1. Scoop their poop every day
It’s important to set up a routine around cleaning your rabbit’s litter box. As annoying as it can be, I recommend taking the time to scoop out the litter box every day. This can help you keep a closer eye on your rabbits health, and prevent smells from building up.
Cleaning out the litter box every day allows you to:
- Keep an eye on your rabbit’s poop. Your rabbit’s poop can tell you a lot about their health. By checking their droppings every day, you can make sure everything is looking healthy and normal.
- Keep the box from smelling. Rabbit urine can have a strong smell. By cleaning the litter box every day, you can prevent the buildup of that smell from permeating the room.
- Prevent rabbit misbehavior. Rabbits prefer clean litter boxes. If you don’t clean it for a number of days, your rabbit might protest and start peeing outside the litter box.
However, this doesn’t mean you have to completely wash out the litter box. In fact sometimes it’s better NOT to wash the litter box out so it’s squeaky clean. Keeping a little bit of that urine stain on the bottom of the litter box is perfectly fine and the scent of it can keep your rabbit from getting confused and not using the litter box. Usually just scooping out the poops and soiled litter on a daily basis is enough to
2. Washing a rabbit litter box
If you find that the rabbit litter box is starting to smell even when you’ve put in fresh litter and hay, then you may want to take the time to wash out the whole box. It’s a good idea to clean out the box a few times a year just to prevent any bacterial growth.
When you wash the litter box, you’ll want to make sure you use a pet safe cleaner. You can purchase bottles of these (such as this Puracy cleaning spray), or you can make your own using equal parts water and vinegar (1 cup of water + 1 cup of white vinegar).
Spray the litter tray and leave it to soak for an hour or so. Then wash the litter box and return it to your rabbit. There will almost always be urine stains that won’t come out no matter how hard you scrub. Don’t worry, you’ve sanitized it to stop any bacterial growth and your rabbit won’t mind the spot.
- Read more: How to clean rabbit urine stains
3. Disposing of rabbit litter
When you dispose of rabbit litter, you can just toss it in with your trash. However rabbit poop is actually a really excellent fertilizer. It’s got a lot of trace nutrients to help a garden grow, and it doesn’t have any potentially harmful diseases like cat and dog poop.
You could also add it to a compost bin. If you’re using a paper-based litter, everything in your rabbit’s litter box is compostable. The paper, poop, urine, and hay, can all go into the compost bin to become a rich mulch later on. Most commercial composters, however, will not accept any kind of animal leavings since other common pets are known to carry diseases in their feces, so this is really only an option if you have your own composter at home.
4. Litter box odor control
If you find that your rabbit’s litter box is emitting a strong smell in the room, then there are some steps you can take to help reduce the odor in your home.
Rabbit pee can emit a strong odor because it has a high concentration of ammonia. For most rabbits you will only notice the smell for a minute or so directly after the urinate until it gets absorbed into the litter. However, some rabbits have a stronger urine smell that can cause more of a problem.
Try a combination of these to reduce the smell of urine:
- Change the type of litter. Some types a litter are better at preventing the build-up of that rabbit urine smell. Typically pelleted litters do a better job at this, so switching to a recycled paper litter or a compressed sawdust litter are worth trying. Avoid litter types that are already scented since these can potentially cause respiratory inflammation in rabbits.
- Clean the box every day. Scooping out any soiled litter does a lot to prevent odors from building up. You can develop a routine around cleaning your rabbit’s box. For example, every morning you get up and clean it out first thing.
- Try a covered litter box. Covered boxes can keep a strong urine smell contained. The problem is that some rabbits get confused when the litter box is covered and stop using it, but it’s worth trying if you’re looking for a way to keep the urine smell contained.
- Use an air purifier. Air purifiers can keep the air in the room smelling fresh. Try getting one with a HEPA air filter (such as this one), since these will do the best job at cleaning pet scents from the air.
- Use scented oil. If you can’t seem to get rid of the rabbit urine smell, you can also use scented oils to cover them up. You don’t want to use these directly next to the rabbit enclosure since elongated exposure to strong scents can cause respiratory inflammation, but placing a scent plug or something similar on the opposite end of the room for short bursts of time can help cover the smell. Mint scents, chamomile, rose, and lavender are all generally safe to use around rabbits.
Learn more about how to keep your house from smelling like a rabbit
