Carefreh bedding as litter?

[Allie2620]

Hi,  I’m the proud new parent of a dwarf bunny named Daphne (7 wks old), and I originally wasn’t going to start litter training til she was older, but I then I figured I might as well try it now since I’m letting her roam part of my apartment freely under my supervision anyway.  So far she’s just peed in her cage, and only dropped a handful of turds outside the cage, without any training on my part. 

However, I was under the impression that bunnies have bedding AND litter, but it looks like that isn’t the case (judging by the posts I’ve read).  I just have a thing of Carefresh bedding that I bought for her, and I was wondering if I can use that as litter instead and not have any bedding outside of the litter pan?  Once I use the Carefresh up, I might switch to a legit litter, of course.  She has one of those bunny cages from the pet store, but it’s pretty big especially considering she’s tiny (it fits the corner litter box, and a cute timothy hay tunnel she’s already gnawing on, haha, in addition to hopping room).  Is it really okay for her little paws and body to just hang out on the (stylish blue) plastic floor?

[Sarita]

Absolutely – just put it in her litterbox. Many people use Carefresh as litter. The plastic floor is very much okay. Wire floors are the problem.

[Beka27]

Welcome! Your bunny is very cute!

I liken it to this… imagine you are in a room full of toilets, but there is only one *right* one that you are supposed to be using. How confusing would that be? It’s the same thing with bunnies, if you use litter in the litterbox AND in the bottom of the cage, the bun won’t understand where she’s supposed to go.

It’s not uncommon for baby bunnies to pick up littertraining right away. She’ll probably be good for awhile, but then you may see those good habits decrease as she hits puberty. After her spay at about 6 months, the good habits should return.

[peppypoo]

My bunny actually *prefers* stretching out on plastic floor…if I try to give her some cloth or something nice and soft to lay on, she just pushes it away and bunches it up in a corner! Pretty normal bunny behavior, actually. Like Sarita said, it’s fine as long as it’s a solid surface, not wire.

[lashkay]

I have been using Carefresh as litter in my bunnies’ large corner litterboxes for years. When Carefresh Ultra came out, I switched from regular Carefresh to the Ultra – better odor control in my opinion and I like the bright white of the Ultra litter. The Ultra also comes in various colors. My bunnies don’t eat the carefresh ultra, but do occasionally nibble on the regular carefresh when I’ve substituted that, not excessively though to where it would become a problem. Welcome! Your bunny is adorable and of course, we’ll hope for more pictures! A roomful of toilets is a funny image, but a good one – confuses them when litter or bedding is all over the floor and so they “go” everywhere.

[RabbitPam]

I had switched to the Carefresh Ultra for Spockie when he developed sore hocks and I had worse allergies – it helped both. Beka’s analogy is perfect. And a baby bunny is the BEST age to litter box train as soon as possible. They learn it fast. Just watch for which corner she prefers to use, and put the carefresh in the litter pan on top of that spot. It’s where she feels safe to go. Uncover the rest of the cage. My bunnies like both plastic or carpet under them.

[Allie2620]

All right, so I now just have a corner litter pan for Daphne filled with carefresh, and as she is eating and pooping at the same time, I have her food dish in there too. I would say she goes in the pan about 70% of the time, but she also figured out she can reach the food without getting in the pan, and she apparently likes to just poop everywhere else too. Bah.

But, she’s only peed once outside the pan, so I guess that’s progress. When she’s binkying around the apartment, I’ve gone in her cage and put all her random poop into the pan, should I just keep doing this til she catches on?

[LoveChaCha]

Allie, sounds good. babies will eventually catch on, but it takes time. Putting the stray poops into the box is a great idea It does work! I can put a box anywhere and my bun will poop into it…

[peppypoo]

Doing good! Usually, the peeing catches on faster than the pooping…actually, some bunnies will never be 100% with the pooping in the end. But the good thing is that bunny poop is so easy to clean up, or at least a lot easier than bunny pee. Good call on the food near the litter tray – bunnies do have a weird association between eating (particularly hay) and pooping. A lot of people just end up putting a handful of hay in the litter box for this reason; that’s something you could try as well.

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