inside bunnies

we have a litter here in the house that is a trifle smelly! (hey if the old farmer can smell it its a bit more than a trifle! :x ) whats worked for keeping Oder down for you? the barn buns are all pretty much odorless! not sure if its the hay bedding or the grain feed! (inside buns are on pellets! :evil: )

I use peat moss to soak up the urine in trays. works well. also kitty litter.

bedding with hay in a cage is a good way to go, too.

also, you can add baking soda to the droppings tray or the litter box. works great.

how are you keeping them?
in a wire cage? a plastic cage?

how many are there?

I find urine is what smells - and regular cleaning can really help - but rinsing whatever they pee in is important ...
my guys get a plain box (of various dimensions and sizes but many are short cat litter boxes) they have a little shavings on the bottom then dried grass on top - they get dumped (or the pee corner gets scraped out) the dry bedding is set aside then the box is rinsed and set to dry - a second bix goes in with the dry material

not sure what I'll do once I run out of grasses though

When you rinse the litter box, try a splash of white vinegar to neutralize the odours. I found it helpful when I had rabbits in the porch one winter. Peat moss in the bottom of the box is also excellent. Wood pellets may also work well... stove pellets, horse bedding pellets, cat litter pellets.

Horse stable bedding.

Can't say enough about using horse stable bedding (or wood stove pellets) in the house.

we used to winter our guinea pigs in the house over the winter, and using the pellets kept the smell down to cleaning every three days. YES!!! every three days.

With rabbits and their ability to use a litter box...should definitely do the trick for you.

Like Ladysown, I use woodstove pellets. They're cheap, they're easy to use and it's a no-brainer to know when to change them.

Marian

I'd also suggest the pine pellets. I switched one of my cat litterboxes to this and I'm amazed at the total lack of smell and I know this box gets used daily. I have it sitting right next to my washer and it does not smell, even right after it is used. I have two more in the basement the other cats use (regular litter) and those two smell like one would expect, the one with pine pellets has no smell. I prefer tossing the pine pellets in the compost over the other stuff too.

Cathy

Yucca schidigera, try to feed a food with this in it. Years ago I used to keep Flemish Giants down in my basement, man did they stink. The Purina show formula stated that it had yucca shig in it and cut it down on the urine smell. Switched foods and hotdog, it actually worked!! Seriously Flemish Giants are so much stinkier than other rabbits, and pee a lot more too, it was a noticeable difference after a few weeks.

Martins Little Friends has the yucca in and it works! Stall dri in the bedding/pee corner works too. Or Stall Dri and the stove pellets! You can get Martins in pet shops or sometimes the "pet" area of a feed store.

So if you're keeping the droppings for a summer garden, is there an easy way to separate them? A screen or something?

You don't need to separate them at all. I put everything in the garden including hay and what fur falls in the pans as well. If you use the stove pellets they break up when wet to a fine sawdust. The regular shavings take longer to break down but look like regular mulch in the meantime. They actually disguise the poop part quite well!

well what i do for my iside bunnys i put baking soda mixed with sadust shavings not cheder shaving and put it in a rabbit litter box

I swear by Stall Dry (Or Stable Buddy) in the trays or litter box and yucca works wonders, you can put a little yucca extract in the water (make sure it is real yucca though).

Hi. Good points.But I'm having issues with the actual litter training. My son just got a new (7 1/2 wk old holland lop). We want to keep him inside, so he's in a 2.5 X 3.5 cage with a plastic bottom. We plan to attach some sort of exercise pen once he gets a bit older and gets this litter training thing down pat. We were told to put newspaper down in the entire cage and let him 'pick' his corner to do his business in. We have had him a week and he uses the whole cage to pee and poop. So we 'picked' the corner for him and put the litter tray there. Then we removed the newspaper from the rest of the cage and just put some of the dirty newspaper in the litter tray. He now seems to sleep and lay in the litter tray and pees everywhere else, and poops in the litter tray and the rest of the cage. Not sure if I'm overly optimistic that it should be going a little better than this, or what I should do to help him. Its just not nice since the pee is in the plastic cage, he ends up with pee all over his feet and bottom. Any ideas?? I think he likes that its comfier in the litter tray, but I'm afraid if I put shavings or newspaper down in the cage it will be even more confusing??<br /><br />__________ Tue Oct 12, 2010 10:23 am __________<br /><br />Hi. Good points.But I'm having issues with the actual litter training. My son just got a new (7 1/2 wk old holland lop). We want to keep him inside, so he's in a 2.5 X 3.5 cage with a plastic bottom. We plan to attach some sort of exercise pen once he gets a bit older and gets this litter training thing down pat. We were told to put newspaper down in the entire cage and let him 'pick' his corner to do his business in. We have had him a week and he uses the whole cage to pee and poop. So we 'picked' the corner for him and put the litter tray there. Then we removed the newspaper from the rest of the cage and just put some of the dirty newspaper in the litter tray. He now seems to sleep and lay in the litter tray and pees everywhere else, and poops in the litter tray and the rest of the cage. Not sure if I'm overly optimistic that it should be going a little better than this, or what I should do to help him. Its just not nice since the pee is in the plastic cage, he ends up with pee all over his feet and bottom. Any ideas?? I think he likes that its comfier in the litter tray, but I'm afraid if I put shavings or newspaper down in the cage it will be even more confusing??

I share your frustrations, I have a flemish and a meat mutt romping in my laundry room... they won't pick one spot, they have many... I have hay, shavings and peat in a few boxes, and the flemish uses them, but the meat mutt uses the linoleum more than half the time. I was told to add a little apple cider vinegar to the water to change the smell of the urine, and it's not as bad as it was. I spot clean every Wed, and sanitize every weekend.
Try adding a second litter box for the peatmoss, my buns really like having one box to just lay in.

Dealing with a house bunny can be tricky. I havent had too much struggle with the smell but I clean after him constantly- so maybe my vigilance helps a bit (also I only have one bun). I use an indoor/outdoor cage on rollers during my Elops "down times" (overnight, afternoon naps, etc...) and the rest of the time he is out & about (either in my home or on the enclosed back porch). When the weather is nice and its a "downtime" (when Pie is in his cage) I can easily roll my cage outdoors so he can some fresh air (He completely loves it and plops down in seconds to rest).
With potty training Ive been pretty lucky this time, but not all rabbits train the same. My Elop is a quick study and relatively easy to condition. He had decided the first couple days I had him and let him run around which "corner" he wanted. It then just became a matter of redirecting him back to that spot for a few days & giving praise (I have found that rabbits respond well to positive reinforcement). He only ever chooses to urinate in one place only so I never have to worry that he would pee anywhere else, I just had to make sure that he also drops all his "cocoa-puffs" in that same place. When needed, I immediately clean up strays that he may drop here or there so as not encourage him to leave more behind in that spot. It has worked very well so far and "accidents" are few.