Christiaan
Active Member
May I see pictures of everyone's litter boxes. Can you also put what you use inside. Just trying to get some ideas. Thank you in advance.
Litter boxes
- Thread starter Christiaan
- Start date
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I have three rabbits all housed separately and they each have a different litter box based on their behavior and size. The first picture is of Pepper's box. I used a dishpan and my husband made a wooden frame for it because she was always tipping it over. She has since chewed up the wood frame a bit though. In that picture I have CareFresh litter in the box, but I have since changed to horse stall pellets from Tractor Supply. Much cheaper! I put a little hay on top because they are a bit hard with some rough edges. Some people use the wood stove pellets, which are basically the same thing if you get pine pellets without accelerant added.
The second picture is of Fred's litter box. It's a plastic corner box. My other bunny Smokey has a similar but smaller one because he is my smallest bunny. Fred started to chew the plastic so I got him a small cat litter box from Walmart and had my husband build a frame for that too. It has worked out pretty well although he has managed to get to some of the corners of the plastic to chew a bit.
The second picture is of Fred's litter box. It's a plastic corner box. My other bunny Smokey has a similar but smaller one because he is my smallest bunny. Fred started to chew the plastic so I got him a small cat litter box from Walmart and had my husband build a frame for that too. It has worked out pretty well although he has managed to get to some of the corners of the plastic to chew a bit.
This is what I've come up with after many years of keeping rabbits indoors. With this set up, I only need to clean it out twice per week. There is NO smell in between cleaning. I refresh the hay a couple times per day (put fresh hay right on top).
Christiaan
Active Member
Great! Thank you. I was just checking to make sure I was doing it right.
flemishwhite
Well-Known Member
Our litter boxes are plastic pans that are lined with newspaper and then covered with oat hay...sometimes timothy hay. We empty them daily. We have currently three boxes for the baby Flemms. One in their pen, and two in the house..one in the dining room and one in the bedroom hall. They love their litter boxes and jumping in and eating hay and chomping on the oar kernals is a fun thing for them.
Fortunately, we live near a food and grain store that caters for horse owners. Oats and timothy hay they have at reasonable prices!!
Fortunately, we live near a food and grain store that caters for horse owners. Oats and timothy hay they have at reasonable prices!!
Bonsai
Heidi's Mom
Blue Eyes uses a very similar setup to mine. 
Storage totes make amazing litterboxes! They're cheap, too. I bought a litterbox for $9, rabbit considers it nothing more than a hay box and won't potty in it. I got him a 2ft wide storage tote that's about 6in high and he is not able to pee over the edges (he hangs his butt off edges if he can... He's a lazy piggy who can't be bothered to move his butt when he's eating hay) and it is wide enough he can lay down in it if he wants and he has ample room. Plus it costed half of what the much smaller litterbox costed!
I do notice a tad of smell on the 4th day (also cleaning day) but I suspect it is because my boy is in-tact and he is very much a mature little bun and I also work right next to his cage so I am probably exposed more to it than someone who is several feet away. Getting them fixed does cut back on potential smell, so it's good to have done if smell is a problem. That being said, I still don't notice it that much until cleaning day so it isn't too big a deal.
Storage totes make amazing litterboxes! They're cheap, too. I bought a litterbox for $9, rabbit considers it nothing more than a hay box and won't potty in it. I got him a 2ft wide storage tote that's about 6in high and he is not able to pee over the edges (he hangs his butt off edges if he can... He's a lazy piggy who can't be bothered to move his butt when he's eating hay) and it is wide enough he can lay down in it if he wants and he has ample room. Plus it costed half of what the much smaller litterbox costed!I do notice a tad of smell on the 4th day (also cleaning day) but I suspect it is because my boy is in-tact and he is very much a mature little bun and I also work right next to his cage so I am probably exposed more to it than someone who is several feet away. Getting them fixed does cut back on potential smell, so it's good to have done if smell is a problem. That being said, I still don't notice it that much until cleaning day so it isn't too big a deal.
flemishwhite
Well-Known Member
Our baby bunnies, that are allowed to run in the house when we are here, have three litter boxes. We change them daily. When introducing our previous rabbit to living our house we also had multiple litter boxes. We gradually reduced her litter boxes to one. Sleeping in the living room/dining room, she would jump up and run to her litter box in the bedroom, pee or poop, and run back to the living room/dining room.
It's very important to change your house rabbit's litter boxes daily. They are very clean animals. If a litter box is smelly, they will very likely go somewhere else to pee or poop.
How often one cleans out their litter box will depend on the set up and on the rabbit(s).
During training, cleaning out daily can actually discourage good potty habits because bunny will be looking for that same smell to know where to go. With an already trained rabbit, a filthy full litter box will discourage bunny from going in there.
So it is a matter of learning what works with your rabbit. A too dirty litterbox or a too clean litterbox can be a negative. Some people like to do daily changes, others do fine with twice weekly or even once weekly.
Since my girl recently passed, I just have the one neutered male. I've found I can easily go one week before there is any smell from the litterbox. The twice daily additions of hay keep the odor away.
During training, cleaning out daily can actually discourage good potty habits because bunny will be looking for that same smell to know where to go. With an already trained rabbit, a filthy full litter box will discourage bunny from going in there.
So it is a matter of learning what works with your rabbit. A too dirty litterbox or a too clean litterbox can be a negative. Some people like to do daily changes, others do fine with twice weekly or even once weekly.
Since my girl recently passed, I just have the one neutered male. I've found I can easily go one week before there is any smell from the litterbox. The twice daily additions of hay keep the odor away.
Bonsai
Heidi's Mom
My boy is 8 months old and I clean on the 4th day and have not had him pee anywhere but in his box. There is constantly fresh hay on the top so he's never walking in his own filth or anything. His urine is absorbed by the pellets and they turn to dust so he wouldn't be affected the same as he would be if he stepped in his own liquid urine. It helps keep his feet clean, if he does step on the pellets.
That being said, the litterbox does not smell. Thank you for your advice, though, I do appreciate the thought. ^ ^ If I had more than one rabbit, I would change it more frequently but it is a waste of pellets and hay to clean it out everyday when it's perfectly fine with its current schedule. My rabbit is only 3lb, he can only generate so much pee/poop. My system works for us and I'm glad that the system you have in place works for yours.
flemishwhite
Well-Known Member
My boy is 8 months old and I clean on the 4th day and have not had him pee anywhere but in his box. There is constantly fresh hay on the top so he's never walking in his own filth or anything. His urine is absorbed by the pellets and they turn to dust so he wouldn't be affected the same as he would be if he stepped in his own liquid urine. It helps keep his feet clean, if he does step on the pellets.
That being said, the litterbox does not smell. Thank you for your advice, though, I do appreciate the thought. ^ ^ If I had more than one rabbit, I would change it more frequently but it is a waste of pellets and hay to clean it out everyday when it's perfectly fine with its current schedule. My rabbit is only 3lb, he can only generate so much pee/poop. My system works for us and I'm glad that the system you have in place works for yours.
Thanks for the post...only 3 pounds...he must be very cute. I was writing about my two Flemmish Giant baby bunnies. They now maybe weigh 9 pounds. They eat an astounding amount of food, and what goes in, comes out!
