Effective Waste Management?

[Silver Cloud]

If doing stackables and have the right size cage these should work very well for you. http://www.bassequipment.com/Kennels/Pl ... fault.aspx Just a thought, then to bucket with holes drilled set inside another bucket for urine to collect in, or just to drain out on ground depending inside or out.

-- Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:28 pm --

Our shed setup and the exit for the drain. Great for collecting only the droppings.

 

[wamplercathy]

We use slant boards and a gutter system to collect waste.

We collect and compost all the waste (poop and hay). I find them easy to clean, less smelly, fewer flies, less mess for the dogs to run through. It works for us.

This is what we are planing on doing. Thinking about either wire mesh or just a few small holes in the gutter so the urine and bunny berries don't sit and stew together. I would think that the smell would be less if the 2 are kept separate. Also would keep me from bending over. Better for my back

 

[michaels4gardens]

We use slant boards and a gutter system to collect waste.

We collect and compost all the waste (poop and hay). I find them easy to clean, less smelly, fewer flies, less mess for the dogs to run through. It works for us.

That looks like a very nice clean system, good for you

-- Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:18 am --

I once had about 100 does in a building with a concrete floor, and a floor drain at one end, I had to hose the floor 2x/day,[ in the winter when the swamp coolers weren't running, to keep the ammonia down]-the poop etc. went into a tank and was pumped out to the gardens, - it was very clean, and- hosing down 2x /day was a lot of extra work. -now days I like to have them over dirt , outside, and clean up the manure when ever I need it in the gardens.

 

[Dood]

I've used clay kitty litter, baking soda, agricultural lime, caustic lime and horse stall de-odorizer in the bottom of trays with wood chips, pellets, and peat moss over top all have worked rather well for odour control

To clean out the trays I use a small metal dust pan to scoop it out and dump into bins and then out to the gardens or pastures.

 

[Marinea]

This is what we are planing on doing. Thinking about either wire mesh or just a few small holes in the gutter so the urine and bunny berries don't sit and stew together. I would think that the smell would be less if the 2 are kept separate. Also would keep me from bending over. Better for my back

Honestly, with the bits of hay that fall through as well, smell isn't really an issue. I do have to admit, though, that even with the expansion of our rabbitry to 10 holes, I still clean the slant boards and gutters daily. Well, until the last few days and our below zero temps. It takes maybe 10-15 minutes total, and the buckets go directly to either the compost bin or a garden bed.

 

[WhWRabbitry]

I can imagine the newspaper would be a nightmare to deal with. I assume you were using it in an attempt to protect the trays, but I think it is counterproductive since it would hold the moisture and cause more damage than urine that is allowed to evaporate or be absorbed by the pellets.

My "rabbit partner" uses trays, and she uses pine pellets.

You will need to adjust the amount of pellets used (and their distribution) according to if there is a single rabbit or a doe with a litter. The kits don't have the sense to use a designated potty corner, so the pellets need to be scattered all over the tray as opposed to in only one corner.

You can buy large bags of baking soda at warehouse stores like Costco and liberally sprinkle that in the trays. Food grade diatomaceous earth is also said to cut down on odor.

Thank you so much!!! I didn't really think about the newspaper being counterproductive but I see what you are saying! I will try what you have suggested.
I guess I wasn't sure how to get the waste out of such large trays and into something in a productive way. So, I thought being able to roll it up and then drop into a trash bag was the method. But then as I said that's not working well and I have more trash.

So I assume I would then just scoop out the used pellets to remove from the tray?

Just wanted to say thank you again. I've left out the newspaper the last week and just used pine wood shavings & some wood pellets and scooped & added new as needed. Definitely a quicker process and not so much trash!

 

[MatSuAK]

The best setup with pans that I have experienced used doggy potty pads. Like what you would do in a show carrier. Taped the edges of the potty pad to the pan with masking or painters tape. I purchased 4 rabbits and cages off of CL that used this setup indoors. I moved the rabbits to our mud room as I was conditioning them to move outside. I was amazed at the complete odor control. I didn't even clean the pens for 3 weeks!!! When I did clean them out I just pulled off the tape, folded the ends of the pad in to create a "bag" carried it outside and dumped the poo in my flower beds. Threw the urine soaked pad away. The trays stayed dry, and were in brand new condition. The pad soaks up liquid just like a diaper.
I really was amazed and if I ever have a house rabbit this is the way I would do it Don't think it would be practical with a large setup, unless of course your an odor control and neat freak lol.
Rabbits on wire bottoms obviously so they can't chew or ingest the potty pad.

 

[Susie570]

The potty pads sounds like a really good idea... not sure how you would keep them from chewing the pads though and still have the potty box. Maybe put a piece of wire grating over the pad? I'm not sure the buns would like that though. I've noticed that our 4wk old babies are already pooping in the litter box where mom likes to go.

 

[Easy Ears]

I realize this is an old thread but I couldn't help noticing the last few posts on potty pads for puppies. I am trying to find something to cut down on urine odor with my indoor bunny who is currently in my room. I don't know much about puppy potty pads but do they trap the urine smell well? Would it be a feasible idea to put the pads at the bottom of the litter box and put hay on top of it? Absorbent pine pellets would probably do just about the same and maybe cheaper though....am I wrong?

 

[ozemba]

Hey, Easy Ears, in my opinion, and I had two indoor, unaltered male rabbits... The only time I would notice a smell, other than hay and just the smell the rabbits have themselves (which isn't much) , was if I didn't clean out their wood pellet filled litter boxes on time.

Each had two, one in their crate and one in their "run". Percy had my whole bedroom and Tristan had a good chunk of the living room permanently his.

I think having two litter boxes each also helped cut down on the concentrated smell.

Feel free to try puppy pads but you'll find they are pretty expensive. It's honestly whatever you want to try. <br /><br /> -- Sat Dec 09, 2017 1:30 am -- <br /><br /> And to add; Tristan was an English lop mix so he was a big bunny. Percy was the Holland that is my avatar.

 

[guardianoasis]

Question about using pine shavings or pine pellets in your trays.

We were going to use the angled drop pans for our rabbits but due to the need to fit as many buns in a small barn as possible we voted to do trays instead. We intend on using the droppings for our garden but have found that once the pellets expand there tends to be more pellets than droppings and our compost pile is becoming a pile of shavings that seem to take forever to break down.

Does anyone have any suggestions in fixing this? Maybe a sifter? The pellets break down to a super fine wood but then what do you do with all the urine stained wood?

 

[Rainey]

I've never used the shavings or pellets you mention, but we have a sawmill and use sawdust in our trays and just put the whole mess directly onto garden beds or into compost bins. We also use aged sawdust as mulch or to add organic matter to soil--have 3 piles so one is being used, one is aging, and the third is where we put the new sawdust. Don't know if the woody materials you are using would work in the same way, whether they'd need to age. The problem with fresh sawdust is that it is low in nitrogen but when it's urine-soaked maybe it would be ok. I do know that since we started using more sawdust we've had fewer fungal diseases. And it lasts longer in the soil than much other compost material. Between the sawmill and the rabbits, we've really improved our soil
Guess you'd need to look on the packaging and see if there are any things you wouldn't want in your soil in the pellets you use.

 

[guardianoasis]

I've never used the shavings or pellets you mention, but we have a sawmill and use sawdust in our trays and just put the whole mess directly onto garden beds or into compost bins. We also use aged sawdust as mulch or to add organic matter to soil--have 3 piles so one is being used, one is aging, and the third is where we put the new sawdust. Don't know if the woody materials you are using would work in the same way, whether they'd need to age. The problem with fresh sawdust is that it is low in nitrogen but when it's urine-soaked maybe it would be ok. I do know that since we started using more sawdust we've had fewer fungal diseases. And it lasts longer in the soil than much other compost material. Between the sawmill and the rabbits, we've really improved our soil
Guess you'd need to look on the packaging and see if there are any things you wouldn't want in your soil in the pellets you use.

Lately we've not been using anything. Just emptying the trays into a wheel burrow and dumping it but man I can't do that anymore with the smell. I'll have to look into it because I have no idea what's in the pellets. They are just bagged pellets from the store. I just remember when we did it before the mounds of droppings were mostly sawdust and not so much poop. I will have to figure something out because at some point I'd like to compost it all and package it for resale. Can't do that really if it's like 3/4ths sawdust.

 

[Shea]

I've always wet my pellets first. Add a bowl full to a bucket and a half cup of water, wait 5 min. Then use as needed. The sawdust still absorbs a lot and any leftover pellets absorb the rest. This way you only would need a cupful or less per tray.
When bedding horse stalls we tend to use only half a bag per 10×10 stall, wet, let expand then distribute.

 

[guardianoasis]

I've always wet my pellets first. Add a bowl full to a bucket and a half cup of water, wait 5 min. Then use as needed. The sawdust still absorbs a lot and any leftover pellets absorb the rest. This way you only would need a cupful or less per tray.
When bedding horse stalls we tend to use only half a bag per 10×10 stall, wet, let expand then distribute.

With the horses we did that too, except we used a whole bag but I had boarders paying for it and was technically a training facility so.... anyway.

I will have to try this ratio of water to pellets in a bucket and see how far it gets me. I don't mind composting all the shavings but man it takes forever and if I'm going to sell bags of poo I don't want it to be mostly shavings.