Need some help deciding on a good bedding setup

[jmhnmb]

Hi there, i’m a first time rabbit owner, and I’m pretty much in the dark about bedding options for my bunny.  I should mention firstly, that his name is Lazarus, and he’s a Flemish Giant. So , he’s a big boy!  Right now, he’s in a temporary cage until we can get the materials to build his new one (38×40 or bigger, with some room for play).

Anyway, we’ve had him for around 3 days now, and we have a strip of carpeting in there to keep his food bowl and toys on, and towels to cover the rest with , since he’s litter trained. Well, because of his new enviroment, he hasn’t been using the litter box too well (we’re working on it) and towels do NOT smell good when pee’d on. For his litter, we use CareFresh natural, since there’s no odors and its supposed to be a good odor blocker, but I wasn’t sure if we put it down as bedding, if it would cause confusion for him. I’ve seen a lot of people say to put a layer of that down, and a layer of hay ontop of it, but I just don’t know. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you !

[allegrabunny]

i’m a new bunny owner too, I put towels down on the floor of my bunnies cages and then in the litter box a layer of wood pellets (for a wood stove $) covered by a handful of carefresh $$$ and a bit of hay. To encourage potty training try putting on of the pee towels in the litter box. It helped my boy know where he was supposed to pee. You might try those disposable puppy training pads as long as your boy won’t eat them.

[Alina]

I’m new too lol, and for my Lionhead I made a NIC cage, and put plastic sheeting on the bottom. In the one corner where his hidey house to sleep in is I put down carpet. I bought a cheap runner from a hardware store and have been cutting it into pieces. On his second and thirds levels I put down this place mat material but he dug it up, so I wood stapled carpet over those spots so he can dig to his hearts content.

He seems fine sleeping on his carpet. I have a fluffy bed in there too but he’s not that interested in it

[Elrohwen]

Don’t put Carefresh or any other bedding on the cage floor – it will confuse him. It’s like somebody putting you in a room with 20 toilets, but telling you that you’re only allowed to use one of them. Confusing, right?

The best thing to do right now is clear out his pen and put down something non-absorbent. You may be able to go back to towels eventually, but for now linoleum or something will be better. Most bunnies get the point that they shouldn’t pee on solid surfaces and will gladly pee in the litter box.

Also make sure the litter box is large enough for him. Flemmies need the largest cat litter box you can find, or even a rubbermaid container. He should be able to get in it and turn around comfortably.

Finally, put hay in his litter box – bunnies like to eat and poop, so this should help him figure out where to go.

Hopefully these tips willl help him get back on track. Use a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water to clean up any messes so that he’s not peeing over old pee spots.

eta: Some people like Carefresh, and it works fairly well, but it is expensive and with such a big bunny you’ll go through a lot of litter. Wood stove pellets (you can also buy them as horse stall pellets) are extremely cheap – about $5 per 40lb bag – and work even better (in my opinion). You can get them at a farm/tractor store. Pine shavings are not ok for bunnies, but pine pellets are because they have been kiln dried and the harmful penols are gone.

[AbbyGirl]

I have a Flemish and I use the wood stove pellets. It’s much more cost effective. It looks like a 40 lb bag might last us a little over a month. Ours is a pet bedding that is sold by a local wood pellet stove store. We paid $4 for 40 lbs. It does a wonderful job at controlling the odors. I just scoop out the wet spots every night and add a handful of new pellets to it.

We also have a large/jumbo cat litter box. It’s not very big for him. He could never relax in it like smaller buns do. The shelter gave us the bottom of a large rabbit cage when we got him to use as a litter box and we will be switching to that when we get into our new house and have more room.
It’s possible you could do that when you have his new cage made.

I had him in a spot that was 30″x42″ and it was not nearly big enough for him. He was only in there at night and when we were gone. He’s pretty much free range. Once you put a large little box in that size of an area he won’t have much room to move around. I just made it much larger yesterday.

[jmhnmb]

Thanks for all of the input everyone! The problem we’re having is his cage at the moment…It’s way too small for what he needs, and I bought a big litter box (when he tested it out, he could pretty much lay in it) but it takes up pretty much one half of the cage, and he wasn’t too fond of it setup so tight. The one we have now was included with the cage we were given…it fits snug into the corner, but it has a little grate covering where you put the litter and such. It makes me wonder if he doesn’t feel comfy sitting on the grating since he’s so big? 

 

 

 

[AbbyGirl]

I would definitely take the grate off. Those are not good for big buns to stand on. They can get sore hocks.

[Sarita]

I agree with Amy – I would just ditch this cage completely and get an x-pen to house him in. It’s too small anyway.

[jmhnmb]

That’s one of the option’s I was thinking about. I think the person who originally adopted him (and gave him up because he doesn’t like to be held ), bought the largest sized enclosure she could find from Petco, which is big enough for maybe a big Flop, but we soon realized that Laz is a hefty boy, and needs some romp room.

On the litter setup, I just switched out the little corner one , to the bigger one I bought. I put the CareFresh (since I already bought two packages of it…i’ll be trying out the wood stove pellets next ) on the bottom , and layered the top with Hay. He seems to show a great deal of interest eating the CareFresh tho lol. I’m sure that’s something that’s normal for them?

Sorry to sound so paranoid! The misses and I had a very hard experience when we adopted a puppy, so when we decided a bun would be a better choice, the paranoia left over from that kind of followed suit. Should have seen me incapable of sleeping last night, thinking he was overheating. Oi.

[Sarita]

Yeah, none of those cages are good for any rabbits. Hopefully you will be able to get a better set up soon because the cage is just not going to allow him to stretch our or stand up or anything. I don’t know who they have designing these “cages” for rabbits but it’s not rabbit owners that is for sure.

[jmhnmb]

Yeah, that’s what I wonder as well. I leave the cage open for him as long as I’m home , but around this time of the day, he’ll pretty much just pop out a couple times and go back to laying in his cage…of course, from 8pm to whenever I go to bed, he wants to be out.

 

edit- I put up two photos in my profile (if it actually worked), in one of them you can see part of the cage and how terrible the width is.

[Sarita]

Lazarus is absolutely gorgeous – his fur is so shiny.

Yeah, that cage is small but at least you know you have other options when you are ready.

[AbbyGirl]

He’s gorgeous!

I was the same way when I got Hugo. I think I bombed the place with questions! I’ve learned a lot in a short time on here and everyone is so helpful. I think it’s wonderful that you leave the cage open for him so he’s not confined to such a small space. When I was first litter training Hugo he was in a smaller area. Then we blocked him into the kitchen. Easy to clean up the messes that way.

An x-pen would be a wonderful idea. I couldn’t afford one so I built Hugo’s enclosed area yesterday from the nic cubes (wire storage cubes). I got them at Target and it does the job. I have a picture of it in the lounge. It’s about a 70″x42″ area now when it’s bed time.

[Otti]

I don’t think it’s okay for him to eat the carefresh. If he’s eating it, you should not use it and switch to wood pellets asap.

Can anyone confirm this? Thanks.

[Elrohwen]

Carefresh is just a paper product – eating a small amount won’t be any more harmful than eating cardboard or a phonebook which most bunnies do constantly. Certainly take it away from him if he’s eating large amounts or if it’s impacting the amount of regular food he eats though.

[Otti]

Oh, okay nevermind then. I guess it’s only if they eat a lot? Or does it also make it more okay that Lazarus is eating it since it’s the natural Carefresh?

[jmhnmb]

Thanks for all the compliments! He’s a very oddly maticilous bunny…he dislikes being dirty at all.!

It makes me glad I ordered the “Natural” CareFresh at least. He seems a little less interested in it now that the hay is overtop of it, so hopefully that will sort out the eating issue.

next issue is trying to keep his big butt cool! Room won’t cool down…thank god for frozen water jugs

[LoveChaCha]

Your bunny is so cute! So shiny! I love black bunnies And welcome btw!

You bought the natural care fresh? The brown paper one, right? I use that one and it works really well for me.

[jmhnmb]

Thank you! As is yours! We almost adopted the same kind as you !

and yes, the brown one. Seems to hold out the smell of poop pretty good, but I haven’t had a chance to test urine, since right now the bottom of the cage is void of anything minus one end having some carpet (which he loves, and no worries, it’s plastic, not grated). I took some of the hay from the litter box and put them in the urine , and back in the litter, hoping that he’ll smell it and realize thats meant for his potty.

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