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Lucky_2017

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Hey fellow bunny lovers! I do need an answer ASAP because I’m about to clean out my rabbits cage. Ok so the main question is, is newspaper bunny safe? I have two cages put together for my bun, and he has free run of the room. However I can’t afford to keep on filling both cages, which are quite large, with sawdust, a large bail is £10. I was wondering could I fill one cage with sawdust and the other with shredded up newspaper, or is there anything else I could fill it with? An answer ASAP would be greatly appreciated!
 
Filling the entire cage with litter makes it much much harder to litter train your rabbit.
You should only need a litter box with litter.
Newspaper is safe but watch the rabbit doesnt eat it and flyers are often a different type of dye. Its probably safer then the shavings if youre using pine or cedar...
 
Pine, when kiln dried is safe--using it for 2 decades and have a mini Rex that turned 18 in July. The high gloss fliers are not safe nor are the photo quality pics on cardboard boxes as they are printed on plastic. Regular newspaper is totally fine--the cellulose is digestible and they use a vegetable ink--bad business to make your customers sick and all that.Been shredding it and filling litter boxes with it for almost 2 decades now. They love to play with it, hide in it, and do their "business" in the boxes. Cosmo will run around the room with some hanging out his mouth.
 
Thankyou for the advice, I shredded up tons of newspaper and he loves it
 
Our bunnies are housed inside (due to an attack by a low life human years ago when they were outside)

We visit local department stores and get hold of their discarded appliance boxes (i.e. Refrigerator boxes, large TV boxes etc)

We place this down on the ground to protect the floor and run a cage around it. If you find the right boxes, you can get them with edges which help keep the hay contained as the bunnies do spread it around after a while and it can escape the fenced area

We have separate litter trays, into which we put straw/hay at one end and litter at the other end of the tray. Our bunnies wee and poo in the litter section. The straw/hey is a fairly low grade one, it's more of an enticement rather than a food source for them, as their real hay source is put elsewhere in their enclosure

On some occasions they will claw/rake the cardboard floor, but it's very rare (once in 3 months?) and tends to be if you use cardboard flooring with a significant crease in it, as the bunnies hate things not flat

We used to lay down newspaper sheets (multiple layers from old local newspapers) but this was tedious and I didn't like placing my bunnies on newsprint, especially since you know it's giving off fumes from the ink (even if humans cannot smell it). Shredded newspaper was even worse, because the shredding process creates lint.

After switching to using large cardboard sheets (i.e. the length of a large refrigerator, which is about how long the bunnies inside enclosure is) then cleaning the cage has become much less time consuming (We had to find a way to speed it up for the kids because they were cleaning the cages and were reluctant to make a start because when replacing the newspaper it was a long and arduous affair)

Our procedure for cage refreshing went from around 2+ hours to around 1 hour (excluding drying time from items that get washed down)

Our inside enclosure replacement procedure now consists of:

1. Remove the 2 rabbits (they go outside to a fairly reasonable sized enclosure - around 18m x 15m)
We try and put them out there every day, except when the weather is bad. In this area they dig, run, laze around
(5 mins)

2. Remove the fence, place outside. Fence consists of wire frame panels. Originally acquired as sections for a grass compost unit. You bought the wire sections and linked them together. We turned them horizontally instead. The fence enclosure has no roof, just wall panels
(5 mins)

3. Empty two litter trays
(5 mins)

4. Sweep loose hay/droppings and remove
(5 mins)

5. Remove cardboard to outside, fold it / cut it up and put into recycle bin
(5 mins)

6. Wash down fence (squirt it down with hose on jet setting)
(5 mins)

7. Wash down and if necessary, scrub out litter trays
(5 mins)

8. Sweep any additional hey/mess that escaped the enclosure
(5 mins)

9. Bring in replacement cardboard, fit it to size. If you can find boxes with edges, they are the best, they help contain hay/dropping mess within the rabbit living space
(5 mins)

10. Bring in fence and run it around. Attach clothes pegs (Pegs are used to hold fence sections together, makes for easy assembly and release)
(5 mins)

11. Replenish litter trays (litter at one end, hay at the other)
(5 mins)

12. Fill water bottle
(2 mins)

13. Fill food bowls / add hay into hay frame
(5 mins)

14. Add rabbits (usually at the end of the day, just before Mosquito's start showing up).
Sadly, this is around dusk time which is when the rabbits like to stay outside (natural time for them to be out). In Australia, we are totally backwards and stupid about Myxomatosis and refuse vaccination (it's illegal).
We claim rabbits are not natural here and are exotics - of course totally overlooking that fact that this country is filled with non-indigenous people (exotics!)
(5 mins)

Total time: Approximately 67 mins if you take your time. 20-25 if you do it with purpose

This is versus the 2+ hours it used to take us when we used newspaper alone
 
Thankyou for the advice, and I’m so sorry to hear that someone attacked your bunnies!
 

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