Is using hay as litter a good/bad idea?

[Maddie Rae]

Recently I’ve noticed that Scamper has been eating his carefresh bedding. Not sure how long he’s done this but luckily I’ve watched him do it and he doesn’t eat it excessively but he will sit there and eat a good few pieces of it. Before anyone asks his poop has always been normal, firm and all that good stuff. But his poops are definitely smaller and darker than my bunny Millie who eats more hay than Scamper does. 

So I was wondering if for now taking away most if not all of the carefresh out of his box and replacing it all with hay was a bad idea? Any negative factors this could have or that anyone could think of? I’m sure once he notices what I’ve done he’ll make a huge spanking mess but I don’t mind if it’ll improve his eating habits. 

[Reeem]

I used to do that before i found good litter but there are two bad things about it. First off all youre wasting quite a bit of hay and second of all he’ll be eating the same hay that he peed and pooped on.

[Reeem]

Is the carefresh scented ??

[Maddie Rae]

Good points, they definitely make me consider finding a substitute litter instead that maybe isn’t as bad to eat a little as care fresh. (like a shredded paper based litter?)
and no I don’t believe it’s scented, it’s the white package but he would eat brown carefresh too as I’ve found :/

[Bam]

You could try Yesterday’s News or hardwood stove pellets (not sold in pet stores). And you can put some hay in the box or just outside it, so he can reach it, because they often like to munch while they do their business

[Reeem]

You could also get the mini bag of wood shavings and try that out.

[Maddie Rae]

bam – yes putting a little bin of hay outside of the litter box has proved very helpful for me! (aside from him flipping it over sometimes but buns do what buns do) I started putting hay in his litterbox to try and cover the carefresh so he’d eat the hay but he’d just dig and throw out all the hay resulting in a big ol mess !

And thank you both for the litter suggestions! I’d just like to have something that will either deter him from eating the litter and get him to munch on the hay while he goes instead, or something that I’d feel better about him eating just a little of. I know that carefresh expands and probably makes him full, which makes him eat less hay and = his really condensed and hard poopoos.

Does anyone recommend/not recommend using shredded paper?

[Reeem]

I would not recommend shredded newspaper cause buns eat that too and it doesn’t help with the odor.

[Maddie Rae]

Reem – my mom said the same exact thing when I brought it up. didn’t even think about the smell! thanks for the heads up (because he does stay in my room with me so that could be very bad!)

so what I tried today instead was using carefresh crinkles which we have for our pet cockatoo to play with. I put a small layer of carefresh then mostly the crinkles. he doesn’t seem to want to eat the crinkles (and even if he did I’d feel better about it because it’s just paper and doesn’t absorb liquid the way the regular carefresh does) and instead ate from the bin of hay next to his litterbox. so I think it’s safe to say I’ve found a solution!

[Gina.Jenny]

I use hay as litter, all the bunnies only go right in the corner, so i have one of those boxes as the bunny designated litter tray, which is well lined with newspaper, and when i clean that one out, I swap with the hay from one of the other boxes that are scattered around, that have maybe been used as loo once, leaving that box with fresh hay in. This means little hay gets wasted, the main litter tray still smells right to the bunnies, and they have plenty of dry clean hay if they prefer.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Going straight hay will STINK It does not absorb the fluid and will be pretty gross. I’d suggest doing something like yesterdays news or woods stove pellets -hay is fine in litter but not as the sole base

[Maddie Rae]

update — I also gave scamper oat hay which since I’ve gotten millie my second bunny I forgot he liked the variety, which might’ve encouraged him to forget the carefresh n eat more hay
so far haven’t had any odor problems with the crinkles!

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