Litter with baking soda?

[SherlocktheBun]

Hi! So I ran out of litter before I had time to order some more. I'm going to be ordering the type that I always get off of Chewy, but it'll take a few days to arrive, and I need to clean Sherlock's litter box soon. My mom stopped by Petco and picked up some litter, but it has baking soda. I've looked around a bit, and it seems like it's not too big of a deal, as long as he doesn't ingest it (he's never really been one to eat his litter anyway). He'll only have it in there for a few days anyway, and then I'll be switching it back to normal baking soda free litter. I just wanted to get some opinions to make sure. Thank you!

 

[SirLawrence]

I would stay away from the baking soda. If he does ingest it, it can be deadly. The sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) reacts with the stomach acid, and produces a lot of gas. Since rabbits can't vomit, this can cause problems.

When you say "normal" litter, what do you mean? Most things called "litter" are not appropriate for rabbits, but there are some perfectly safe ones out there!

 

[SherlocktheBun]

I would stay away from the baking soda. If he does ingest it, it can be deadly. The sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) reacts with the stomach acid, and produces a lot of gas. Since rabbits can't vomit, this can cause problems.

When you say "normal" litter, what do you mean? Most things called "litter" are not appropriate for rabbits, but there are some perfectly safe ones out there!

Okay, thank you! I'll make sure to change it as soon as I can. By normal litter I mean totally recycled paper litter, like Yesterday's News.

 

[SirLawrence]

Okay, thank you! I'll make sure to change it as soon as I can. By normal litter I mean totally recycled paper litter, like Yesterday's News.

Oh! That's good!

 

[TreasuredFriend]

https://www.cuteness.com/article/dangers-baking-soda-rabbits

 

[TreasuredFriend]

What @SirLawrence mentioned about dangers of baking soda or odor control bedding is repeated in the above link.

I forever regret not knowing the sophresh litter with baking soda was ingested by our Flemish boy who was kept in a tiny cage at previous home. I changed his litter box bedding soon as we acquired him and his bro. Both boys sprayed horrendously at age 7 months. I should have separated the pair (already mounting and spraying like hoses) and made sure his lungs had time to recover (?) if possible. Unless his fried lungs were a genetic malady?

In his former home the water bottle dripped onto the bedding.
He had cardiac arrest at the end of his neuter surgery when the DVM was closing up. I requested necropsy. He had less than 1/4th normal lung function... Man, how I miss our agouti boy.

Pre-surgical xrays are done routinely now at our clinic.

His bro did fine with neuter. Our rabbit-savvy DVMs have done thousands of sp/euters and nothing about "fried" or burnt lungs ever happened on the 50 or so surgeries for our crew or rescues.

Never get odor-control baking soda bedding. Changing the litter box regularly is enough. Plus boys pre-neuter have a stinkier urine scent.

 

[TreasuredFriend]

Hubby carries in the 40 lb. bags of wood pellets for our crew. Hence, when purchasing in a pinch or ordering online I can understand how paper-based and easier-to-carry packages are preferred, @SherlocktheBun

What pet stores don't tell you is the dangers of odor-control baking soda bedding.

If you google on Dana Krempels dangers of baking soda bedding archived info may pull up.

Glad you are being super careful. Blue-eyes has info on odor-control or An Odor-Free Indoor Home in her link below.

https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/litter-training.html