That would be great, mocha.  Really anything you can use for rabbit litter that is safe, soak it to see how much water it will hold and post here.

I tested some litter.

I used 2 cups of lukewarm water and 2 cups of cardboardstrips pressed into the measuring cup tightly.

I added the water. So it was 1 part cardboard strips to 1 part of water

I let it sit for 5 minutes and then poured off any excess water. I collected 1/2 cup of excess which means my 2 cups of cardboard strips bound up 1 1/2 cups of water, that's 75% their own volume.

I did the same procedure with newspaper shreds the same size as my cardboard strips.

I had lots of excess water, the newsprint held less than half its own volume in water.

I tried kiln--dried pine shavings I used to use under my grated litter cage. At first they seemed to hold their own volume in water but after a while it trickled through and pooled at the bottom. I give this litter a Fail.

the cardboard strips got drier the longer they sat

I tested the Carefresh. I used one cup of carefresh, and one cup of warm water. I let it sit for 5 minutes.

Soaking...

After drained and squeezed, drying out...

I drained off the water and got about a half of a cup, so it absorbed 50%. After this I squeezed the bedding to see how much I could get out. It gave up about another 1/4 cup. The carefresh dried out very well though, is almost just like when I pulled it out of the bag. The carefresh has always been good for odor. I like to mix up the litter boxes, making sure as much of the bedding gets used before I change it. It lasts my trio quite a while.

So far the cardboard is still the one to beat!!!

Okay, here are the pelleted pine litter (Lone Star Bedding).

OK, Carrot Lane!! Thanks! That will complete this 'study'
~'Professor Petzy'

There is another type of pelleted litter available. It is by Oxbow and is made of wheat straw.

www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/products/...D.vipa-05b

TARM, thanks for adding to my discussion here. Did your rescue discontinue using the cardboard litter because it was too coarse? The livestock supply store here does not carry it. When I changed my rabbits' litter today Neigey binkied through the strips. This is major bunny approval.

oh, thanks averyone! I am so surprised about Yesterday's News. I thought it would absorb way more water.
Kim, I wonder what those pieces were you found??? That's really weird and bad!

Interesting point, BB, about the swelling up. Please test the YN, too, to see if you come up with similar results.

I still really like my strips of cardboard. They stick together when wet and so litter-change is quick.

I have some that I kept for bunny toy boxes and for other purposes, like when we change the oil on the car etc. So it's just boxes from packaging I collected. I will run out now soon b/c of this litter. I asked other ppl to collect for me and I will go get some from a store too. You could check with a local business in your town to ask if you can have some of their cardboard that goes for recycling. It has to be the brown plain stuff, though, no gloss on it.

So I just got some yesterday's news AND I found some Aspen Supreme finally (even more expensive now though so I will end up mixing) plus I still have my Feline pine pellets so I'll test all three each and then do a mix of YN and Aspen (which is how I will end up using it myself). I'll try to get that done tomorrow and post about it.

These last few days though that I've been using Feline Pine, though it soaks up the urine, it does not do a good job with odor to me. It could be that the more that it soaks in the urine, it just makes the room smell more sawdusty and that's what I am associating with urine. I"m just not as fond of having the room smell like sawdust either though. So much so, I got the fan going to get some fresh air in from the windows.

So here is the result from my conifer wood pellets - of course, I did not manage to take any pictures before or during. But I took one US Cup water and added 1 US Cup pellets and then after 15-20 seconds, there was no water left and it looked like this:

Since I failed to take any picture before adding the water and I for some reason have taken the picture with the Litres showing although using US Cups, I should explain that in Cups it has swollen to the size of 3 3/4 cups.

Sorry, guys, I am just completely sleep deprived lately and cannot focus. Let me know if you want me to re-do the test.

Posted By BinkyBunny on 02/14/2010 01:35 AM

So I just got some yesterday's news AND I found some Aspen Supreme finally (even more expensive now though so I will end up mixing) plus I still have my Feline pine pellets so I'll test all three each and then do a mix of YN and Aspen (which is how I will end up using it myself). I'll try to get that done tomorrow and post about it.

These last few days though that I've been using Feline Pine, though it soaks up the urine, it does not do a good job with odor to me. It could be that the more that it soaks in the urine, it just makes the room smell more sawdusty and that's what I am associating with urine. I"m just not as fond of having the room smell like sawdust either though. So much so, I got the fan going to get some fresh air in from the windows.

I noticed this same thing when I switched to wood stove pellets. I can't really smell it unless I'm right next to his cage, so I ignore it, but I wish it controlled odor as well as YN did. Aspen Supreme sounds awesome, but I've never seen it around. I'll have to look. Though I think I'm going to take the trade off of more smell but dirt cheap litter prices with the wood stove pellets.