wood pet question

[manda]

i have used woody pet lots in the past. i have never added water to it like it says to for horse stalls. i was wondering if anyone does this and if it gets too dusty or not?

 

[Maureen Las]

I use wood pellet horse bedding but not woody pet. I wouldn't add water to it..seems like it would just make a mess.

 

[JimD]

Hi manda!

I use Woody Pet for litter, and there are a lot of similar products as angieluv said.

I prefer not to use wood pellets made for wood stoves. I'm not totally convinced that the processing makes them as safe. I mean...these are my bunnies we're talking about.:bunnydance:

One of the uses of wood pellet products is for stall bedding. Throw 4-5 bags into the clean stall....spray it down with water...and it expands about 3 times the volume into sawdust.

Using it in the pellet form for litter works well because it absorbs, expands, and pretty much keeps a dry consistency as it breaks down into sawdust.

Check out some of the websites for a little more detailed info on the different products and uses.....just type in wood pellet bedding.
You should get quite a few results. There's even one site that is a study of composting them ... http://www.o2compost.com/Bedding.htm

~Jim

 

[manda]

thank you

 

[jil101ca]

I've used the wood pellets for horses with allergies. They do expand3/4 timesand look nice but i found that I had to sprinkle them everyday as they do become very dusty when expanded.It is a very fine dust. I would not use them in my rabbit cages expanded for this reason. I use just regular shavings under my cages (partial wire bottom) that I buy from the wood mill for $3 per bag. these bags are huge and 1 bag does a cage for 6 months or so being generous.

 

[manda]

well i dont have to worry about it drying out because i dump it every single day any way.

my only consern is that if its too dusty

 

[Maureen Las]

I use Superior Horse bedding from Farm and Fleet for 30lbs at 4.99.,..it is pine pellets, is not dusty at all when I pour it into the boxes...it absorbs well and also last long. I never change my boxes everyday but I have 6 bunnies and I also use a lot in each box.

 

[manda]

are you suposed to add water? and do you do it? i know the pellets themselfs have pretty well no dust.

 

[Maureen Las]

Manda I just looked at the bag and it does notinstruct you to add water just pour it on the bottom of the stall... I guess it's just supposed to absorb the urine from the horse or bunny or whatever and then it sort of dissolves into a sawdust type thing but when I empty my litterboxs I never think of them as dusty. Maybe you are emptying the litterboxes too much so that the pellets are just a little dissolved. When I empty mine the bottom is usually wet from bunny pee.

 

[manda]

when i used woody pet the pellets turned to sawdust when bunny pee was on them, but no pee was ever on the litter box.

on the woody pet package it says to add water and fluff up to that saw dust type stuff. that means it would expand and save me money because i wouldnt use as much.

 

[Maureen Las]

I see what you mean but someone who use woody pet would have to answer that. I have some concerns about them eating the sawdusty stuff off their feet after being in the box but actually since it is safe wood i doubt that that would matter. It probably is fine for you to wet it if it makes it last longer ..unless someone else knows better

 

[manda]

yeah, i am waiting for someone else to chime in

 

[Pet_Bunny]

I do not add water to Woody Pet.

Every day I scoop out the wet portion, and mix in more pellets. When it gets too dusty, I would clean out the sawdust too. Some people had problems when their bunnies breathed in the dust so that is not good.
This is why I use a screen to keep Pebbles from digging in the litter.

This is how I prepare my litter box. (It's half way down the thread.)

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=9548&forum_id=6&page=4

Rainbows!

 

[JimD]

For litter pans or drop pans I use Woody Pet in the pellet form.

You can remove the soiled portion daily and replace it with fresh. Spots that are reddish or dark brown should be removed promptly, as this is an indication of complete or over saturation. (For me this takes too long.)

I dump the entire pan every other day, clean the pans, and put in fresh litter. I have 8 bunnies and it takes about 30-40 minutes to complete.

I use less than 1/2" as it will expand up to about 1-1/2 " when wet.

If dust is an issue you can use a spray bottle and lightly mist down the pellets. This will eliminate the dust. Do not wet enough to start the pellets breaking down, though. One of my buns is sensitive to dust so I occasionally have to do this when I get to the bottom of a bag.

If the buns comsume the Woody Pet, it shouldn't harm them in any way. It might give them temporary "dry-mouth" or "pine-breath",though .

 

[manda]

thanks for all the replies. i will just keep using woody pet dry like i have always done. scoop it out at night, and add more

 

[Maureen Las]

JimD wrote:

For litter pans or drop pans I use Woody Pet in the pellet form.

You can remove the soiled portion daily and replace it with fresh. Spots that are reddish or dark brown should be removed promptly, as this is an indication of complete or over saturation. (For me this takes too long.)

I dump the entire pan every other day, clean the pans, and put in fresh litter. I have 8 bunnies and it takes about 30-40 minutes to complete.

I use less than 1/2" as it will expand up to about 1-1/2 " when wet.

If dust is an issue you can use a spray bottle and lightly mist down the pellets. This will eliminate the dust. Do not wet enough to start the pellets breaking down, though. One of my buns is sensitive to dust so I occasionally have to do this when I get to the bottom of a bag.

If the buns comsume the Woody Pet, it shouldn't harm them in any way. It might give them temporary "dry-mouth" or "pine-breath",though .

I didn't know that you had eight bunnies Jim. I have 7 rightnow with Cadbury the shelter bunny. I use 0versize catboxes for litter boxes and put a lot of the pellets in the box. I don't remove litter daily but I do shift it around in the box and also add more pellets so that they are always sittimg on dry pellets..I also put their hay in a corner of their boxes and keep adding hay daily ..the old hay eventually becomes part of the litter. I just couldn't change the boxes every other day 1. It doesn't need it 2. Iclean about 6 rabbits and 3 guinea pigs at the shelter 3 times a week and too be honest sometimes I am really exhaustedfrom animal care (even though I love them). I also have an African grey parrot, 3 dogs, 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs.

 

[BACI]

My husband recently bought 2 bags of woodypet on a trial basis. I don't find it dusty at all and Bella really digs. I do think it breaks up much more easily than other pellet litters I have tried. We usually use a horse pellet and do not wet it and I have noticed with that one the urine sinks down to the bottom of the litter and the rabbit is standing on dry pellets. I also must mention that my husband and I have had conversations because we will see the pellet level appear to rise and he thinks I have added more and I think he has. The woody pet just crumbles does not rise or atleast in our experience.

 

[JimD]

angieluv wrote:

JimD wrote:

For litter pans or drop pans I use Woody Pet in the pellet form.

You can remove the soiled portion daily and replace it with fresh. Spots that are reddish or dark brown should be removed promptly, as this is an indication of complete or over saturation. (For me this takes too long.)

I dump the entire pan every other day, clean the pans, and put in fresh litter. I have 8 bunnies and it takes about 30-40 minutes to complete.

I use less than 1/2" as it will expand up to about 1-1/2 " when wet.

If dust is an issue you can use a spray bottle and lightly mist down the pellets. This will eliminate the dust. Do not wet enough to start the pellets breaking down, though. One of my buns is sensitive to dust so I occasionally have to do this when I get to the bottom of a bag.

If the buns comsume the Woody Pet, it shouldn't harm them in any way. It might give them temporary "dry-mouth" or "pine-breath",though .

I didn't know that you had eight bunnies Jim. I have 7 rightnow with Cadbury the shelter bunny. I use 0versize catboxes for litter boxes and put a lot of the pellets in the box. I don't remove litter daily but I do shift it around in the box and also add more pellets so that they are always sittimg on dry pellets..I also put their hay in a corner of their boxes and keep adding hay daily ..the old hay eventually becomes part of the litter. I just couldn't change the boxes every other day 1. It doesn't need it 2. Iclean about 6 rabbits and 3 guinea pigs at the shelter 3 times a week and too be honest sometimes I am really exhaustedfrom animal care (even though I love them). I also have an African grey parrot, 3 dogs, 2 cats and 2 guinea pigs.

Yeppers....8 of them. Most of them are rescues of some sort. Tootsie (aka "Big Black Bunnie") was our last addition. She's a gorgeous black New Zealand weighing in at about 10 lbs. She was about 10 months old when we got her and had been dropped off at the shelter by a college student that was returning to school and could not take her along. I think she's the closest thing to a soul-bunnie that I've ever known. She's such a sweetie!!!!


If I can't hit that "every other day", I'll add a thin layer of fresh litter. But it's GOT to be changed on the third day. I have 3 buns that will empty their own litter pans if they get too soiled. I can certainly relate to the "exhausted" feeling.....especially since my back surgery in March.


At one point we had 8 buns, 2 dogs, 12 hamsters, and a tank of fishes. We still have all of the buns, over the past year the hamsters passed (all were over 2 years old), our senior dog passed (11 years young), and we're down to one fish. We won't be adding or replace any of them....well maybe a couple of fish.

~Jim

 

[manda]

maybe my rabbits just poop alot, because i cannot skip a day. i clean them at night, and by the next night its has a very large amount of doodles in it.

 

[JimD]

manda wrote:

maybe my rabbits just poop alot, because i cannot skip a day. i clean them at night, and by the next night its has a very large amount of doodles in it.

I know what you mean.
I have a couple of sooper-poopers in my group.
If they don't pee too much, I can kind of skim the poops out.
I think Buck Jones called it "Panning for poops"


~Jim