Kits sit in their pee... How do you handle it?

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Petlover500

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So the kits I currently have just sit in their pee.... is this normal?
Their feet get soaked and some of them are starting to form red sores. For the last 3 days I have been trying to clean the cage almost every 45 minuets to 1 hour so its less likely for them to sit in it. I have a nest box with hay in it for them to go into, as well as a small litter box that they like to sit in, which has hay in it too. It absorbs some of the pee, but they also go just on the cage floor and sit in it there.
I have also been drying off their feet with paper towel so they hopefully wont get anymore sores.

Do your kits do this? What do you do to help them?
I would love some suggestions... because I really don't know what to do other than clean their cage every hour.

:lilbunny: Pl500
 
Rabbit Behavior 101.

Another situation where you have to understand how they act in the wild ..... The kits aren't going to leave the nest so the waste has to go. In the wild the dirt below will soak up the small amounts of urine they produce , you have to mimic that in your nest box.

Most use wire bottom cages which allows the waste to fall away .... If you are using a hutch or cage with a solid floor that waste has nowhere to go.
 
Yeah, I don't really like wire bottom cages as they can cause bumble foot.
But the shavings should work... I will get some asap.
 
Petlover500":3ukf5byn said:
Yeah, I don't really like wire bottom cages as they can cause bumble foot.
But the shavings should work... I will get some asap.


Only a few breeds have that problem , usually heavier breeds , I raise Rex and they are notorious for sore hocks .... I provide them a resting board / pads to solve that issue. Never had a case in a breed that's well known for the problem.
 
Petlover500":1kr0vrqp said:
Yeah, I don't really like wire bottom cages as they can cause bumble foot.
But the shavings should work... I will get some asap.

Bumble foot is an issue with rats, guinea pigs, and probably most other rodents, because they have no foot fur to protect them from wire.

Sore hocks is what can happen with rabbits.

Some breeds of rabbits can develop the condition, with or without wire.

The velveteen lops for example (another rexed breed) sometimes have such thin foot fur that they can develop sore hocks on a solid surface.

I've read that especially heavy breeds, like Flemish Giants, can also have a problem with all wire cages.

Using good 14 gauge cage wire and providing resting boards can help prevent the condition with those breeds.

Breeders often try their best to select for more densely furred feet in rex coated rabbits too, which is probably why some breeder's blood lines are more prone to sore hocks than others.

The vast majority of rabbit breeds have absolutely no problem with their feet though, even if they spend their entire lives on wire.

There isn't anything wrong with solid surfaces either, so long as they are not slippery and are kept sanitary.
 
Another here with a large breed- New Zealands. My rabbits are all in wire cages, they all have a ceramic tile rest board, and never had a hock problem.

As a regular breeder, I can't imagine going through what you describe in your first post- way too much trouble.
 
Ah ok, I understand :)
But don't the bunnies get cold in the winter with wire bottom cages?
The cages I have are weather/winter proof, and I still have to wrap tarps around their cages in the winter to keep them warm. :campfire:
And also without any platforms, the wire doesn't seem very comfy to lay on... although if people are breeding for meat or are just a breeder with lots of rabbits, that probably isn't a concern for them much.
 
I provide warm boxes for my bunnies to go into, usually filled with straw so that they are not on wire.

On especially cold days I've been known to scatter straw all over the bottom and tops of their cages, and I wrap the entire rabbitry in plastic and tarps to keep the wind off.

They rarely ever seem cold though, and I've never ever lost a rabbit to cold after their eyes were open.

The biggest problem with winter is keeping them with unfrozen water.
 
Petlover500":27rk2t16 said:
But don't the bunnies get cold in the winter with wire bottom cages?

And also without any platforms, the wire doesn't seem very comfy to lay on... although if people are breeding for meat or are just a breeder with lots of rabbits, that probably isn't a concern for them much.

Hence the reason we have resting boards in our wire cages, so we don't have to clean urine up every 45 minutes. My buns enjoy the breeze coming up through the wire in the nice weather and when it gets a bit frosty, I'll lay straw on the wire. Straw lets the liquid filter out without absorption and still blocks the wind. I tarp my cages in the winter but the rabbits have fur coats and love to sit out in snow flurries and cold days. This is true of rabbits in solid or wire bottoms.
 
Well, where are you located?

Here in Virginia, we get pretty cold winters and the rabbits are fine. They handle cold a lot better than heat. When it gets really bad, I put up something to block the wind. There are members here from Canada with outside rabbits.

And I do raise meat rabbits, although I have been selling more than we eat, but I promise you that the well-being and comfort of my rabbits is very important to me. All of my rabbits have resting tiles-some use them, some don't.
 
Petlover500":z4006ygf said:
And also without any platforms, the wire doesn't seem very comfy to lay on... although if people are breeding for meat or are just a breeder with lots of rabbits, that probably isn't a concern for them much.

Pardon me, but I wouldn't say that. To raise rabbits successfully and just having a lot of them (any breed or goal) without running into problems needs you to understand what the animals need. That's an important point of husbandry - some pet people project human or other animals (dogs, cats) needs and preferences on rabbits, well, ok, it's the job of pet rabbits to endure that to some point, but beyond that deep inside it's still a ground dwelling prey animal with a very different mind set than the pet predators we are more familiar with. That's part of the fun in my opinion :).
But there also happen really bad things because people who have no understanding of animals think their opinion is the only right one, unfortunatly they often are the loudest on the net :? .

For me, as I think for most here on RT, it is a big concern to keep the Rabbits happy, relaxed and healthy. On the other hand I've seen some neglegted pet rabbits stowed away in small hutches at the back of the yard - there are black sheeps in every flock.

And you would be sometimes surprised what rabbits think is comfy :D
 

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Preitler":12dlw6wg said:
And you would be sometimes surprised what rabbits think is comfy :D

You're not kiddng!! I've found kits tucked into the darnedest places, cozy and sleeping, and none to pleased to be extricated from their comfy and cramped space.
 
Heat is by far a larger issue to deal with than cold...

As for what is or is not comfortable for rabbits... I had to take 2 NB kits to VA for a quick overnight stay. The kindling wasn't going well and I knew if I left them there was a good chance they would be killed (I found one of them all bruised up b/c the doe was still tossing around the nesting material and it was in the mix). Anyway, I had them both in a basket with a fuzzy washcloth for warmth (with a heating pad on standby if that wasn't enough). My mom freaked out. She was concerned about what they were going to eat, but I assured her that it was OK... they normally only get fed once or twice a day anyway, and there are times where it takes more than 24 hours for the doe's milk to come in. If I thought there were any issues at all I could mix up some formula with goat's milk to get them by. A little while later as she's getting a hot flash in their not-quite-80* house she tells me that I need to uncover them because they have to be too hot, she was dying. Ummm... no. I am not about to unwrap them. They are warm, they are cozy, they are sleeping peacefully. Trust me, they will let me know if there is something wrong!

And yes, these are meat rabbits. Just because they are livestock vs. pets, does not mean we don't care about or for our animals. Mine are well cared for. I have wire bottomed cages with tiles for resting and am getting ready to add in some buckets for another option. Again, they will let me know if they are uncomfortable. I check feet occasionally to make sure there are no issues arising.

I second either at least trying a wire bottomed cage (before completely knocking it) or adding something to the floor of what you have. You might have some long term issues from them sitting in their own excrement. Rabbits have GI systems that are constantly moving and are active even at night - eventually you are going to have to sleep. You can't keep up that schedule the entire time, that's just exhausting.
 
Wire and solid floors. I think there is a place for both.

Zass":3a384ozi said:
Petlover500":3a384ozi said:
Yeah, I don't really like wire bottom cages as they can cause bumble foot.
But the shavings should work... I will get some asap.

Bumble foot is an issue with rats, guinea pigs, and probably most other rodents, because they have no foot fur to protect them from wire.

Sore hocks is what can happen with rabbits.

Some breeds of rabbits can develop the condition, with or without wire.

The velveteen lops for example (another rexed breed) sometimes have such thin foot fur that they can develop sore hocks on a solid surface.

I've read that especially heavy breeds, like Flemish Giants, can also have a problem with all wire cages.

Using good 14 gauge cage wire and providing resting boards can help prevent the condition with those breeds.

Breeders often try their best to select for more densely furred feet in rex coated rabbits too, which is probably why some breeder's blood lines are more prone to sore hocks than others.

The vast majority of rabbit breeds have absolutely no problem with their feet though, even if they spend their entire lives on wire.

There isn't anything wrong with solid surfaces either, so long as they are not slippery and are kept sanitary.

I didn't know this until I joined rabbit talk a year ago. I do think there is a place for wooden floors, and I do believe without resting pads any rabbit is in danger of getting sore hocks. I purchased a HL buck from a rabbitry that had him in an all wire floor for a year, and did notice his "heels" were a bit bare.... :shock: Nothing serious though. He lives on my semi wooden surface floor now....

A complete solid wooden floor would be a nightmare for me. :x Unless the rabbits are litter box trained well, it is a disaster to keep clean. :| I have double deck hutches that I bought a thin sheet of wood to cover and cut each corner off, so they could go potty in the corners. They've all trained themselves good but I do take stick to sweep away the droppings down the holes and into the trays below once or twice a day. In the future (when I expand my rabbitry) I would like to change my set up to be able to keep it a bit more clean.

A few ideas I have for this are:
Cutting corners a bit larger I have in the rabbitry (still not the BEST set up)
Maybe having half wood, half wire cages, that way you could be sure of keeping them warm in the winter, but easier cleaning cages. Having a removable wood plank would be ideal! :p

EnglishSpot":3a384ozi said:
Petlover500":3a384ozi said:
But don't the bunnies get cold in the winter with wire bottom cages?

And also without any platforms, the wire doesn't seem very comfy to lay on... although if people are breeding for meat or are just a breeder with lots of rabbits, that probably isn't a concern for them much.

Hence the reason we have resting boards in our wire cages, so we don't have to clean urine up every 45 minutes. My buns enjoy the breeze coming up through the wire in the nice weather and when it gets a bit frosty, I'll lay straw on the wire.

I don't have the best access to straw, and only have room for one 2string bale of hay in my shed, so complete wire floor with resting pad (without a barn) isn't an option for me now. I am also quite the sanitary freak when it comes to hay (that absorbs pee well) and couldn't stand the thought of my buns walking around in pee soaked hay, so I would be changing it often, which would run up quite a bill on my hay expenses. (Buying one bale at a time around here isn't cheap)

I may consider wire with resting pads in the future, if I can move somewhere with space for a barn or large shed to put my rabbits.
 
I will have to try using a wire bottom cage for my kits (all my big rabbits are litter box trained) then when they are larger.... How do their feet and legs not get stuck in the wire?
 
Petlover500":10wpjzcv said:
I will have to try using a wire bottom cage for my kits (all my big rabbits are litter box trained) then when they are larger.... How do their feet and legs not get stuck in the wire?

When the kits are still small, I usually have them inside in a 2x2 with card board cut to fill the floor, and one corner cut out for them to go potty in. Of course not all the urine goes down the hole, so that's why I always have some extra cardboard on hand. :D
 
Petlover500":1p76cktc said:
I will have to try using a wire bottom cage for my kits (all my big rabbits are litter box trained) then when they are larger.... How do their feet and legs not get stuck in the wire?

Accidents have happened with feet getting caught in the wire, but for the most part the itty bitty ones will be in the nest box, then when it's time to start moving around more their feet are big enough to span the gaps... I haven't had any issues with any of the ones I have had (10 litters over the last 6 months or so).
 
Ok, cool!
Thanks :) <br /><br /> -- Wed Oct 28, 2015 12:30 pm -- <br /><br /> I just purchased some Sophresh natural shavings, and they seem to be working great :)
It also seems to be the same thing people use at fair for their animals, too :p :D
 

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