Litter advice and indoor housing

We're trying to litter train our bun, Freddy. Just wondering on a suitable litter - with my outside rabbits I use a layer of newspaper, wood shavings and straw but that's a bit messy for indoors though once he's trained he'll be using a covered litter tray (hopefully) so that should help keep the mess contained anyway - any suggestions?

Secondly, we don't want to keep him in any type of cage when we're not around. He has a room to himself and he can't come to any harm in there but I wonder what to use for a bed. Does anyone else do this and what ideas do you have for a bed? Of course, he'll just do as he pleases, but I'd rather provide something as the floor is tiled so seems like it would be a bit cold on his little body.

I use wood cat litter pellets available from Wilkinsons for our indoor litter trays but you can also use pulp based bedding such a megazorbe or carefresh.

My bunnies have a small fabric dog bed with a blanket in to sleep in but they also have a cage as I dont trust them when Im not home! They appreciate the cage though and like to have a base.

Lexie has had the door open all morning but has so fare spent 70% of the time in her cage (though she is not feeling too good today).

wood pellets is a really good litter, very absorbant with very little odur

try a hard plastic dog bed, it offers protection from draughts and is easy to clean. an old towel will work as a bed just make sure it dosent chew the plastic too much. if it does, get a chew stopping spray that is safe for rabbits.

Hi, P&H sell rabbit beds. Middy loves hers – she leapt into it immediately and has spent many hours sitting in it/sleeping. It is soft and has 'raised' sides, so she can snuggle in there. The bed is washable, too.

As for litter, we use the base of a cage and lay newspaper in it, with a sprinkling of paper-based cat litter. In this tray, we have her water bowl, a big bowl of hay and her mix/veg. So, it's all contained in there and stays tidy. I change it morning and evening.

Thanks everyone for the ideas - someone gave us a cat bed with raised sides - an igloo I think you'd call it but there's no room ot stretch out so wanted to h]give him an alternative.

Rabbit bed allows them to lie down and stretch – it's great. Middy sometimes lies half in, half out.

I bought a rabbit bed to see if any of the buns liked it. They do, however not as a bed but as a toilet! Typical :lol:

I use Hemcore on top of a layer of newspaper in my house bunnies litter trays.

They have a plastic dog bed for them to sleep in but they are large bunnies.

Mine have a cat bed house thing to sleep in. They love it but it's mostly destroyed now. I've learnt they like to make a back exit in things as well as a front one. :lol:

Lots to think about here. I saw a cat/dog basket with a cushion in it at PAH the other day, reduced. But it was made of wicker and although Freddy isn't a chewer I was put off by that. I'll take a look at what's available - thanks so much for all the replies - Freddy makes such a mess in his room, I have to get it a bit tidier or OH will start suggesting the little guy goes outside.

I use vetbed for my bunnies as fortunately neither have tried to eat it. I'm also considering getting a large untreated wicker dog basket for the two of them once they've been fixed.

I also use dust extracted wood shavings in their litter trays, but I'll be moving onto megazorb. I didn't like the wood pellets you get as I found they went all sandy when wet and stuck to the fur on their feet.

They appreciate the cage though and like to have a base.

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Muppet is the same - he has the whole room and has other preferred spots but his always-open cage is his base. It also minimises the mess that gets into the rest of the room: his litter tray is one end of his cage, so most of the litter that's on his feet drops off in the cage before he hops out into the room. He has vetbed in the rest of the cage, plenty of space for him to stretch out.

Mand5 said:

Secondly, we don't want to keep him in any type of cage when we're not around. He has a room to himself and he can't come to any harm in there but I wonder what to use for a bed. Does anyone else do this and what ideas do you have for a bed? Of course, he'll just do as he pleases, but I'd rather provide something as the floor is tiled so seems like it would be a bit cold on his little body.

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I use wood pellets too, but I found my baby bunny took a while to get used to them. I had to first cover them with wood shavings from the cage floor an slowly reduce the amount each time until he was used to standing/peeing on the pellets.

I also might remove the cage eventually and give my rabbit just the full run of the room, but I am keeping him in the cage over night at the moment (he does love to go back to it tho), as I found it helped to litter train bunny by increasing his space/freedom slowly as he got better and more used to using the tray.

I also saw the rabbit bet from P@H and intend to get one! At the moment he has an rectangular house made out of woven hay from there and would keep this for him if he doesn't need his cage (he loves modifying it and chewing it until he has it exactly his way!)