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Forum DIET & CARE Confused about caging arrangement…

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    • bunniesx2
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        Hi all, I’m new to Binky Bunny as well as having house rabbits in general. I have two females, a Mini Rex and a Holland Lop. Their cage used to be downstairs. The cage itself is fairly large and they generally had free roam downstairs, but my Rex got to pooping all over the couch and I have kids that run in and out of the house quite a bit, so I moved their cage to a bedroom upstairs. They now pretty much have free rein of the bedroom, except they get shut in at night because I’m scared they’ll get into trouble. My problem is I’m spending a ton on bedding/litter. I fill their cage with about 2-3″ of bedding (either Carefresh Comfort or Vitakraft Eco Bedding) and at first I wasn’t concerned about litter training them because I figured it wasn’t too bad, but I am cleaning their cage every two days because I worry about them standing in damp litter and I don’t like the smell, and it’s turning out to be a little costly…My question is, would it be acceptable to leave the cage floor bare (it’s plastic) and just keep a litter box in there with bedding in it? Would it be mean for them to have a bare floor? They flop down all over the cage and look so cute I’m worried they’ll hate it if it’s not soft anymore. Would I need 2 litter boxes since I have 2 rabbits, or just one both can fit in? I take them to a place outside too I’ve fixed for them-will they be confused unless there’s a litter box there? Obviously I don’t care if they poop in the grass… Also, I just ordered an X pen that is approx. 36×36, should I just keep them in this or attach it to the cage? Will that even be big enough? I feel like I’m forgetting something, but this already seems like a long, confusing question, so I’ll stop lol and hopefully someone has some good advice. Thanks!


      • litheandgraphic
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          Hello and welcome to the forums!

          To answer your first question, it is perfectly fine – and recommended, in this case – to put a litterbox (one large one should be fine, they can share) inside their cage and use the bedding in there only. What kind of cage do they have now? I’m assuming it’s one of the standard ones with plastic floors. This is fine. One thing you can do to give them some softness is to lay down a couple cotton towels or cardboard pieces, and keep the bedding to the litterbox in the corner.

          It’s great that they have free reign of the room – this means they have plenty of room to run around until you close them in at night.

          As far as the x-pen is concerned, it’s really up to you. I think the best scenario would be to house them in their x-pen at night, and otherwise let them have free reign as they do now. That would be what I would do. But it’s really up to you how you configure it.

          There are many different types of flooring that can be used inside of an x-pen, too. Vinyl and linoleum sheet or tiles, laminate hardwood, cardboard, and fleece are some popular options. Again, many people lay towels down or put seagrass mats for the harder flooring.

          As for bringing them outside, you can take the litterbox with you. They will know by smell that that’s what it’s for, and if you keep hay in and around the box, they will go there anyway to munch and do their business.

          One helpful resource is the BinkyBunny guide to litter training, which is here: https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/5/PID/940/Default.aspx

          Good luck and welcome again!


        • Sarita
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            They don’t necessarily have to have a bare floor but removing the bedding is highly recommended – it’s hard to clean and not cost effective anyway.

            You could place some grass mats down if you like or a towel (if they don’t pee on it). They can just use one litter box too once they get trained which would be ideal for you as well.

            I think eventually just using the x-pen would be easier for you if you can do that – easy to clean and easy to manage.


          • ilovemybunnies
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              Thanks…I guess the next time I clean their cage I will just put litter in just the box…I feel like they might be a little put off, but we’ll see lol. I had bought a Ware Manufacturing cage from Amazon, however, it ended up “looking” too small for just one rabbit, let alone two. The cage they’re in now was given to me and is about 4′ long and it has a sort of peaked roof so I rigged a shelf up in there, and my Rex generally sleeps up there. I’ll probably try to configure the cage and x pen together so it seems like they have more room. Plus, my lop is pretty shy and I wouldn’t want to take the cage completely away from her. The bedroom has hardwood floors which are slippery for the rabbits, so I lay out a comforter and they can run and binky on this much easier, but they also poop and pee on it, so idk if I should try a blanket or not in their cage. When I get the x pen we have some leftover floor tiles and I was thinking about setting those down to protect the wood floor and I bought a bath mat for some traction. (So far the only things they care to chew on is food). I bought an extra litter box too just in case…I hate them confined at all, but sometimes they need to be. I just want to make sure I can make their confinement as pleasant as possible…


            • Sarita
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                Leftover floor tiles are a good idea.

                Also a good idea is to put down some linoleum – I think you can buy a roll at Home Depot or Loews and then over that a carpet that you can toss if it gets nasty…that way the linoleum will save the floor and the carpet will be soft (well as soft as a carpet can be) – I used to buy an area rug – I think it was 6 x 11 at Walmart for $20.00 so I didn’t feel bad about tossing it and replacing it as needed.


              • ilovemybunnies
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                  Oh, and I just realized that it appears what I just posted and the question are 2 separate people-same person lol, I used the wrong email and couldn’t figure out how to delete anything, so I’d created another account meaning to ignore the first (mistaken) one. My log in info was apparently a little too similar though and not thinking I posted the question under the wrong user name…it’s Thursday, but right now it’s sure feeling like a Monday. Sorry!


                • ilovemybunnies
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                    Posted By Sarita on 9/11/2014 10:57 AM
                    They don’t necessarily have to have a bare floor but removing the bedding is highly recommended – it’s hard to clean and not cost effective anyway.

                    You could place some grass mats down if you like or a towel (if they don’t pee on it). They can just use one litter box too once they get trained which would be ideal for you as well.

                    I think eventually just using the x-pen would be easier for you if you can do that – easy to clean and easy to manage.

                    When you say grass mats are they the same sort of things PetSmart sells? I’m terrible at dimensions and I’ve seen the ones online, but can’t figure out how large they are…I bought a remnant rug for $2 that has finished edges and non skid back so I’ll see if that works. It’s not bigger than a bath mat, but if it’s going in a 4′ space, I guess bigger wouldn’t really matter…


                  • Flopsie
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                      have you bunnies been spayed? I’m asking because if they have its easier to litter train them. Speaking from personal experience i had no luck training them to use the litter box until after her spay.

                      Before that I had used bedding. At first I thought the bedding would be soft and nice, but as it turns out my bun doesn’t care for the bedding, she likes to lay on the plastic cage bottom instead. But I did find the bedding useful because she would go in the corners, the bedding would soak it up and I would just scoop it out. The bedding was good in that it binded the wetness of the urine together in a lump and I could scoop and dump. SO I guess my question is were they urinating all over the place or just in the corner? DId they then make a mess of the urinated bedding?


                    • ilovemybunnies
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                        Hi, they haven’t been spayed…my youngest just turned 8 weeks this past Monday. I want to get them fixed, but ideally when the youngest is closer to 6 months. I’d rather take them both in together. I know people will say they’re not bonded because they’re still young or they’re not fixed, but I had read so much on introducing 2 rabbits and was sooo scared, but they were in the same cage that night. They’ve never once fought or even acted angry with each other so if they can stay like that awhile longer then I can get them both fixed at the same time and won’t risk them possibly changing their minds about each other if they’re separated.
                        My Mini Rex uses the bathroom in one corner of the cage-however she loves pooping on my bed if she can get up there and the baby just kind of poops everywhere. I think she’d eventually follow suit with my Rex though…


                      • Flopsie
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                          i think spaying is going to help a lot. My bun, would poop everywhere pre-spay. I’m talking like literally, she would be running around and litterally pooping. Like not stop and poop but poop falling out as she ran around the house. To me this was bizzare

                          but now that i have her spayed, she has yet to do that. I haven’t seen it at all. She’s like 99% litter trained. I find maybe one or two stray poops outside the box now, but never again have i witnessed the “run and poop” method again.


                        • ilovemybunnies
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                            Yeah, I’m going to clean their cage tm and try to start litter box traning. Their x pen should be here next week…my mini rex, Sam, is def a poop and run type. I’ve been trying to keep her off the bed, because I do think that’s a bit much, but she’s sneaky and as soon as I turn my back she’s on the bed and has pooped all over the place. She’s little, I don’t understand where all this poop constantly comes from lol. I hope when she is spayed this stops, but that will still be several months from now, so I guess I’ll just have to be extra vigilant with the litter box training, either that or I need to buy a fence to put around the bed.


                          • litheandgraphic
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                              Plus, spaying is a good idea because it will greatly reduce their chances of developing reproductive cancers. But they won’t be ready for spaying until they reach 5-6 months.


                            • ilovemybunnies
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                                UPDATE: I checked and the x pen I ordered is supposed to be here tm. I went ahead and cleaned the bedding out from Sam & Cat’s cage and decided to switch their big cage with the guinea pig’s smaller cage since they’ll have more room with the x pen (I’m just going to leave their cage door open all the time to the pen). I was worried about them not having lots of fluffy bedding to wallow in, but they don’t even care. They lay on the bare floor, but mostly in their litter box in the cage which I put bedding in and hay and good news (!) bc they’re only pooping in the litter box, not the bare floor of the cage! However, I’m still having to chase Sam from the actual bed bc she still is a pooping machine as soon as her feet hit that comforter lol. Oh well, small steps, right?

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                            Forum DIET & CARE Confused about caging arrangement…