Rabbits are animals that are loved all throughout the world. They can have unique appearances, personalities, and are loved by both adults and children alike.
Because of this, many people have found that the rabbit can make for a wonderful pet. The popularity of rabbits as pets has increased drastically throughout the past few decades.
An animal that was once regarded as farm vermin for eating the crops is yet another animal that people have taken in and domesticated on their own. For people with rabbits, you will find that they can often be energetic and fun to be around, no matter what time of day it is.
However, as with all things in life, you will want to make sure that you know what you are doing when you choose to take on the task of caring for a pet of your own. This includes researching how to keep your rabbit healthy, the best foods for your rabbit, and so on.
Additionally, you will want to do what you can to provide your rabbit with a comfortable hutch to live in.
Some people, depending on where their rabbit is staying in comparison to the house and the rest of the yard, will decide that the rabbit doesn’t need any bedding. However, this assumption would be mistaken.
By nature, rabbits are burrowing animals. They enjoy being able to create their own nests to nestle into and they will often move their litter around their hutch so that the placement of every piece of bedding becomes perfect in your rabbit’s eyes.
One of the many facets of caring for a rabbit is going to be to eventually clean out your rabbit’s bedding. At first, this task can sound easy enough, but when you begin to think about how specific rabbits need to be to enjoy their habitats, you might come to realize that removing and changing that bedding will mean that all of your rabbit’s “work” organizing that hutch’s bedding was for nothing.
Even if this is the case, you will absolutely want to change your rabbit’s litter eventually. Even if rabbits are litter-trained, many of them are incontinent, meaning that if they are far enough away from their normal litter tray, they will usually not try to make it in time and will relieve themselves where they see fit.
This leaves the bedding wretchedly dirty and not something that you should subject your rabbit to dealing with. This is where the importance of regularly changing your rabbit’s bedding comes from, as it is a way for you to keep your bunny happy and healthy, and even active as it continues to rebuild its home.
With that being said, there will come a time when you decide that you will change out your rabbit’s bedding on a schedule, but with this decision, there is another question to be asked.
Exactly how often should you be replacing the bedding in your rabbit’s hutch to ensure that your rabbit is ready to use it for building its burrow, but it is also fresh enough that everyone is going to be happy with the smell of it.
Working Out How Often to Change the Litter
From here, there are a few things that you need to consider. For one, you will need to think about whether or not your rabbit is litter trained, and how often the rabbit will follow through with that knowledge.
If the rabbit’s bedding is soiled on the regular, then it is important to know so that you will be able to fix the problem before the smell festers by cleaning the rabbit hutch more often.
In a standard situation, where your rabbit is litter trained but might accidentally not make it to the litter quick enough, you would usually replace all of the bedding in your rabbit’s hutch after a month or two.
If your rabbit is only partially litter trained, or is not litter trained at the least, you may have to switch to changing the bedding out bi-weekly. Rabbits may not be as meticulously clean as cats are, but they still strive to have their home environments be as clean as possible.
When you are changing out the litter, you will also want to take this opportunity to scrub down the interior of your rabbit’s hutch, where the litter was. You will want to do what you can to try and remove any stains and smells of rabbit excrement.
Again, while a rabbit’s nose is not nearly as sensitive as a cat’s nose, nobody should have to live in an environment that can damage their health.
If your rabbit has a litter box that it uses, you will also need to clean this down when you are cleaning out the bedding from the hutch. You can usually get away with using warm and soapy water to really give the litter box as thorough of a wash as you can do.
You, ideally, should be cleaning the litter box for your rabbit on a weekly basis so that your rabbit can feel somewhat clean when it does its business. Cleaning the litter box is also one of the many things you can do to reduce that rabbit cage smell.
Some litters are going to be better for your rabbit than others. Some types of litter are going to be more absorbent of both smells and liquid, and while this might be useful in the immediate moment, those types of products tend to wear out somewhat fast, making it not the best solution if you are changing your rabbit’s bedding on a regular basis.
As for the bedding that you will use, there are many different kinds of bedding that can be used to suit a rabbit’s home. Many people prefer wood shavings, as these are both comfortable for rabbits to relax on but they also tend to add a nice appearance to the hutch that your rabbit is living in. What makes wood flakes even better is that they are of a large enough size that they won’t get caught in quite a few traps.
The most common hardwood shavings for rabbit bedding tend to be maple, oak, and apple trees. You may hear some people talking about pine and cedar shavings, but you should never use these for a rabbit’s bedding. Both of these beddings will have chemicals in them that can harm a rabbit’s liver and shorten the rabbit’s overall lifespan.
These are all the things that you will want to think about and consider when you are planning on taking care of a rabbit. By making sure that you change out the litter on a regular basis, you can feel confident knowing that your rabbit is going to be happy, healthy, and clean in its environment.
When a rabbit has the perfect bedding to nestle into, you will be able to enjoy watching your rabbit have fun every month burrowing and organizing all the places the litter is going to need to go. Many rabbits enjoy this process, giving you all the more reason to ensure that they change out their bedding regularly.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Film/Video/Media Studies, as well as an associates degree in Communications. I began producing videos and musical recordings nearly 15 years ago. I am a guitarist and bassist in Southwest MI and have been in a few different bands since 2009, and in 2012 I began building custom guitars and basses in my home workshop as well. When I’m home, I love spending time with my three pets (a dog, cat, and snake) and gardening in my backyard. I also like photographing wild birds, especially birds of prey.