Litter trays - do any of you not use them?

And if not ........ what are your bunnies toilet arrangements?

I'm asking because I've noticed that Hollie and Rascal eat much more hay if I just heap it all over the floor rather than use a hay rack. This way I can also sprinkle herbs, readigrass etc in/on it and they can forage for it.

It just seems to be a bit more natural for them and they seem to enjoy it more.

Thing is, whenever I do this their natural instinct is to abandon the litter tray and just poop/pee with gay abandon.

Do you think this is ok? I mean, if I remove their litter tray altogether and they just 'go' all over the place, is this in any way going to harm their health? Is it even hygienic?

They're on paving so I was thinking of heaping the hay on day 1 with herbs etc etc mixed in, topping it up with more hay and herbs etc the next day, cleaning the whole lot out and starting again the day after (so completely cleaning it out every other day)..... I couldn't really hose it down but I could sweep and spray with vinegar before starting again? Do you thins this is a good idea? Or would the hay need changing every day?

A bit like this
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Tia x

I just have a really big litter tray with the hay in and they generally eat/poop etc in it
This sort of thing
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garland-Jumbo-Gravel-Tray-Black/dp/B000TAOYTE
So they can forage and eat naturally but it's also their toilet

They also have hay in their hutch but do not poop there ever
And grass
But I clean the tray daily if I can or every other day if not ad it has newspaper and 2-3 types of hay and some dried forage

Hiya

Thanks for your reply .......that's a really good sized litter tray! The one I currently have is a bit bigger than average under bed storage box (cleaned daily), when they're both in it there isn't much space for foraging etc.

I did the hay all over the floor thing over winter to keep their little feetsies warm and they seemed to like having the space to forage around the whole run.

Mine too have hay in the hutch area but never poop or pee there .... when Dizzi and Rascal were together they were really well litter trained but since Dizzi passed on and Hollie came to stay ..... it seems to be a bit of a free for all as far as the run is concerned! lol x

Mine are indoor buns and freerange but we have a cage which is basically their litter tray and where we keep their hay. They only poo in that.

I love your bunnies set up by the way. I have indoor buns but i totally agree its really nice to have them rooting round in the hay for all those healthy morsels. It sounds like you're letting yourself in for lots of cleaning. I'd go for it. Maybe try a bit of old wee & poo in a small litter box just in case they decide to at least wee in there. i'd check the poop / wee situation & clean them out according to need. The one issue I can think off is if there is nothing absorbent is there a risk of them lying in wee? They sound very lucky rabbits

joey&boo said:

I love your bunnies set up by the way. I have indoor buns but i totally agree its really nice to have them rooting round in the hay for all those healthy morsels. It sounds like you're letting yourself in for lots of cleaning. I'd go for it. Maybe try a bit of old wee & poo in a small litter box just in case they decide to at least wee in there. i'd check the poop / wee situation & clean them out according to need. The one issue I can think off is if there is nothing absorbent is there a risk of them lying in wee? They sound very lucky rabbits

Click to expand...

Thanks, it's changed a little since that piccie, we've added more levels and ramps for them (must get a new piccie), they love bombing round.

Yes good point re needing something absorbent. When I did it in winter I put newspaper down underneath the hay....maybe I could try that again ......I used to use megazorb in their litter trays but they started eating it so I just use newspaper now.

At the moment they seem to still pee in the litter tray (but poop all over the run) .....but as soon as there is hay all over the floor they just pee wherever they fancy! (blessss) lol x

My indoor bun has an indoor rabbit cage base as his, well, base, with a corner litter tray within that. I then heap hay in the rest of the cage with a puppy training pad underneath to absorb wee.

But I know that wouldn't work for everyone - I'm aware im very lucky that he's shown no interest in the puppy pad!!

Poppy is an indoor bunny and she is litter trained, she has a small sized cat litter box which i put some wood pellets (to soak up the wee) and hay in. She eats a lot of hay whilst doing her business in her tray and i clean it out properly every day.
I tried a hay rack in her cage (always open) but she didn't like it much. So now she gets hay all over her cage floor on top of her sawdust. Also makes it easier to sprinkle herbs/alfalfa/redigrass through it daily to encourage her to forage more. She eats a lot more hay this way; lots of golden poos!