine are all grown, they will live in the large chicken coop runs with the chickens. I live in Tucson AZ so the heat is pretty intense but I have known many people to do just fine with ample shade and big frozen two liters to lay against during the days. Our winters are not so bad, and they will have lots of places to bury and I have small cookie tin homemade heaters the chickens sit on so will be making those for the bunnies when the time comes for it.

My questions today are about housing indoors. They are too small to be safe outside, so they are in a petstore cage (i know they are too small for permanent and all day homes) in my bedroom. I found that pine chips I was using on their floor was too messy so we have switched to hay. They get fresh alfalfa daily, but we use the leftover stuff as the floor covering. It stinks a lot worse than the chips since it can't really suck it up. I'm trying to find a not too messy and not too stinky way to cover their boring plastic floor so they don't just sit in their filth.

The next question I have is about litter training. I've collected all kinds of ideas on this, but it seems the consensus is to put the litter box in the corner they pee is. My bunnies are only about 12 weeks old. They don't seem to prefer one place over the other. They see to just pee everywhere. Will this change with age? Or is there something I need to be doing for them so I can be able to liter train them?
I would also really like to take them out more to play and spend time with us humans, but they pee everywhere! I don;t mind the little bunny poops, I just pick them all up when they go back to their cage. Is there anything I Can do about the urination all over the place? What do you do so they don't pee on your carpet and furniture? I was thinking about getting a plastic bed sheet to put on so I can wipe it up before it soaks into my mattress an sleeping sheets, but I don;t want to have to plastic cover everywhere they want to hang out.

And last - they have started to chew. They have a little wooden hut they hide in, and they are chewing off all the corners. I was wondering if there are any good chew things I can make for them at home? Or if there are any good things for them I should pick up from the pet store. And if there is anything that i need to avoid letting them chew on. I give them different things to play with everyday like toilet paper rolls and balls of paper and paper bags that they toss around and hop on and chew and shred, but I want to make sure I get them something good and hard to help keep their teeth from getting unhealthily long.

Any help would be greatly appreciated by my babies!

 

[1357bunnylover]

My bunnies live outside and as long as they have housing away from direct sunlight, and have protection from the rain and wind too then they will be fine and make sure that no predators can get in and make sure they can't dig out. I don't know if they can be housed with chickens though?? But for the cage you have now, yes it is definetly too small so make sure you give them a lot of time out to run around each day.

I personally wouldn't use hay as bedding because your bunny has to eat the hay too so will be eating hay with poop and pee on it, maybe use carefresh, i know in the USA you can get cheaper versions of this but i don't know what they are called some people also use shredded paper. With the peeing and pooping, they will soon start to do it in one area then you can put a litter tray in there, but it will be quite hard to litter train unaltered rabbits, so best to get them neutered when they are old enough, and they will always pee everywhere is unaltered, also neutering allows them to have a happier, healthier life too

And about the chewing.. You really can't stop a bunny from chewing, they chew everything, so make sure your wires are kept well away and you bunny proof your house. Toys that you can make at home for your bunnies are toilet roll tubes stuffed with hay, cardboard boxes with 2 holes either side so they can run through them, hard baby rattles (not the liquid filled ones for teething), old phone books to rip and dig at, paper bags, ect. But really you will never stop a bunny from chewing it's what they have to do to keep their teeth trimmed and short because their teeth never stop growing, hay is the best thing to have to keep their teeth right, but you can also buy like wooden parrot/bird toys and hang them on their cage for them to chew

What sex are they both?

 

[1357bunnylover]

You say that the summers are pretty intense.. deffinetly make sure you check on them constantly through out the day. Rabbits can't handle heat well and so easily die of sunstroke so make sure that does not happen. Wet and freeze towels and put them down on the floor and use fans, ect.

 

[kukupecpec]

The feed store wasn't sure, so I tried to look online and sex them myself - I am pretty sure they are both girls. But it is hard to tell without the opposite sex to look at. I went back to the feed store last weekend and tried to sex all their litter mates in an attempt to see the difference, but they all looked the same to me! LOL So I'm honestly not sure.
I will DEFINITELY be getting them fixed. I am a Vet Assistant in school for vet tech so I know the importance of spaying and neutering all your pets =) I will probably have it done at my clinic if one of our doctors feels comfortable with it (Employee discount woo hoo) as there are very few specialists around and honestly, I've studied their insides against a dog and cat and as far as spaying and neutering go, if the doc agrees to do it, it's all pretty dang similar so all you really need a confident and surgically experienced doc.

I'm not worried about the chewing, I just want to make sure I give them everything I can to help wear down their teeth naturally, I know it can be rather traumatizing to take them in to the vet to get them cut.

For the bedding - won't the carefresh get easily kicked out of their cage? I put the fresh alfalfa in twice a day so they always have a good stock to chew on so they aren't tempted to eat the floor hay. I was thinking about maybe putting carefresh or something of the like UNDER the hay on the floor to soak up the pee and the hay will keep it from getting kicked out?

 

[JBun]

Pine shavings aren't good for rabbits, and yes, they can be very messy. They, along with cedar shavings, have oils in them that cause respiratory problems. Alot of people will use the wood pellets. They are supposed to be ok because they have been kiln dried and so the oils aren't supposed to be a problem anymore. Petstores will have these, but the cheapest is to get a big bag at a horse feed store, or home improvement store might have the wood pellets for wood burning stoves. Just make sure there are no accerlerants or anything else added to them. Some other's are paper pulp pellets called yesterday's news, aspen bedding(can be messy too though), carefresh(can get expensive), and kaytee soft granule bedding( supposedly is good at odor control). Petstores will have these, walmarts sometimes will have some of these either in the small animal or cat section. Just don't use cat litters or clumping litters. Not good for rabbits. I use wood pellets, but I am interested in trying out the kaytee bedding to see if it does help better with the odor. You can put hay on top to help with the litter being tracked around if you want.

For litter training just get a litter box that will fit in there. You may want to get the kind that has a grate over the top so that they won't be able to dig in it. But if they won't use the litter box with the grate then you may need to remove it in the beginning just to train them. The grate will also keep them from tracking litter around. So just put the litter box in there with litter, and no other bedding in the cage. Hopefully they will take right to it. If they aren't but are peeing in a different corner, just move it to that corner. Once they get the hang of using the litter box, they should get better at the pee accidents, as long as you always have a litter box handy for them to use. In the mean time get a tarp you can put down, with a litter box, and do this in a space where it is more confined so they can't wander away, so you can work on the litter box training. If you notice them starting to pee, hurry and pick up and put in the litter box. If you don't catch them in time, wipe up and place paper towel in litter box to help get the scent of the pee in there. If you have a pet exercise pen, those work well for training you buns, plus you can let them out in them to have time to play and not worry they will chew or pee on anything they shouldn't. And you can also sit in there with them and have some bonding time.

Actually the wooden castle makes a fine chew toy for them. Hard dried pine cones are also good. My buns like those hanging chew blocks on a chain with a bell on the end. Cardboard boxes with holes cut in them are lots of fun for buns. Grass toys, apple wood, and willow toys are good. Not all woods are good for rabbits, so make sure of something before you give it to them. Also things with strings, carpet fibers, that a rabbit might injest, are also not good, especially if you have a chewer. For blankies, fleece is generally considered safe as long as it's the kind that doesn't have strings in it, but you'll want to wait til they are litter box trained or they will probably just pee on it.

I didn't see if you mentioned their sexes or age, so keep in mind that if you have a boy and a girl, that at 3 months at the latest, you will need to separate them, so the girl doesn't accidentally get pregnant, which isn't a good thing at that young age. If they are the same sex, then around 4 mo., as the hormones start coming in, there is the possibility for them to start fighting, and if so, you would need to separate them into different cages, until you are able to get them neutered/spayed.

They both look like cuties

Oh, here's a petsmart coupon if you're interested.
http://pets.petsmart.com/promotions/friends-and-family/?utm_source=friends-and-family&utm_medium=directurl

 

[1357bunnylover]

I haven't used carefresh before but i've used something similar and you can pat it down so it like can't kicked out but it soaks up the pee well, but i don't know if it's the same as carefresh. I use straw or shredded paper and it soaks it up well

I'd take them to the vets to know the sex of them, because as you probably know rabbits can get pregnant at 12 weeks old so just to be safe or put a picture on here and i'm sure people would like to help

 

[tamsin]

You might find the litter training goes better once you've got a tray in with some litter, at the moment the cage is probably too much like one big tray for them to be fussy.

Apple or willow sticks are good for chewing. If you can find an apple tree (unsprayed) that you can cut branches from they love it fresh.

 

[agnesthelion]

For litter training I would remove all bedding/litter type material from the rest of the cage. When you cover their entire cage in that type material they will probably pee anywhere. If you keep a bare floor (buns hate to get their feet wet) or maybe even a thin blanket, they will soon realize peeing in a litterbox is more preferable. Litter habits do get better with age and after spay and neuter as well. Also, be super vigilant about cleaning up messes so they smell to only go in a litterbox. Like Jenny said get these guys sexed and fixed before too long if they are going to be housed together. That's a recipe for an unwanted pregnancy or fights.
Rabbits tolerate cold better than heat so definetly take care to keep them cool in the Tuscon heat.
Those are both adorable buns. Congrats and welcome to RO!

 

[roxyllsk]

I got my wee bunnies when they were barely 8 weeks old - they took a few weeks to get used to using the litterbox but now are very neat little buns (both about 6 months old). Try giving hay in the litterbox too and that will encourage them to eat & go right there.

Be patient with them, and yes taking out the litter from the bottom of the cage will help to get them to use the litterpan instead of going everywhere.

I used an old dishpan that I got at the dollar store as a starter litter pan - it was small and fit easily in their smaller house, but there was room for both buns in it.

Nature's Miracle Wipes are really great for tidying up their misses in the cage - it removes the scent so they won't be encouraged to go in the same place.

As far as litter, I use Equine Pine / Woodypet that I get at the local feed store (where you can get livestock feed - like Tractor Supply). It's very reasonable and when they pee in it, the pee goes to the bottom but the top layer stays pretty dry so they're not sitting in it. It is really good with keeping the pee smell down. I was using Carefresh and while that worked well, it was more expensive than the pine pelleted bedding.

 

[kukupecpec]

I got them an edible crawl log, and some apple wood branches at the store today. I looked for some wood pellets but didn;t see any there, I will check my feed store tomorrow though, gotta pick up chicken feed =)

If I take all the hay/bedding off the floor and get a litter box set up, do I need to cover the floor with anything? Or do I just leave the plastic exposed? won't they dig at it? Is it ok for them to dig? I'm not sure if I should give them something to dig in, or discourage it all together. Right now they dig in the hay a little on the floor.

Where can I get NAtures Miracle wipes?

Oh! The white one's feet are getting a little yellow. I think it is probably from the pee, she seems to have no problem running through it when she is let out to play, strange little bunny. Is there any way to get rid of the discoloration? I know you aren't supposed to bathe them unless it's absolutely needed, so I'm not sure what to do.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We use Kiln dried pine and also shredded newspaper for litter. We keep ours indoors as the Summer temps here like where you are at are killer. Also heard it's not good to house bunnies and chickens together.

 

[kukupecpec]

We use Kiln dried pine and also shredded newspaper for litter. We keep ours indoors as the Summer temps here like where you are at are killer. Also heard it's not good to house bunnies and chickens together.

A lot of people seem to have very strong opinions on whether or not to house bunnies with chickens. A friend of mine actually does it and it seems to be just fine. for both of us it started as an addition to our chicken poop fertilizer. The rabbit poop is considered "cold" and chicken poop is "hot" so many chicken people were suggesting housing your rabbits above your chicken run to make easy use of their combined pooh. Someone decided that was too much work and just tossed em all together and now lots of people are doing it. The only down side is if you have a rooster, because they can be cruel to your rabbit and get very frustrated if the rabbit doesn't want to come home to the hen house at sunset to roost LOL

I've seen it done successfully with places for the rabbits to hide and burrow and they get along with my miniature chickens (seramas) already. Dipsy will even lay down with the mini hen! It's adorable, I'll have to get a pic for you guys some time.

 

[Imbrium]

I would definitely ditch the bedding in the cage - I used carefresh bedding in a small pet store cage like you've got until I got my bunnies' NIC condo built and they turned the whole cage into a litter box. there's really no need to cover the plastic with anything (especially since they like to pee on soft/absorbent stuff).

there's stuff you can do about the stained paws, but I don't actually remember what - I just gave up on it with my lop ><

I would be *very* careful about having them outdoors in the summer - bunnies become susceptible to heat stroke at temps of 80F and above, so precautions will definitely be needed. you can set up a fan to blow across their area, give them frozen 2-liters of water to lie against, chill or add ice cubes to their water, mist their ears with cool water, provide frozen ceramic tiles to lie on, etc. I would bring them inside if it's going to be hotter than maybe 95F.

 

[kukupecpec]

Oh my gosh they are getting so big already! I'm loving having them. I though I would just let you nice responders know that they are both scheduled to get fixed and they have been living in their big 5 level NIC hybrid cage for a week and love it - now that they finally figured out they can hop from level to level ha!


- all the zip ties have been cut and are away from the bunnies =) They also have lots ore toys and boxes to play with now. Finalized litter boxes with hay racks as well!