Cat Litter in Litter Box?

[TheFrenchHopper]

Hello everyone!

I have an idea and wanted to run it by others who are well versed in rabbits. I have three rabbits; two angoras and a french lop. All three are litter trained and for my litter boxes I use several large "under-the-bed" storage containers. There is a shallow layer of horse stall pellets in the bottom and then there is egg crate elevated about 3 inches above the litter so my buns do not come in contact with their feces/urine.

Could I use unscented, baking soda free clumping cat litter as my litter for their boxes? They never come in contact with the litter and cannot get the egg crate off as it is wedged in to tight for them to move it. When I clean litter boxes I remove the box from their kennel to clean so there would not be a risk of them inhaling any dust or fumes when I scoop their boxes.

I think having kitty litter in the bottom would make for much cleaner kennels as it would be much easier for me to scoop everything out every day than try to dump out a portion of the sullied pellets every few days.

What are peoples thoughts on this? Any reason I shouldn't try it?

Thank you!

 

[Blue eyes]

You have another option. Rather than using a grate over the wood pellets, just put hay on top. The hay will keep them from direct contact with urine-soaked bedding. Add fresh hay a couple times per day. This will keep them dry, keep the odor down in the wood pellets, and make clean up a breeze. You can just dump the whole box... no need to take the grate off and hose that off or clean it.

With the storage box I use, it will last one rabbit a full week (or more), and if 2 rabbits are sharing, it would get changed twice per week. Here's a visual:



If you are absolutely sure the clumping litter cannot be accessed, I suppose it would be ok to use. Just seems it would be considerably more work than just dumping the whole thing as per above.

 

[Niomi]

I use an egg crate louver, or florescent light cover over my boxes, which I am guessing is what your are using, to keep my rabbits from scattering the pellets. I like the stall pellets because the are biodegradable and I can dump them in between my plants in the garden to keep the weeds down. Clumping cat litter is not biodegradable, so I would have to dump it in the garbage, and it would end up in a landfill.

 

[Niomi]

If you want to just scoop part of the litter box, you need the right tools. Try using a small broom and dust pan.

 

[Butterscotch]

I do as Blue eyes suggested. I layer hay on top of the wood pellets and I only have to dump the litter box once a week, no scooping in between. There is absolutely zero odor however I only have one small dwarf rabbit using the box. I personally wouldn't risk using cat litter of any kind. There just isn't a reason to when the wood pellets work so well and are completely safe for rabbits. Just my opinion though.

 

[Niomi]

I like Blue eyes suggestion, but FrenchHop has angora rabbits, and I thought maybe hay sticks to their fur and causes a problem. But I have never had an angora so I don't really know.

 

[John Wick]

If you add a little bit of apple cider vinegar (like a few drops) in their water, it helps neutralize urine odor!

 

[Butterscotch]

I like Blue eyes suggestion, but FrenchHop has angora rabbits, and I thought maybe hay sticks to their fur and causes a problem. But I have never had an angora so I don't really know.

That's a good point! I hadn't thought of that.

 

[Blue eyes]

Yes. I don't know if hay sticking to fur is a problem with angoras. Never had an angora.