Floor for indoor cage & run

Hi there everyone :wave:

I know it’s a subject with loads of previous posts but i’d really appreciate some thoughts on our situation. We’ve just got two baby mini lops last weekend (13 & 17 weeks), the boy is already neutered.

The original plan was for them to be outdoor bunnies but at the last minute I got worried about the children not seeing them, them being outside & never getting used to us so I bought an indoor cage from the breeder. It’s a 150 cage with a deep base & for the last week while they’ve been settling in they’ve just been in the cage with a layer of sawdust & then a layer of straw. Plus plenty of hay scattered about as they don’t seem to like hay rack / balls etc!

We have a puppy play pen to attach to give them more room to run about but what would you recommend we put down in the playpen, non slip Lino? We’ve got slippy laminate floors & although they have 2* litter trays they are doing a lot of poos in the rest of the cage.

Second thing, sawdust is not very good for bunnies is it? The breeder recommended it but what would be the best alternative for the floor of their cage, they have wood pellets in their litter trays which they seem happy enough with.

Thanks so much for any advice / experience

For indoor bunnies you don’t really need a cage, most are very small I’m afraid, so they should never be shut in it. Some people use indoor cage bases as a litter tray. For areas that you don’t want them to use as a toilet I would just have non slip vynil. It’s easy to clean and if you sweep up stray poops and mop up wee that isn’t in the tray and neutralise with vinegar and water diluted 50/50 that should help. They are likely to wee on soft things and also any areas that are covered in hay, so I would keep hay to the litter trays.

Toilet training will probably be better once they’ve both been spayed and neutered for several weeks. Btw the boy will be fertile for several weeks after neutering :shock:

There are lots of photos in the indoor housing sticky :thumb:

Thanks Zoobec for the reply & the tip re the diluted vinegar. We tried to get some vinyl cut offs today but the shop was busy & the guy said to come back tomorrow.

No problem :wave:hope you manage to get some offcuts tomorrow :thumb:

Our bunny room has non-slip vinyl flooring, as it is easy to clean and sweep. We also have vet bed and blankets to make it cosier. It depends what your laminate is like, but some bunnies can walk fine on non-slip laminate, so you might not need anything outside of the cage.

Whilst litter-training it is usually best to keep things as simple as possible. For now I would use Lino/vinyl or newspaper on the base of the cage, avoid any blankets/vet bed for now, and keep all litter and hay strictly confined to the litter trays to prevent confusion. They don’t need straw. Any accidents clean up straight away with vinegar. What litter trays do you have? Corner, smaller or shallow ones can make proper litter training tricky as poops are easily kicked out and they can wee over the sides, larger and higher-sided trays like under bed storage boxes or the jumbo tray in the link below can help. http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/rimmed-cat-litter-tray-p4619--1

Unfortunately for you baby bunnies aren’t usually as good with litter training as adult neutered bunnies, but don’t worry they will get there with time. Some vets can neuter does as early as 4 months old, others prefer to wait till 6 months, so I’d ask what their policy is when you take them in for their vaccinations.