Brightside Tips

“It’s no fun, but it must be done.” The biggest single tip here is to clean cages on a regular basis. Once you let the job get away from you, it becomes both much more of an ordeal AND it becomes dangerously unhealthy for the animals. The buildup of ammonia can cause respiratory illness. Feces on the floor may be ingested and cause an outbreak of coccidiosis, especially in very young rabbits. Here are some suggestions:

GETTING STARTED:

We assemble the following tools and supplies:

· Rubber gloves

· A wire brush

· A paper feed sack, cut to lie flat and fit under the cage

· A carrying cage

· A spray bottle of water with a little bleach

· A couple of rags or towels

· A dustpan

· A bag of shavings (not cedar), with a scoop

· Wheelbarrow or lawn wagon

Remove the bunny from the cage and place it in a carrying cage so it won’t get upset.

Remove the litter pan and use the dustpan to scrape it out into the wagon. In warm weather it’s nice to hose out the pan, but in colder weather we scrub it with either a scoop of shavings or even snow until we get most of the urine and waste removed. We put a couple scoops of clean shavings in and spread them out over the pan. Some people use a spray or powder on top to help control odor.

Place the feed bag under the cage to catch any feces that may drop onto other rabbits in cages below when you clean the floor.

Use the wire brush to remove any wool or feces clinging to the wire floor. You’ll need to scrub both underneath and on top of the flooring.

Spray the floor and urine guards with the bleach solution. It doesn’t have to be very strong in order to disinfect – you don’t want to overpower the bunns with bleach fumes and make them sick. Wipe down the urine guards and floor with the rag. In cold weather or with young litters, be sure to dry the floor with a towel before placing the bunny back in the cage.

Empty the crocks and spray them with the bleach solution also. Wipe them out with a separate rag from the one you’re using on the floors and turn them upside-down to dry.

Gather the droppings in the feed sack and go dump it. Replace the litter pan and bunny.

Repeat. And repeat. And repeat…. (“…we have too many rabbits!")

DISPOSING OF WASTE

We use our rabbit waste to mulch flowerbeds and landscaping. I worried that the pine shavings and ammonia might burn up my flowers, but they seem happy. After covering an area pretty well with the used shavings/droppings, I top it off with a layer of landscape bark mulch. I don’t need to purchase so much expensive bark this way to have a deeply mulched bed.

We’ve also used the waste to make pathways through the woods, again covering with regular mulch to finish.

DEALING WITH THE FUZZ

One downside of Woolies is that you will have more fuzz clinging to cages and the housing area than with other breeds, especially when they are molting.

A toilet bowl brush works really well to whisk around and pick up fluff from cage walls. About once a year we take a small torch and burn the excess fuzz from the cages. (Make sure that you don't hold the flame in one place for too long, as you may burn the galvanizing off the wire and it will be more likely to rust.) Caution, though: be sure to remove the bunny from the cage, and also the litter pan. A smoldering piece of fuzz could drop onto pine shavings and actually start a fire, so watch it carefully. Better yet, take the cages outside to do this and hose them down afterward.