Best thing for litter boxes

[WeloveWalley]

We've had our wonderful mini-rex Walley for alittle over a year and just discovered Yesterday's News litter for herbox. We had been using hay in her box, but it was messy and somewhatexpensive. We finally decided to try the recycled newspaper litter forcats because we knew it was safe for bunnies. Well, it's wonderful!We got a pooper-scooper and scoop out all of the old stuffeveryday and replace it with new stuff. Once a week we clean out thewhole cage. She loves it and her feet don't get all yucky from steppingin her urine.

Just wanted to share our good experience with Yesterday's News so maybe we can help someone else out!

Deanna

 

[Carolyn]

Welcome WeLoveWalley!

I also like Yesterday's News. I think it's a greatproduct. It's a bit pricey though, which is why Iswitched over to a litter called Woody Pet. I purchaseit from TSC (Tractor Supply Company). I can purchase a 30 lb.bag of Woody Pet for $4.99 whereas a 20 lb. bag ofYesterday's News is $15. I'm beginning to think myrabbit uses the litterbox more with Yesterday's News though, soI'm thinking that I may have to use it in mylitterboxes. Think I'll try it and see how it goes.

-Carolyn

 

[RaspberrySwirl]

Glad you allbrought this topic up as I was just about to post and ask aboutit. I've read in a few places that some brands of wood stovepellets are a good option if not treated with any chemicals and such.It would make sense to me that they wouldn't be expensive sense youburn them, but who knows. The product I use now serves NO odor purpose(aspen shavings) as I only used it to get the training process begunand am now ready to make a switch to something more economical and odorcontrolling. I did go to Tractor supply and they looked at melikeI had three heads when I asked for woody pet.It's quite a haul from here so would want to make sure before I takeoff for there again. Anyhow, any feedback on the wood stovepellets?

 

[LittleMija]

My bunnies are house bunnies. My litterbox iskinda different. My bunnies dont live in cages so i had to make themsome 1/2 decent toilets.

Its basically a food serving tray with a3 inch depth. The edges are rounded not square and its a bit flexible.

Inside the tray goes the following....

A layer of garbage bag, then baking soda then shredded newspaper

I bought a later of plastic grid from home depot here and cut it in the shape of the tray .

I place the grid inside the tray and it only sinks in about and inchbecause the top of the tray is wider than the bottem. There is still 2inches between the grid and the floor of the tray.

When they bunnies peepee it goes through the grid into the tray and away from their bummies, so my girls never get dirty.

Cleaning is very easy, you remove the tray, rinse and clean it. Pick upthe garbage bag by each corner and you have a little pouch of waste andyou put it in the garbage.

Training them was not that hard because it wasnt always like this. Theyoriginally didnt have the grids so it was just a normallitterbox with yesterdays news. I added the grid after they weretrained and they had no problem with it

For training new bunnies... definatly yesterdays news

 

[Buck Jones]

Raspberry,

Used wood stove pellets prior to converting to Woody Pet ProfessionalAnimal Bedding. They were less expensive for a greaterquantity, but I didn't find them as efficient. The stovepellets would absorb the urine and remainadamp,soft, spongelike consistency until discarded.The Woody Pet granules, on the other hand, absorbed urine and if notimmediately attended too, would disintegrate into a heavy, dustless,powderlike consistency that contained no dampness, nor odor.It is more expensive though, at $4.99 per 30lb bag, as opposed to $3.99for a 40lb bag of wood stove pellets.

In either case, I do not throw out the entire litter box contents eachday. I just remove the "used" portion with an 8 oz measuringscoop and replenish. That process was much easier with WoodyPet, in my estimation.

Woody Pet brags about baking out all hrdrocarbons from their product,thereby making it safe. I don't know what processes stovepellets go through, but unless they were cedar based I cannot imaginethey would present a major problem.

You must have dealt with substandard employees at TSC or not madeyourself clear when requesting Woody Pet Professional AnimalBedding. It is primarily used as a bedding inhorses' stalls and is often sold by the pallet load to equestriantypes. Its TSC item number is 50-27120.

It is sold through retailers other than Tractor SupplyCompany. Accesshttp://www.woodypet.com/about.htmltoquery for retailers in your locale and for more comprehensiveinformation on the product.

Buck

 

[RaspberrySwirl]

Buck, from what Igathered from your info I should be able to dump the woody pet rightinto my compost pile like I have been the aspen shavings?

That price sounds good to me! Ithink I've been paying nearly that for a little 5lb bag if aspenshavings at Wal-Mart. I will go to Tractor Supply again thisafternoon. Mayhap I should mention that Buck sent me!

 

[trixiesowner]

I'm glad it's working!
For awhile while we were training Trixie to use the litter box we hadthis rabbit litter that made the rabbit want to go in it. Once shelearned it wasn't really great so now we use kitty litter

 

[Buck Jones]

RaspberrySwirl wrote:

Buck, from what I gatheredfrom your info I should be able to dump the woody pet right into mycompost pile like I have been the aspen shavings?

That price sounds good to me! Ithink I've been paying nearly that for a little 5lb bag if aspenshavings at Wal-Mart. I will go to Tractor Supply again thisafternoon. Mayhap I should mention that Buck sent me!

Is biodegradable. Mention my name, and give them $4.99...should get you a bag of Woody Pet. LOL

You might want to call TSC first, though, as Carolyn finds her localoutlet sells out of it quickly to the horsey set up there inConnecticut.

Querying Woody Pet might find a muchcloserretailer. It did for me, as I had totravel out ofstate to find a Tractor Supply Companyoutlet.

Buck

 

[free_woodypet]

i'm giving away some woody pet for free!
see the details in my topic:

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=7258&forum_id=1

 

[erin]

i herd that cat litter is good to?

 

[CorkysMom]

I've been using Woody Pet and love it...Theyaren't pooping in the box all the time yet, but are so for urine...andthe boxes were in bad need of a change but hubby hadn't cut doors onthe bottom til today....and even as bad as the one needed it I couldn'tsmell it when I walked in the room...had to get right down at the boxlevel in order to smell it...I have to drive 25 miles each way to getit..**sigh** but now that I've tried it and like it, I'll drive thereand get several bags every few months...its very worth it to not smellanything when I walk into their room!

Thanks to the folks here for telling me about it!

 

[Buck Jones]

erin wrote:

i herd that cat litter is good to?

Well, it can be. We find WoodyPet hard to beat. If you use cat litter, be sure to use a non-clumping type.Rabbits have been know to eat their litter, which can be fatal if it is of the clumping type.

Buck

 

[Alice]

erin wrote:

i herd that cat litter is good to?

It really depends on the type of cat litter. Regular orclumping clay litter is just awful (for small animals in particular,though some of us won't even use it w/ our cats). I'mcurrently using "Swheat Scoop" wheat-based cat litter for our many,many cats, which works well for the cats... but Meat Bunny ismore interested in eating it than pooping in it. A little bitof wheat isn't going to harm her, but compulsively consuming used catlitter would probably be a problem... hence one of the reasons why Meatis not allowed unsupervised access to the parts of the house where thecats frequent. ;P

There's a popular brand of pelleted pine cat litter that's very similarto Woody Pet called "Feline Pine". I've seen it here atPetsMart, Wal-Mart, & several different grocery stores, so Iimagine it's pretty easy to locate wherever you are in NorthAmerica. Petsmart also has their own "Exquisicat"brand of pelleted pine litter, which is cheaper than Feline Pine, butmore expensive than Woody Pet & similar products.Back when I was using pelleted pine litter in my cat boxes, I mustadmit that Feline Pine controlled odor better than the PetsMart brandor the local feed store knock-off of Feline Pine.Still, the non Feline Pine brands still absorbed a lot of moisture& odor, & if I'd been caring for more than 3 cats andone ferret at the time, I'm sure I would have chosen the horse beddingsold for less than $5 per 40 lbs. ;}

Nowadays, I use Swheat Scoop in the cat boxes &thelocal off-brand pelleted pine horse beddding for the ferrets.I've tried both of the above, as well as Care Fresh for MeatBunny's litter box... and I must say that the easiest & mostcost-effective solution Meat & I have come up with is severallayers of newspaper covered with hay. I get the cheap localhay for less than $5 for a 50 lbbale, & thenewspapers are mostly supplied by friends & family who are donereading them.... I'm all about practically free litter box filler.