How can I make my bunny house more comfortable for Easter

Hi there,

I just joined the forum and I notice that some of you have carpets, towels, soft fabrics, a little basket ...as part of the "bedding". Now young Easter has sawdust in her a cage . I was wondering how I could make her bedding a bit more "comfortable". I'm not sure if fabric is ideal as she loves to destroye and wee on it should I leave any clothe near her. Now she is 2 and I'm not quite sure if at that age I could still "teach" her good manners.

Hello :wave:

If you litter train her first by putting a tray of sawdust in her favourite peeing corner. make sure it is only the tray that has sawdust in.. use straw or old towels/blankets etc in the other cage areas until she gets used to using the tray/learns that the toilet is the sawdust area..

She will pick up on this even at 2.. she is not old, let alone to old to learn we have took in 2 year old does and bucks and successfully litter trained them. We did neuter them so that may make it easier. Saying that we had them both in the house before neutering (not at the same time I add!) the doe was in the house for a week, and was naturally litter trained.. and had no accidents outside of the tray.. the entire buck had 3 weeks in the house and would drop the odd poop on the floor but always wee in his tray.. so it can be done

Put blankets in her cage once she has learned not to pee on the old towels etc... and put a puppy pud underneath so soaking up any accidents she might have when she first uses her blanket.

She will get the hang of it, but if her cage has sawdust all over the base at the moment she probably thinks it is one big litter tray!

Ours look for their tray.. if I move it for a minute or so.. they won't pee on the floor where the tray was but will find the tray and pee in it - knowing that the tray is for peeing not the corner it is in!

With chewing as long as it is small moth holes and not big chunks which she eats it is ok to have a little nibble and customise her blanket. She may improve knowing she has her own cloth to chew and lose interest in your clothes etc! Our free range buns don't chew pillows, curtains etc but will nibble their blankets! Hope this helps :wave:

Sorry for the long post :shock:

Hi

I would probably move away from using sawdust if I were you, I know lots of people on here use it but it is notorious for harbouring parasites and because it is dusty can cause respiratory problems. I line my shed with newspaper and give a nice layer of hay (which is good because it can be eaten) and/or a towel.

this is a good thread, may i ask a question on it, what would be best to put on the floor in the rest of the cage for them other than woodshavings?

thanks

katie240181 said:

this is a good thread, may i ask a question on it, what would be best to put on the floor in the rest of the cage for them other than woodshavings?

thanks

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Mine do ok with just newspaper lining but if yours are house bunnies (I don't think you have said) they may get sore hocks. Mine are fine as they spend most of their day on grass. Towels would be appropriate or vet bed or just line the whole thing with newspaper and hay. However, if you do line the whole cage with hay they may get confused and think they have a big litter tray so best litter train first so they know where to pee.

Ours live indoors. Winston has veruy sore feet and vet advised us to use carpet in cage (not that they are evr in it) easy cheap enough to get ask friends for left over bits etc.
Then we have potty in corner with wood chip in. I put little bed in the bed part for them but they dont bother with it.
www.hoppybunnyrabbit.com has pics

We have 4 house buns and 5 outside buns at the mo.. the outside buns have woodshavings.. changed several times a week in their trays.. as it is said the wood smell repels flies. We pop a thin layer of dixons chopped straw on the top of this. This has worked for us for 6 years. If it's not broke we tend not to fix it... They are in a 10ft play/wendy house with 6x6 run and the mesh door is open all day with fans on so the ventilation is good. They have lino on the play house floor, then blankets and straw nests to sleep on.. they drag the straw all over the place eventually, but I don't cover the floor myself as it tends to interfere with their good toilet habbits! Hay is in a wire hanging basket (minus the hanging chains) on the floor for them to munch and play with.. and hay racks are next to each litter tray for munching and pooing sessions :lol: they have a couple of kiddies plastic chairs to sit on too! (and I have just ordered a cat activity centre for them (70cm total height with several bunny sized ledges to admire the world from and a hidey cave at the bottom)

Inside we use cardboard squares in the trays.. as woodshavings is a nightmare for our fluffy buns fur! The house buns have blankets on the crate /pen floors, cushioned cat beds, an ikea footstool D), vet bed, rag rugs, and carpet tiles all dotted round to lie on/eat dinner on etc. Again their hay racks are next to the litter trays. We use puppy pads under rugs/blankets incase of any weeing accidents it protects the carpets/laminate! I suppose apart from the veggies/pellets/basket full of hay they live more like cats.

You can use Megazorb in the litter trays, cardboard squares, there are a couple of horsey supply beddings you can use too.. nedibed and I forget what the other one is.. as long as they are not treated with anything, there are plenty of options. Put newspaper near any of our buns and it ends up shredded to pieces and soaked with wee! :roll::lol: Yummy :lol:

thankssss

She is living in a cage outside. She is not neutered. I didn't do it for any of my rabbits :?. My first and second one were very clean, the third one would have occasionaly accidents and this one well she is not well behaved. We were actually thinking maybe to get some baby buns in the future but to be confirmed

I will start to buy one of those trays to put in her peeing corner. It will save me so much mess. Miss Easter loves to "re-arrange" her premises once I clean it and she pushes and shuffles the sawdust all around.

Linzi would love to see a picture of your ikea chairs for rabbits LOL

I line the whole hutch with paper then spread hay over it all. The "Litter" tray side has a large tray with paper and hay in - Smudge always uses that to wee in - but he will poop where he lies, as well as in the tray - can't be bothered to get up I guess. :lol:

There are lots of things you can do. Some people line their cages with lino others with paper, others with hay. If you line it with paper or lino a nice deep litter tray filled with hay put in the corner where they go to the toilet will provide a nice comfy place for them to sit, eat and 'empty out'.

You will need to experiment about what your buns like and what they will not destroy, some are happy with blankets, vet bet or towels others not.

I would definately advise to steer clear of the sawdust as it is not good for the health of any small animals due to the phenols it contains and also the small particles which can be inhaled.

Cornishlass said:

I line the whole hutch with paper then spread hay over it all. The "Litter" tray side has a large tray with paper and hay in - Smudge always uses that to wee in - but he will poop where he lies, as well as in the tray - can't be bothered to get up I guess. :lol:

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:lol: Easter is very similar. Sometimes she poos in her "toilet" corner and sometimes it's in her "eating" corner. Yuk

Now I've bought the litter and I've put it in her "toilet" corner. I'm not sure what to think, the litter made it all around her cage. She did one weewee in it and a couple of droppings and now it's all over the place. I always have to put it back. It's a pretty well sized plastic corner litter. Maybe I should find a way to "stick" it in her corner. It's probably a learing process for her too.

I've also found a piece of carpet which she seems to like. It hasn't been "destroyed" yet. I've added some straw and she seems to enjoy it.

I actually just bought a new bag of sawdust It is a special sawdust bag for animals. It's different then what I usually take. After reading the forum I've sure that there was less dust as possible then what I use to take. And she also seem to have "soft" dropping the first day it's cleaned and will think that this is due to the sawdust. I will look tonight what it's exactly so that I can have your feedback. This one has bigger pieces and way lesser dust.

I'm willing to replace the sawdust it but I'm still not sure what to get for her.

- paper will be destoyed and eaten. And with the ink of the paper I'm not sure that is "healthy"
- straw and hay will be eaten as wel. I don't really want an obese bunny LOL

Anything else I could put in?

Funfun said:

:lol: Easter is very similar. Sometimes she poos in her "toilet" corner and sometimes it's in her "eating" corner. Yuk

Now I've bought the litter and I've put it in her "toilet" corner. I'm not sure what to think, the litter made it all around her cage. She did one weewee in it and a couple of droppings and now it's all over the place. I always have to put it back. It's a pretty well sized plastic corner litter. Maybe I should find a way to "stick" it in her corner. It's probably a learing process for her too.

I've also found a piece of carpet which she seems to like. It hasn't been "destroyed" yet. I've added some straw and she seems to enjoy it.

I actually just bought a new bag of sawdust It is a special sawdust bag for animals. It's different then what I usually take. After reading the forum I've sure that there was less dust as possible then what I use to take. And she also seem to have "soft" dropping the first day it's cleaned and will think that this is due to the sawdust. I will look tonight what it's exactly so that I can have your feedback. This one has bigger pieces and way lesser dust.

I'm willing to replace the sawdust it but I'm still not sure what to get for her.

- paper will be destoyed and eaten. And with the ink of the paper I'm not sure that is "healthy"
- straw and hay will be eaten as wel. I don't really want an obese bunny LOL

Anything else I could put in?

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Hay; as bunnies diets should be 80% hay.. hay won't make your bunny obese

hum I'm wonder why my first bunny got so fat LOL. probably because I spoiled her too much.

Good to know . Thanks heaps

It's fine for them to eat the hay even if they poop on it. Smudge will only wee in his tray but will poop all over the place! I don't mind though as it's a lot easier to clean up than wee!

As Linzi says - Hay won't make them fat. Smudge has gained weight through my giving too much pellets - now I'm slowly cutting back - he'll have to eat hay/grass if he's hungry. :lol:

:lol: ahhhhh that's why my first one got soooo big. It was meant to be a dwarf rabbit but only her ears remaind "dwarf" size. I was 7 when I got her so you know. As a kind I gave my new best frien this and that, we shared bikkies, I overfeed her with vegies and apples and so one.

If you put newspaper/hay on the floor or Megazorb or whatever and a tray of hay for them to poo in - what would you use for them in their sleeping quarters?

I've been putting hay in mine and, well, it's been peed and pood on as much as everywhere else. :shock:

Hello hello

Just thought to give you an update in little miss Easter and her renovated house.

The litter saw the 4 corners of her cage, upside down and left and right but since 2 weeks it seems that she understands that the "toilet" needs to stay in the corner. She nibbled the carpet a little but it seems to "survive" for now. Finger crossed. I cut down on the sawdust and added straw instead.

The new sawdust that I have is Aspen sawdust it has no artificiel aromas.

Anybody heard about it?