Methods to contain hay (allergies!) - hooded litter box?

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LolaE

LolaE

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2021
Messages
77
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37
Location
New Zealand
Hello everyone!

I'm very allergic to hay, so I'm trying to think of how to minimise the hay in the air in my house. I have two little inside bunnies (and they can't live outside--it's too cold! Plus, I like having them indoors with me. :) ). What I've been doing for the last year or so is keeping the rabbits' hay boxes in a spare room, so that it doesn't spread too far in the house. But I can't sit in that particular room for more than a few minutes before I start wheezing, so I am trying to think of alternatives (it doesn't help that my house has wall-to-wall carpeting, so the tiny hay particles tend to settle and linger, and are even impervious to the vacuum!).

So, my latest thinking is that I could get a large hooded cat litter box for their hay. I've read mixed reviews/opinions about hooded litter boxes for rabbits, and I know the rabbits are inevitably going to use their hay box some as a litter box, but my thinking is that I could also have "unhooded" litter trays outside the hay box--I'm not trying to cover up the litter, just the hay. In this context, is a hooded litter box okay for the rabbits?

And, is there any other conceivable way to contain the hay? Any creative ideas/suggestions are most appreciated!

Thank you. :)
 
I think hooded litter boxes are fine.

(This is unsafe advice, so has been crossed out by a moderator.)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Heyo so I have a decent allergic reaction to the hay as well. I have played with a few different types and some I have less of a reaction too like Orchard hay or even the Standlee brand at the moment seems less dusty. (I say at the moment because sometimes it depends on how their crops are doing)
Other than different types of hay my preparation method is that once it arrives I store it in a closet so that it isn’t taking up an entire room. I then put on along sleeve hoodie, masks and gloves and I preload a bunch of hay dispensers (I use those Ikea bag dispensers and hay bags) I will do an entire weeks worth. This way the dust only gets disturbed 1 day a week. Every morning and evening I just exchange the hay dispensers.
I have 2 litter boxes in their room one is open and the other is enclosed. The buns themselves seem to prefer the enclosed one. Im not sure if that part makes a big difference. And an air purifier outside of the room.
I will try to attach some pictures.
Best of luck with your hay situation!
B1A56E7C-D8FB-40C8-B15C-4981DF0F4E7D.jpeg9CFA1F34-C7CC-4487-82DD-68F31F0D16D1.jpeg
 
MooseMouse said:
Heyo so I have a decent allergic reaction to the hay as well. I have played with a few different types and some I have less of a reaction too like Orchard hay or even the Standlee brand at the moment seems less dusty. (I say at the moment because sometimes it depends on how their crops are doing)
Other than different types of hay my preparation method is that once it arrives I store it in a closet so that it isn’t taking up an entire room. I then put on along sleeve hoodie, masks and gloves and I preload a bunch of hay dispensers (I use those Ikea bag dispensers and hay bags) I will do an entire weeks worth. This way the dust only gets disturbed 1 day a week. Every morning and evening I just exchange the hay dispensers.
I have 2 litter boxes in their room one is open and the other is enclosed. The buns themselves seem to prefer the enclosed one. Im not sure if that part makes a big difference. And an air purifier outside of the room.
I will try to attach some pictures.
Best of luck with your hay situation!
View attachment 60885View attachment 60886
Click to expand...
Very good idea that you have 👍
 
Hi everyone--thanks, these are great ideas!

An air purifier is a good idea, and good that hooded litter boxes don't seem to be such a problem.

MooseMouse, that looks like a good set-up you have. I tried to do something similar once, but my bunnies just tore all the hay out of the dispensers; they like to roll around in it and spread it about. The more places covered in hay, the better for them. :) What do you do about the hay that still gets kicked around the room and in the air?

Also, do you have any thoughts on alfalfa hay for allergies? I will look into whether I can get orchard hay where I am; that sounds like a really good idea. At the moment, I feed my rabbits a mix of timothy and alfalfa, with a little meadow hay. (I know alfalfa is not recommended for most adult rabbits, but my vet recommended I maintain it for my Netherland dwarves, especially in the winter to keep their weight/body heat up, and they seem happy and healthy enough with it.)

Thanks. :)
 
Hooded litter boxes trap the ammonia fumes produced by rabbit urine. They are not safe because they can cause respiratory issues in rabbits.

It's a great idea to try different types of hays to see which one(s) don't cause an allergic reaction. Several members on RO have had hay allergy issues that were resolved by simply switching to a different type of grass hay. Orchard grass, oat grass, bermuda grass, meadow grass, brome, timothy... all of these are options.
 
LolaE said:
Hi everyone--thanks, these are great ideas!

An air purifier is a good idea, and good that hooded litter boxes don't seem to be such a problem.

MooseMouse, that looks like a good set-up you have. I tried to do something similar once, but my bunnies just tore all the hay out of the dispensers; they like to roll around in it and spread it about. The more places covered in hay, the better for them. :) What do you do about the hay that still gets kicked around the room and in the air?

Also, do you have any thoughts on alfalfa hay for allergies? I will look into whether I can get orchard hay where I am; that sounds like a really good idea. At the moment, I feed my rabbits a mix of timothy and alfalfa, with a little meadow hay. (I know alfalfa is not recommended for most adult rabbits, but my vet recommended I maintain it for my Netherland dwarves, especially in the winter to keep their weight/body heat up, and they seem happy and healthy enough with it.)

Thanks. :)
Click to expand...

For the hay types like Blue Eyes mentioned there are different kinds to try. Oat and Orchard have been the lesser of dusty that I have encountered. I also don't have access to many of the others.
3/4 of my buns are Netherland dwarfs and I can't say I have fed them alfalfa except when they were young. (They would get addicted to it and refuse to eat anything else so now they just don't get it)
As for the 'waste' hay that they like to kick about. Instead of using litter in my litter pans, I use washable adult incontinence pads that I made to size for the litter pan so every morning and night I take the pads out shake them into a compost bin, and put clean ones in. Then the soiled ones get washed and repeat.
 
LolaE said:
Hello everyone!

I'm very allergic to hay, so I'm trying to think of how to minimise the hay in the air in my house. I have two little inside bunnies (and they can't live outside--it's too cold! Plus, I like having them indoors with me. :) ). What I've been doing for the last year or so is keeping the rabbits' hay boxes in a spare room, so that it doesn't spread too far in the house. But I can't sit in that particular room for more than a few minutes before I start wheezing, so I am trying to think of alternatives (it doesn't help that my house has wall-to-wall carpeting, so the tiny hay particles tend to settle and linger, and are even impervious to the vacuum!).

So, my latest thinking is that I could get a large hooded cat litter box for their hay. I've read mixed reviews/opinions about hooded litter boxes for rabbits, and I know the rabbits are inevitably going to use their hay box some as a litter box, but my thinking is that I could also have "unhooded" litter trays outside the hay box--I'm not trying to cover up the litter, just the hay. In this context, is a hooded litter box okay for the rabbits?

And, is there any other conceivable way to contain the hay? Any creative ideas/suggestions are most appreciated!

Thank you. :)
Click to expand...

I'm still extremely new to all of this, but I have a pretty bad allergy to straw, and I can just "tell" when I'm in the pet store that the second I step near the bagged timothy hay, I start to just get this feeling in my nose and eyes. It's the same thing that happens if I go in IKEA and stand where all the down pillows are.

That made me super concerned about the idea of getting a bunny, but I spent some time on this and other rabbit forums and found some suggestions to try other types of hay. Right now, I bought Oxbow brand orchard grass and alfalfa. It seems to be nice quality and very low dust compared to most of the cheap stuff in pet stores. (To be fair, I did buy the Oxbow from Pet Supplies Plus, but it's one of the "high end" ones they sell.) So far, so good. This morning I just pulled and mixed a new batch of hay ready for dispensing, and I wore disposable gloves, but only sneezed once. I did this out in the garage, BTW.

I believe Oxbow might also sell it online in large quantities too, so that's an option I'll be looking into rather than continuing to buy small bags.

If you're in the market for a nice HEPA air filter, I have two suggestions:

1) We have a small one that we keep in our room at night (we've had this pre-bunny) which is small but mighty. It's done an amazing job for multiple purposes, like clearing allergens from the air or clearing other airborne contaminants (like fresh paint smell or carpet cleaner product smell). Levoit Core 200s Smart True HEPA Air Purifier Gray

2) At one point we thought we were going to put one in our unfinished basement to go along with our dehumidifier, and I did a TON of homework, and came out with this one as the best value/performance/reviews for the price point, including filter changing needs and prices: Winix D480True HEPA 3-Stage Air Purifier, AHAM Verified for 480 sq. ft. 1022-0221-02 We ended up returning it due to not needing it after all, but during the time we had it, we loved it. It's much more expensive than the little one above, but seems to be worth every penny.
 
LolaE said:
Hello everyone!

I'm very allergic to hay, so I'm trying to think of how to minimise the hay in the air in my house. I have two little inside bunnies (and they can't live outside--it's too cold! Plus, I like having them indoors with me. :) ). What I've been doing for the last year or so is keeping the rabbits' hay boxes in a spare room, so that it doesn't spread too far in the house. But I can't sit in that particular room for more than a few minutes before I start wheezing, so I am trying to think of alternatives (it doesn't help that my house has wall-to-wall carpeting, so the tiny hay particles tend to settle and linger, and are even impervious to the vacuum!).

So, my latest thinking is that I could get a large hooded cat litter box for their hay. I've read mixed reviews/opinions about hooded litter boxes for rabbits, and I know the rabbits are inevitably going to use their hay box some as a litter box, but my thinking is that I could also have "unhooded" litter trays outside the hay box--I'm not trying to cover up the litter, just the hay. In this context, is a hooded litter box okay for the rabbits?

And, is there any other conceivable way to contain the hay? Any creative ideas/suggestions are most appreciated!

Thank you. :)
Click to expand...
What type of hay are you allergic too? If it;s timithoy hay, a good replacement is Orchard grass. Also if you buy Oxbow hay there is less dust than Kaytee
 
Hello everyone. Thanks for all the comments.

I've done a pretty thorough look, and I don't think I can get any hay apart from one brand of meadow, timothy, and alfalfa (I live in New Zealand--you'd think all kinds of hay would be crucial to a farming country, but apparently not!). I'm not too sure what kind of hay I'm allergic to, since those are the only ones I've tried, and they all seem about equal in terms of allergies.

I will go back to the hay dispenser idea and maybe try a dehumidifier/HEPA filter--thanks, Maverick, for your recommendations.

On that note, are there specific kinds of metal (or, metal coating) that you'd typically get in hardware stores that are unsafe/toxic to rabbits? My previous home-made hay dispensers were made of cardboard, and later plastic, but both got chewed/clawed up by the bunnies digging at the hay, so I thought I'd try a new medium this time.

Just to confirm: So, basically, hooded litter boxes can make my rabbits sick? Would that still be the case even with daily cleaning, etc., or is there really just no way to prevent the ammonia from building up? If they start to get wheezy or don't like the smell, would they not just stop using it? (That is, would it be unsafe to try it with them, and stay on top of the daily cleaning to deal with the ammonia, just to see how it goes?) Sorry if all these questions are naïve, but I just want to check--I've heard so many mixes things about hooded litter boxes (some people swear by them, others swear not to use them), it's probably best to err on the side of caution--of course I do not want to give my rabbits even worse respiratory sickness than I have!

Thanks. :)
 
Daily cleaning won't stop the ammonia fumes from getting trapped by the hood. Once clean, it will momentarily be fine but the moment a rabbit pees in there, the fumes are there. If they use the hooded box, the fumes won't keep them away from it (just like second-hand smoke for humans). But some rabbits simply won't use any litter box that only has one entrance/exit. They don't like feeling trapped.

As for metal feeders for hay, there are a few photo ideas on the following page.
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/hay.html
 
Blue eyes said:
Daily cleaning won't stop the ammonia fumes from getting trapped by the hood. Once clean, it will momentarily be fine but the moment a rabbit pees in there, the fumes are there. If they use the hooded box, the fumes won't keep them away from it (just like second-hand smoke for humans). But some rabbits simply won't use any litter box that only has one entrance/exit. They don't like feeling trapped.

As for metal feeders for hay, there are a few photo ideas on the following page.
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/hay.html
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks, good to know. I'm looking at getting some metal baskets like the ones pictured in the link you sent--but do I have to be worried about the rabbits chewing at whatever coating baskets like those have when they eat their hay?
 
Hey, I just had a quick thought.

How is meadow hay for rabbits nutrition-wise? I know they like to eat it and roll around in it. Right now, my rabbits eat mostly timothy hay and a some meadow hay; would I be able to transition them onto just meadow hay, or would that not be healthy/nutritious enough? I don't think it's quite as dusty and bad for my allergies as timothy hay--but it doesn't seem nearly as tasty, either! Just wondering. Thanks.
 
Meadow hay should be a grass hay so it would be fine to replace timothy. I say "should" because I have heard that sometimes a farmer may label as "meadow hay" a harvest that has a mixture of grass hays and perhaps alfalfa and/or clover as well. You could try asking your hay seller if there is anything in the meadow hay or if it is a mix.
 
Okay, thanks. Is a mix of grass hays bad? It seems like that would be tasty and healthy for a bunny, but maybe not. I'm pretty sure what I've got is just meadow hay, at least the most reliably that I can find.
 
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