Recommendations for covering up rabbit (poop) smell

In My Humble Opinion
1

The question’s kind of GQ-ish, but ultimately felt IMHO…

So when my fiancee & I finally get married this August, the plan was to have her move in with me into my apartment. (2nd floor of a 2-family house, 80-something year-old landlord & his wife living downstairs) It’s big enough for the two of us and everything should be fine… But the issue is that she has two pet rabbits. They’re great, I love them, and I want them to be living with us, but my landlord really doesn’t want pets. They just fixed up the apartment, put a lot of work into it (and it shows, seriously – great place!) and they’re nervous about that “pet smell” permeating the entire place. We had a talk with them last night and they’re going to be considering it and should probably let us know sometime this week if we’ll get the okay, but it would probably be conditional – they’d have to check in and make sure there’s not that bad a smell, etc.

But sometimes the rabbits smell. Well, not so much the bunnies themselves, but their poop/pee/etc. We clean up the cages a few times a week but sometimes there is a poopy smell to the room with the cages. So my question is… What products/devices have other Dopers found mask the smells the best? We’ve considered that Sharper Image Ionic Breeze thingy, but from searching old posts it seems like the consensus is that it’s highly overpriced and I’m not even sure it would help with covering up a poop smell.

Any fellow rabbit owners have suggestions? Or anybody else have suggestions?

…and on preview, DAMN, I’m long-winded.

2

I have two rabbits, and rarely do I ever have problems with the smell, however, I think it’s all in the method of their keep.

First, my rabbits aren’t in “traditional” rabbit cages. The types of cages brought in pet stores specifically for rabbits are way too small. Instead, I’ve bought (through ads in the newspaper), dog crates for each rabbit. The former owners of the crates report that they held a Doberman and a German Shepard (that’s how big they are). In each crate, I put a shelf–a simple piece of wood about 18-24 inches wide and the length of the width of the crate, placed mid-way the height of the crate. This allows them to jump up on the “perch”, and gives them more room in the crate.

Second, in the crate is a litter box (purchased at the pet store). Ideally, it sits in the corner, however, one of my rabbits pushes his to the middle of the crate. (Yes, rabbits can be litter trained.) In the litter box, I use a recycled newspaper litter called Yesterday’s News. A little bit goes a long way, it lasts forever, and cuts down signifigantly on any urine or feces smell. I change it twice a week, washing the litter box each time. For those messy moments, at the rear of each crate are sheets of clear Plexiglass which is securely attached to the crate, to prevent any messes outside of the crate. (Mine tended to concentrate messes towards the rear of the crate, which is why the Plexiglass is attached to the rear only.) Do **NOT ** use clumping or regular cat litter–both of which rabbits will swallow and it will clog their intestines, which translates into a dead rabbit. Do **NOT ** use cedar chips, which will react with urine to form a toxic aroma. If you choose not to purchase appropriate liter, I would advise using shreaded newspaper. Yes, it will turn the bottom or your rabbits paws black, however, it is the least toxic to your rabbit.

Third, my rabbits are spayed/neutered. Unfixed rabbits, especially males, if let out of their crates to run for awhile (which mine are frequently) have a tendency to spray (like cats). They can also do this inside of their crates as well. My female came spayed (so I’m not sure how much it cost to spay a female rabbit), but my male cost around $150 to have neutered. If you can find a vet who will do rabbits (they can be difficult animals to put under anesthesia), treatment isn’t cheap.

When my mom went on vacation, I had her guinea pig for a week. Guinea pigs cannot be litter trained, and their feces/urine smells worse than anything I’ve ever smelled in my life. In the bottom of her cage (the guinea pigs, not my mom’s) I put the Yesterday’s News litter–and it worked great. Minimum mess and odor.

I’m not a rabbit expert, but I figure if my rabbits have been alive this long (going on six years), I must be doing something right.

3

I should probably add – they’re not litterbox trained (although I’m aware that we probably could do that if we really wanted/need to) but they are cage-corner trained. Their cages are wire-framed floors with holes just big enough for the waste to drop through, and there are pans underneath to collect the poops, so worrying about them getting to the actual litter hasn’t been a concern yet, but definitely would be if we decided to go the litterbox route. Additionally, the two rabbits are a 7-year-old female (unfixed, and at her age too risky to do anything about it now) and a 3-year-old male (fixed).

That’s one that I remember worked very well when we used it a few years back but we haven’t been able to find it at our local PetCo for a long time. We’ve used “CareFresh”, I think, and it works okay. I did a search for Yesterday’s News online and it looks like we can probably mail-order some, so maybe we’ll do that and see what kind of difference it makes. Thanks!

4

Since your rabbits do use a corner to urinate, you might try scooping out the corner on a daily basis. It sounds like a pain at first, but it really can become a fast routine. Like giving fresh water daily, using a dustpan for this purpose, it’s just - scoop, dump, replace with fresh bedding. Very fast (didn’t take me longer than 2 minutes). Also, because you have adults, you might try mixing some fresh grass hay in with the bedding. If it’s fresh, it will have a sweet smell to it, and like other commercial products which use chlorophyll as a way to help eliminate odors, it might help in this way. Alfalfa (.pdf) is recommended for growing rabbits, so I’d choose timothy or something similar.

5

Cage - Don’t use a wire bottom cage. Rabbits have very sensitive feet and the wire bottom really hurts them. If you want a really good cage, visit Leithpetwerks.com. It’s a company started by people who wanted a cage specifically for their bunnies. My two love theirs. They run up and down the 3 levels all day long. They get enough exercise so I don’t have to let them out (my bunnies are wire eating fiends). The cages are a bit expensive but they’re worth it in the long run.

Litter Training - If they’re already corner trained, get a corner litterbox (They’re triangle to fit in a corner) and put it where they go. Rabbits generally pick one place in the cage to do their business. If you put a box there, they will use it. They’re the easiest pet I’ve ever had when it comes to box training.

Litter - I second the Yesterday’s News. It works very well. Too bad my buns HATE it. They kick everything out of the pan when I use it. I use corn cob. It doesn’t do anything to absorb smell but it doesn’t stick to the pan so it’s easy to clean. Also, It’s natural and safe for the buns to eat (which they will). DO NOT use any soft wood chips for litter or bedding. You can use hay for bedding as well as food.

Food - Alfalfa is good for growing rabbits but too much alfalfa is bad especially for adult rabbits. Stick to plain hay but don’t make it the main staple of their diet. Bunny specific pellets are good. Blue Seal Show Hutch blend is the best. If you have a farm type store in your area, they probably sell it. You can also give them yogert (sp?). It’s very good for them, it helps with the smell and it’s a nice treat for them. It’s also good for mixing with any meds you may need to give them. Try to avoid pellet mixes. Most buns will eat the seeds and dried berries and they’ll avoid the pellets.

Spay/Neutering - I also paid about $150 for my boy. I paid about $200 for my girl. Make sure the vet specializes in small animals. A vet who doesn’t know anything about rabbits can do more harm than good.

Cleaning - Nature’s Miracle. It comes in spray and wipes. It is wonderful. You will really want to invest in some.

Most important - bunnies are the best pet ever :smiley:

6

We never really had a problem with odor from our bunnies cage. We had a corner litter box from them and emptied that daily. They rarely made a mess anywhere else in the cage, but we scooped out any soiled litter right away and cleaned the entire cage weekly.
Bunnies are so easy to litterbox train, so it’s worth a try. We just scooped some soiled litter into the box and put it in the corner and they started using it almost right away. When we let them out in the room we’d put it in the corner of the room and they’d go to it to do their business.