Litter?
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I used to use aspen or paper from Petco when I kept my buns on bedding. The big bag of petco aspen doesn't really expand much in my experience, nothing like the kiln-dried pine from my local feed store has...
I was actually looking around for aspen deals earlier and so far I think Native Earth from Pet360 might be the cheapest, even including shipping, at least for me.. :/
edit; Plus this stuff is shredded, and I prefer the look and feel of shredded aspen compared to chips/flakes of it... http://www.pet360.com/product/9216/nati ... ed-bedding
I was actually looking around for aspen deals earlier and so far I think Native Earth from Pet360 might be the cheapest, even including shipping, at least for me.. :/
edit; Plus this stuff is shredded, and I prefer the look and feel of shredded aspen compared to chips/flakes of it... http://www.pet360.com/product/9216/nati ... ed-bedding
My house bunnies have compressed pine chips sold for horse bedding in their litter boxes and outdoor carpet on their floors
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I use a single layer of pine stall pellet bedding like Zass posted, and cover it with pine shavings. I think TSC calls them the "chip" size. The other size is almost sawdust.
The shavings help keep the dust of the pellets out of the fur, if the rabbit has contact with the bedding.
The shavings help keep the dust of the pellets out of the fur, if the rabbit has contact with the bedding.
The fumes can irritate the sinuses but the horse bedding I purchase has practically no odour and it doesn't smell like pine 
although I'm certain the rabbits can pick up the scent, I don't think it is strong enough to be an issue and the chips are only in a thin layer in their litter box not the whole cage.
IMHO litter boxes or trays with fumes from urine being converted to ammonia is 10 times worse for their respiratory tracts than pine shavings
although I'm certain the rabbits can pick up the scent, I don't think it is strong enough to be an issue and the chips are only in a thin layer in their litter box not the whole cage. IMHO litter boxes or trays with fumes from urine being converted to ammonia is 10 times worse for their respiratory tracts than pine shavings
The good/bad pine debate seems to be a lot like whether or not wire for rabbits is good or bad.
I was reading up on pine for rats a while ago. Kiln-dried pine, which is what most pine bedding is I think, is actually fairly safe because it's been baked and the moisture and harmful stuff evaporated out of it. However, it does seem that pine can affect the liver of rats just enough that they can't process medications correctly, and that seems to be the only real reason it's not used on lab rats and probably what got it deemed universally unfit. Rats have sensitive respiratory systems too and REALLY live down in the stuff, yet there are breeders who've used kiln-dried pine in their racks without RI issues for decades.
I was reading up on pine for rats a while ago. Kiln-dried pine, which is what most pine bedding is I think, is actually fairly safe because it's been baked and the moisture and harmful stuff evaporated out of it. However, it does seem that pine can affect the liver of rats just enough that they can't process medications correctly, and that seems to be the only real reason it's not used on lab rats and probably what got it deemed universally unfit. Rats have sensitive respiratory systems too and REALLY live down in the stuff, yet there are breeders who've used kiln-dried pine in their racks without RI issues for decades.
Susie570
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Zass":18vk2gld said:
I use the same stuff mixed with a n odorless recycled paper cat litter
Pelleted pine is extremely heated and compressed. It can absorb a ton of liquid. That gets rid of the toxic oils and keeps the cage floor a lot dryer. For horses you are even supposed to just mix the peed on stuff in with the still pelleted stuff until the whole stall is sawdust before cleaning any out. I've done the same with my big guinea pig cages. Doesn't have as much effect in individual sized rabbit cages and rabbits tend to poop more where they pee, while guinea pigs don't care and only some horses care, so often scooping out the pee spots means getting most of the poop.
