Really smelly pee?

[FluffyBunny]

Mr. Bunny’s pee has never been too smelly. It gets stinky if it’s left longer than about 4-5 days, sure, but the wood stove pellet litter I use takes care of the smell very well.

Well, almost as soon as I got Ms. Rabbit, I noticed that her pee is really, really smelly. The best way I can describe the smell is that it’s a tangy, acidic smell, a little like a citrus fruit that’s been rotting for half a year. The wood stove pellets have no effect on her pee’s smell, even though she makes much less of it than Mr. Bunny. If I let the litter sit for more than half a day, the smell is practically unbearable once I do clean the litter. (I cleaned the litter boxes after my usual 4 days of letting it sit about 45 minutes ago, and my nose and stomach are still traumatized.) 

She weighs just over 3 pounds, and every day, she gets the following diet:

1 cup fresh greens (currently kale, green leaf lettuce and parsley), very scant 1/4 cup timothy pellets, 2-4 raisins, unlimited timothy/orchard hay, and unlimited fresh water.

That is the same diet that Mr. Bunny gets every day (well, he gets larger amounts, obviously).

She is a healthy rabbit as far as I know and her pee is not bloody or cloudy. Do some bunnies just have really smelly pee? Is there anything I can change in her diet to reduce this smell? Also, is there anything I can do to make the litter smell better, besides cleaning it more often?

[Beka27]

Some veggies can make urine smell worse, but for some reason I can never remember which ones they are. My experience with WSP litter is that 5 days is pushing it. I’m comfortable doing 3-4 days between changes. On the rare occasion something comes up and I HAVE TO stretch it to 5, geez oh man… I smell it the next morning. I know Bunny is on meds, is Rabbit on meds too?

[FluffyBunny]

No, Ms. Rabbit is not on any medicines at the moment. As of today and the last 2 weeks, Mr. Bunny isn’t on any either.

[Beka27]

Oh? I thought I read he was on pen-g injections and something else previously?

If they’re not bonded yet, some of it could also be territorial odor maybe?

[FluffyBunny]

He’s starting on the Penicillin tomorrow or Saturday.

That could very well be it, but they’ve stopped with all other scent marking (pooping and chin marking)…does scent mark peeing go last?

[Beka27]

I’m not sure. I never really noticed it with my pair, and we really didn’t have any territorial marking or pooping. I think Meadow peed on a blanket one time during a bonding session and that was it.

The urine smell is always strong when I dump it out from the box, but it only lingers a few seconds, so I just deal with it, clean the box, refill it, and move on. Maybe try doing litterboxes one day sooner. See if that helps any?

[FluffyBunny]

That’s how Mr. Bunny’s pee smell is – it lasts a few seconds until I spray the vinegar. Ms. Rabbit’s pee smell is overpowering until you go and dump every speck of the dirty litter outside.

I’ll try cleaning the litter every other day. Thanks for your help!

[runawaybunny]

The same thing sort of happened to me when I got Newton. I use WSP for Smokey and Bandit. I change it every 3rd day and it’s not smelly at all. I used the same when I got Newton (same diet except for 1 bun instead of 2.) If I changed his litter in the morning by nighttime it would smell like it needed to be changed again.

I changed the buns to carefresh litter to see how they liked it. (I thought it might be more comfortable on their feet.) Since I started using it with Newton I can only smell the pee when I scoop or change his litter. Smokey and Bandit however failed the carefresh trial. The fibers stick to Smokey’s butt and he tracks them all over the floor. A real mess. So they’re back to WSP, but they’ve been fine with them for years.

[jerseygirl]

Love the stunt-bunny avatar there runawaybunny!

Might be worth trialling Ms Rabbit on some different litters FB. Also, her urine might be more concentrated if she doesn’t drink as much as Mr B.

I know she was formerly one of a pair. How certain are you that she is spayed? Just a thought….

edit to add: Moz recently posted about using chlorophyll to help with urine odour by adding it to drinking water. https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/ta…fault.aspx  Maybe PM her to find out if that’s worth while?

I wonder if its possible to give powders too as I’ve seen grass meal powders.  I suppose rabbits are getting some chlorophyll in their diets already.

[Jessi]

I have the same problem with marley!

Ive tried everything but t seems that you can always smell her pee. I usually clean it once a day, but one day i had to clean its 3 times and sometimes i can get away with 2 days. Its very strange. Ive tried all kinds of litter but nothing can mask the smell. It smells just like you described it and everything. The only dofference is shes a single bunny. Never seen another bunny. She isnt spayed. Could that be a problem?

[Monkeybun]

An un-altered bun will definitely have stinkier pee, from hormones. Get her spayed

[bunnyjames]

I had the same EXACT problem with Zoe, I posted up a post a couple weeks ago about that, I would change her litter in the morning and by the evening it was just horrible! I took her to the vet thinking maybe there might be something wrong and nope she was perfectly fine. Vet said since she’s not spayed they get high and low hormone ranges, so maybe when shes “ready” to mate their pee gets smellier, at least that’s what the vet said. so yes the spaying is the problem. Zoe is getting spayed in like 2 months, I changed her litter to yesterday news for cats and that HELPED A WHOLE LOT!! plus i started giving her a few drops of chlorophyll and I think it might just be helping because no more smelly pee!!! I did the chlorophyll with consent with Zoe’s vet though. and let me warn you it will change the color of the water to green. But Zoe doesnt seem to mind because she gulps it down just the same, lol! But yeah no more stinky pee, I go with 1 whole week without changing her litter now and no smell. I have to give credit to the litter too though, it helped reduce the smell by a good 80% and the chlorophyll just helped that extra bit. But the best thing to do from recommendation of my bunny’s vet is to get her spayed, which will happen as soon as she hits her target weight.

[Author]

Messages