Pooping in Her Hay

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MamaToAiku

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Mar 26, 2011
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Roy, Utah, USA
Aiku (about 4 years old, adopted when she was around 1 year old) has a big spot all to herself in a back room (she's been living there for almost a year now). It's basically just a corner of a large room that's fenced off. Her large cage fits in there and the door stays open. It's mostly concrete and has a carpeted spot. Honestly, I don't get her out often enough to play with her, but I'm working on that.

She gets a quarter cup of pellets twice a day, a handful of fresh vegetables, and of course unlimited hay. It occurred to me shortly after moving into this new house that I could put her hay in a cardboard box on the floor rather than the various contraptions I had tried that attached to her cage and made hay fall everywhere. She seemed very happy with this arrangement until a couple of weeks ago when she started pooping in the hay.

She has always been very good at going in her litter box. Even at the animal shelter where she didn't have a litter box, she always went in the corner of her cage, so it was easy to train her. We use regular cat litter (the cheapest you can find so that it doesn't have blue crystals or clumping). I did notice a few months ago one of the cats started going in and laying in the box of litter, but Aiku didn't seem to mind (when the cat went into her cage, she nipped at him, so that she definitely minded). They just kind of lounged around together, which seems normal to me because when we first got Aiku, we had different cat and Aiku and that cat used to lounge on our bed together all the time.

Aiku has had issue in the past with urinating to prove dominance. She used to spray on my husband's pillow (only his) and that's why she stopped being allowed on the bed.

So after her pooping in the hay box to begin with, I threw that one out and started a new one. That was just over a week ago and she didn't poop in the new one at all until now. Most of the hay I put in it is gone now, so maybe that's why she decided to start using it as a litter box?

She is spayed. Cats are neutered.
 
Please switch from cat litter, to yesterdays news :p cat litter is bad for them, but i mean... these things sometimes cant be stopped, only counter measured. Id just put the hay in a rack, where they cant aim at :D
 
She's pooping in her hay box because bunnies like to eat and poop. The simplest solution is to hang a hay rack over her existing litter box. She can munch and poop to her heart's content andmost of thehay that falls out will land in the litter box,keeping her pen tidy. (In fact, there was just recently a thread about where to find good hay racks!)

As Halucinate mentioned, please, please, PLEASE consider using something besides cat litter in your rabbit's litter box. Wood pellets (either the type used in wood stoves or horse stall bedding) are dirt cheap, highly absorbant,odour controlling, and easy to clean up. But above all they are safe for rabbits. (The reason cat litter is not is because the dust causes respiratoryproblems and if they ingest it, it can be fatal.)

As a side note: Woodpellets can also be used in cat litter boxes and many cats use it no problem! (We were actually just at PetSmart last night and all the adoptable cats there were using the wood pellets).

Hope that helps!

Rue


 
new bunny owner here..aren't you supoosed to put a layer of hay over the wood pellets (litter box)?
I'm confused at this point and trying to get clear in my mind before adopting my grand bunny Buddy, male, over 1 year old
thanks brendajoyce
 
brendajoyce wrote:
is there a way on this forum to find people from the Vancouver BC area, so I can find the best sources etc please?
Under your username when you post is your location, you can click on that (try doing the British Columbia as it will give you a wider range). This will bring up a list of the users who have put that as their location as well. You can try PMing people through this, but keep in mind that some users are not very active.
There is also a part of the forum that is based on your region, for you this would be Canada West. You can post there to see if anyone can help you.
 
My vet was against the hay rack. She said to layer the hay over the litterbox because bunnies poop as they eat hay. Just add fresh hay everyday you clean the box. I clean mine every day.
 

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