Thinking of changing litter (CareFresh to Yesterday's News or wood pellets)

[aozora]

The thing I didn't like about the cat boxes with grids is that the grid sits directly over the bottom of the pan, good for sifting, not so good for having poops and pee fall through so your bun isn't sitting in it.

I did find some rabbit litter boxes with grids but they were either corner boxes, too small or too expensive. Mine cost a few dollars to make.

Here is what mine looks like now. This is it with the cut down side for easier access

And this is what the screws look like that hold it up. There is also a washer on the other side of the screw to make it stronger. You don't have to worry about it poking the rabbit as its on the bottom.


I use a thin layer of pellets just to cover the bottom and its good for 4-5days. Even longer as I have left it over a week when I've been sick. The poops piled up to the grid but it still didn't smell. Plus the rabbit isn't sitting in the litter. I never liked the idea of him sitting in his own pee. It also keeps his feet clean.

I have a question regarding the egg crate actually-- what do you use to cut it down to size with? I'm considering going with your method if/when I decide to change Mocha's litter pan and I found a place that sells the egg crate, but I hvae no idea how I'm going to actually customize it. Thank you!

 

[Tauntz]

Thanks, Degrassi! Those pix & info makes it clear how you fixed your bunny's litter pan! Love it by the way! Hope I can find what I need to fix a nice litter pan or two for my two girls! Seems so silly that 40 pounds of horse stall wood pellets or wood stove pellets can cost only $6 yet 25 to 30 pounds of Yesterday's News or similar pet store brand costs $15 plus when you get it on sale!

 

[JBun]

There's this tutorial for a litterbox system with the grate:
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f69/stormhaven-litter-system-step-step-instructions-48510/

You can also make a grate using 1"x1/2" welded wire mesh, the kind used for the floor of wire rabbit cages.

 

[aozora]

There's this tutorial for a litterbox system with the grate:
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f69/stormhaven-litter-system-step-step-instructions-48510/

You can also make a grate using 1"x1/2" welded wire mesh, the kind used for the floor of wire rabbit cages.

Thank you for the link! That's perfect-- I think once this litter pan that I currently have now gets too raggedy or I find it's not suitable with wood pellets, I'll just make my own with that eggcrate. (I tried looking for wire mesh around here but it's harder than I thought.... so eggcrate it is!)

 

[degrassi]

I use a wire cutter to cut the eggcrate into shape but I've also just used kitchen shears(heavy duty scissors). Both work fine

 

[aozora]

Thanks for the comments guys! I just bought a couple of bags of wood pellets from Canadian Tire. They only had hardwood pellets available but I figured they should still work anyway. Either way, $6 /40 lb bag of wood pellets is really hard to resist compared to ~$33 /50L bag of CareFresh! I'm hoping they'll work just as well.

Randomly, can anyone tell me how they look when they're wet/been peed on? Do they turn a darker colour or look mushy or something? Just wondering because my bunny didn't pee all night and I could tell right away this morning. Luckily he peed (a LOT) while I was out running errands but I was wondering how you're able to tell if a rabbit hasn't been peeing if you're using pellets in general?

 

[oatmealbunbun]

It should look like sawdust !!! And if it is dark then it might be fresh pee !!!


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[funnybunnymummy]

This is an old pic, but here's what wet pellets (sawdust) look like (this was before we got Gus his mat):

Hope that helps!

Rue

 

[Azerane]

I'm a bit late to this thread but I'll put in my experience anyway.

I recently changed from recycled newspaper pellets to wood pellets. Here they cost about the same but I found that with the newspaper pellets once some got peed on, many of them got wet and soggy so I was using 2-3 scoops of litter a day (changed once or twice) depending how messy Bandit was. I switched over to wood pellets at the same time as switching to a different litter tray. The tray I bought has a grid on the bottom, but it's only big enough for the pellets to fall through once they become wet and turn into dust. When they're freshly peed on they turn dark and swell up, then they become pale again as they dry and turn to dust. I put a few wood pellets in the bottom tray to catch pee, and a thin layer on a grid tray. I find that it works really well and even though his poop is staying in the tray, he doesn't really get dirty feet from it and I change his tray at least once a day so it's not an issue anyway. In terms of smell, it's hugely reduced from what it was, sometimes the tray could be really stinky. I also use way less litter than I did before, I was using 2-3 heaped scoops of litter at least a day, and now I use just under one scoop every time I change the tray. It's awesome.

I'm really loving the new tray and the wood pellets, and Bandit seems to as well as there's been practically no poops at all outside his tray since we switched, whereas there used to be about 5-10 a day that didn't make the tray.

 

[aozora]

@Rue -- Thank you for the picture! I tried to google for it but all I found were stock photos of wood pellets and not when they're in use or wet, so that's a big help! The white CareFresh made it so easy to tell whenever he peed so I was a little worried about it being harder to see with the wood pellets.

I'm a bit late to this thread but I'll put in my experience anyway.

I recently changed from recycled newspaper pellets to wood pellets. Here they cost about the same but I found that with the newspaper pellets once some got peed on, many of them got wet and soggy so I was using 2-3 scoops of litter a day (changed once or twice) depending how messy Bandit was. I switched over to wood pellets at the same time as switching to a different litter tray. The tray I bought has a grid on the bottom, but it's only big enough for the pellets to fall through once they become wet and turn into dust. When they're freshly peed on they turn dark and swell up, then they become pale again as they dry and turn to dust. I put a few wood pellets in the bottom tray to catch pee, and a thin layer on a grid tray. I find that it works really well and even though his poop is staying in the tray, he doesn't really get dirty feet from it and I change his tray at least once a day so it's not an issue anyway. In terms of smell, it's hugely reduced from what it was, sometimes the tray could be really stinky. I also use way less litter than I did before, I was using 2-3 heaped scoops of litter at least a day, and now I use just under one scoop every time I change the tray. It's awesome.

I'm really loving the new tray and the wood pellets, and Bandit seems to as well as there's been practically no poops at all outside his tray since we switched, whereas there used to be about 5-10 a day that didn't make the tray.

It's never too late imo! I don't think I'll be changing his litter pan just yet - even though I'm tempted to because lately I've been in a "change everything up" mood, lol! - but when I do I'm planning to either make my own grid or get one of those sifting cat litter pans that has a small grid on the bottom for the sawdust to fall through too. I think I've been spoiled by my current litter pan since the wire grate allows his poops to fall through and he's never gotten dirty feet before so I like the thought of being able to do that, but at the same time a sifting litter box that's already ready for use can be tempting considering it would all add up to be around the same price (ie. if I were to get a 2x4 eggcrate + bin to use as a litter pan, may possibly need to buy new wire cutters too because I can't remember where our usual pair is...). I guess we'll see what the circumstances are like by then! I'm a lot more sluggish and unwilling to be productive when there's a lot of snow outside lol.

BTW, what sorts of things are you guys using as your scoop? Do you use an actual cat litter scoop or just anything that works? I bought a pair of these at the Dollarama yesterday (gave one to my mom for the giant bag of corn starch in our basement) and was wondering if they'll be any good for scooping sawdust/dirty pellets-- either that or I'm going to use it for scooping out fresh wood pellets to use:

(They're not as humongous in person, I think it's the angle of the pic making it look bigger!)

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

If you can get softwood pellets, the are more absorbent than hardwood.

 

[Azerane]

I have a scoop similar to that for scooping fresh wood pellets into his litter tray. I have a flat-edged scoop with holes in it for removing soiled litter and poops, but to be honest, I'm yet to be successful in finding a scoop that fits the wood pellets through, but doesn't allow the poops through. There seems to be a lot of the same generic scoop sold here in many stores and the holes aren't big enough to let the pellets through. I've even gone so far as to take a little snap lock bag with me to the stores with some wood pellets and poops in to make sure I get the sizing right. What I don't understand is that all the stores that sell the wood pellets, don't even sell a scoop to suit the size of them. For a cat's poop it doesn't matter so much because there's one big poop, but when you're trying to scoop out tens of bunny poops, it can get a little frustrating. I do find that with the right shaking of the tray that the poops and pellets sort themselves out from each other, but it takes a bit of getting used to and is a little time consuming. Scooping litter would be 10x quicker for me at the moment with the perfect sized scoop! I may have to end up buying online, but even then you don't know the exact dimensions of the holes on the scoop, will just have to keep searching different pet stores I think. I could barely believe that the one pet store I visited, had literally 12-15 different colours of the exact same scoop, but they didn't have any other type of scoop at all. Just that one in lots of ridiculous colours. I mean, come on, does it really matter what colour the plastic tool is that you use to scoop your pet's poop with?!

 

[aozora]

@OakRidgeRabbits - I looked for softwood but they only had hardwood there! I bought two bags anyway since I was there (and they're so heavy!) and wanted to stock up in case. I figured even if I don't use it I can just donate it to the shelter or something Thank you though! Totally going to keep that in mind for the future.

@ Azerane - That sounds like a total headache! The wood pellets that I got are kind of huge - I was surprised by the size of them when I first opened the bag up to be honest! - so I think the scoops I'm currently using which holds Mocha's poops fine should do for now. The wood pellets can't fit through them either but I figure that for the money I won't feel too bad about wasting some pellets here and there lol!

I'm going to try and attach a pic here of his new litter set up using the RO app and hope it won't insert the pic twice again...

I did cover the spot where he usually pees with a bit of carefresh just to help transition him over, but he switched from what I think was aspen shavings at the animal shelter to carefresh when I got him so he should be okay (I hope!).

Thank you again for all the replies to to this thread!


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