Bedding

Question
I have two rabbits in a very large cage.  I usually fill the whole bottom with bedding including their litter box.  I always see pictures where people don't put any bedding anywhere other than the litter box.  Is that the way most people do it?  It gets expensive switching out the whole cage all the time.  But it seems so uncomfortable to have nothing down there.

Answer
Hi Dakota,

We do use bedding in nearly all of our cages.  I agree with you...it just doesn't look comfortable and it does lead to some sanitation issues.  It just depends on the individual rabbit(s).  Many people us expensive bedding like some of the pelleted litter (we don't use this since it makes them slip around) or something like Care Fresh...which many animals will eat and that causes digestive system impactions.  With some of our rabbits, we use newspaper.  With others, we use hay.  We have co-workers bring us their old newspapers so it's free.  And we use horse quality hay in litter boxes and some bedding.  The advantage of using hay is that they eat it which is good....and you can get horse quality hay at a very reasonable price (most of the time anyway).  The main problem people have with horse hay is storage space.  Even when using newspaper....hay is always in the litter boxes. And on this sugject, do not use cat type litter as it usually leads to repiratory issues.

There is no right or wrong answer to this question.  It comes down to what works best for your personal situation with your rabbits and what your individual rabbits prefer.  In my opinion, some type of bedding should be used to contain urine or other waste to keep the rabbit from being in direct contact with it.  While we have a few wire bottom cages (and we provide solid resting boards for them) all of our flat solid botton cages do have bedding of either newspaper, hay or both strictly for sanitation reasons.