Get Rid of Bunny Smell

[makennap]

I keep both of my rabbits in my bedroom. I still live with my parents and the bunnies aren’t allowed in any rooms except my bedroom, so the smell is contained in there. They have 3 litterboxes, one in each cage and one on my floor for playtime. I clean them every day, with vinegar and hot water. I also clean out the cages every day and use Nature’s Miracle Cage Odor Eliminator. I have a box fan in my window, facing out, to help blow the smell out and circulate fresh air in my room. But I still can’t get rid of the smell. I also have a cat, and his litterbox is in my bedroom. That is also cleaned every day. I’m looking for bunny-safe ways to make the smell go away. I’m afraid to try any air fresheners or candles, no matter how “pet safe” they claim to be. I have a female mini calico rex and a male lionhead. Neither are fixed (they are kept separated and let out one at a time). I’m sure a lot of the smell is from their urine because they aren’t fixed yet. I’ve tried pretty much every bunny-safe method I could find and nothing works.

[tobyluv]

You didn’t mention how old your rabbits are. Are you planning to get them spayed and neutered? You are going to be faced with stronger odors until that has been done. You’re already cleaning out the litter boxes and cages every day, so there isn’t much more cleaning that you could do. You could get an electronic air cleaner, (not the ionizer kind, which are bad for rabbits) but that’s not really a good solution and that’s one more cord you would have to protect.

It’s also very chancy having both rabbits in the room when they haven’t been spayed or neutered. All it takes is a few seconds of them getting together, if a cage door wasn’t properly latched when one is running around. Rabbits have been known to mate through cage bars, so if their bodies were together, even through the bars, your female could get pregnant. And rabbits frequently will bite noses or ears through cage bars if they haven’t been altered and bonded. You don’t want to be faced with pregnancy or injuries, plus there is a big cancer risk for unspayed females.

[Mikey]

Neutered and spayed rabbits dont leave that gross smell. The gross smell is hormones. Getting them fixed will definitely remove a lot of the smell. And as Tobyluv said, rabbits can get pregnant through the bars of their cages. Its best not to let them close to one another at all until they are fixed

[flemishwhite]

As others have recommended, you definitely should get at least one bunny neutered. My experience would be to neuter both. They become better pets when neutered. Keep in mind, that female rabbits have a 90+% probability of getting uterine cancer by the age of 5, neutering is needed for long life and to avoid an uncomfortable death.

About the smell. If you clean the litter boxes daily, like we do, there should be no urine odor. I’d be suspicious that they have urine marked in your bedroom. Even if the bunnies have excellent litter box behaviors, they can’t resist leaving a urine marker on the floor here and there. If your bedroom is carpeted, you might not even notice. When they urine mark, it’s usually something like a couple of tablespoons, so it’s not much urine, but it will smell when it rots. Their tendency to urine mark is greatly reduced by neutering them.

[Theodorusrex]

What litter are you using? Does it have odour limiting properties? I think the wood shaving bedding gives off an unpleasant smell.

[shaziaaa]

My rabbit lives in my bedroom also and I had noticed an unpleasant smell that lingered no matter how often I cleaned his litter! The smell went away a few weeks after I got Beans neutered, so I too would suggest getting your fur babes ‘fixed’.

I also switched from Carefresh to newspaper pellets in his litter which has helped tremendously with keeping the urine smell 100% under control!

[flemishwhite]

My opinion is that you should line the litter box with a grass hay.  Bunnies like to chomp on it and it wears down their teeth.  I buy oat hay.  Even though in a large metropolitan area, fortunately there’s a nearby area with large lot sizes zoned for horses. For two big rabbits…big bladders!..we go through about three bags of oat hay a week.  Each bag is $5.00.  I now have found out that a bale of hay has about 17 bags in it and a 100 pound bale of hay is just a little over $20.  Going to have to look into buy a bale at a time.  The bunnies really love to chomp on the oat hay.   The oat hay has oat kernels in it, so that’s a real treat for the bunnies. 

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