Let's Talk About Bedding & Dropping Tray Litter

First, a bit of background…..

RHDV2 is a highly contagious DEADLY virus that is not at all dangerous to anything but rabbits (and possibly hares). I won't go in to all the details; the American Veterinary Medical Association does it better, so I highly recommend you check it out.

The short version is that this virus kills pretty much every rabbit that gets it, usually within a day or two. Think: Ebola for rabbits.

There is a vaccine available, but it is currently (2023) very expensive in Canada (because rabbits are seen as pets) and so is really not a practical solution for most people who raise rabbits.

It is thought to survive on surfaces for a long time AND can be carried inside the gut of birds (without causing disease in the birds). This means that birds can potentially pick up the virus from eating seeds or anything that a diseased rabbit has touched. They can then carry that virus to a different location - like when they migrate - and leave it in a new place - like, on some grass that then gets eaten by a rabbit.

This virus is endemic throughout MOST of the western half of the United States (see USDA interactive map).

Another way it is believed to be transmitted is on produce that got infected in places where it's endemic, which then ends up in our grocery stores (kind of like salmonella does sometimes) and gets fed to unsuspecting rabbits, either pets in your house, or feral populations in your neighbourhood park or town.

As if that's not scary enough, the virus was recently discovered (July, 2023) to be present in bagged wood shavings sold in Airdrie by UFA, and produced by Parkland Chip Products. The same brand was also used for livestock at Edmonton's KDays, which was the location of an upcoming rabbit show. The rabbit show had to be moved at the last minute to a different location to make sure we didn't take any chances with our rabbits.

I want to be clear: this virus poses NO danger to people or other animals - just rabbits. It is not clear how the virus got into the shavings, but they were tested by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, so it's for real.

This brings us to the subject of this post: How can we keep our rabbits safe when the virus can be present on grass, wood shavings, produce, hay, and, well, pretty much everything?

I want to make something clear: there is NO WAY to absolutely guarantee that anything you feed your rabbit or use for bedding is completely free from virus or other pathogens.

All we can do is reduce the risk.

The following is written for people living in Western Canada, and more specifically, Alberta.

• Store-bought produce from the western United States
  • Many of the outbreaks in Alberta were isolated and short-lived and could have been the result of someone feeding unwashed produce to the rabbits. ¹⁾
• Pasture, grass, lawns, yards especially during the spring bird migration.
  • Letting rabbits feed from the ground can put them at risk for parasites and diseases spread by wild animals in the area.
• Minimally processed feed (bagged or otherwise) imported from areas where there are outbreaks.

• Locally sourced rabbit pellets
• Greenhouse grown produce and other feeds - especially if they are local
• Highly processed feeds

There are many materials that can be used for bedding. Some are relatively inexpensive, and others are not.

Most of us haven't really given much thought to the risk of contamination from bedding, but it's time to start.

This is not an exhaustive study. I am just looking at the ones I have experience with.

I did a quick experiment to try and compare the absorbency of the more common bedding/litter materials.

The results are below.

These are super convenient and highly absorbent. The risk for contamination with pathogens is extremely low.

HOWEVER - they are NOT AT ALL environmentally friendly - not even the “compostable” ones.
They all contain plastics. They create non-recyclable and non-re-usable waste.

Also, they should ONLY be used in places where the rabbits can't get at them to chew them. They can be used in carrying cages and droppings trays, but NOT inside the cages themselves.

One big plus for wood shavings is that they smell nice. They are not especially absorbent (see below).

Wood shavings are made by taking logs from logging and shaving them in giant machines to make - you guessed it - shavings. It appears - at least in July 2023 - that the companies that make shavings do not keep track of where their logs come from, so they could be coming from contaminated places. These companies bring in logs from all over, and they sit in big piles until they are ready to be turned into shavings. Once they are turned into shavings, the shavings themselves sit in big warehouses - some with open sides - until they are ready to be bagged.

The logs could be contaminated either where they originally came from OR where they are stored, and the shavings could become contaminated before they are bagged. It is unlikely that they will become contaminated after being bagged.

The rabbits may chew them, but so long as the shavings are free from contamination (AND you avoid cedar shavings), they are no more dangerous for them to chew than a stick.

Used shavings can be composted. They take quite a while (years) to fully compost, BUT the shavings are good for soil aeration.

Wood shavings are available at most feed stores, UFA, Peavey Mart, some hardware stores, and lumber yards.

Chopped straw is also bagged, but tends to be processed directly into bags rather than chopped and then stored. Further, the source straw is usually kept in large round or square bales while waiting to be turned into the finished product. This minimizes the surface area that could become contaminated - so the risk is lower.

It is usually fairly easy to find out where the straw came from - most of the chopped straw available in Alberta is from grains actually grown in Alberta. Again the risk is minimized.

Chopped straw is moderately absorbent (see below), and has a low level of dust.

Another plus is that the rabbits can safely eat the straw. In fact it's actually good for them!

Used chopped straw composts well.

Chopped straw is typically available at feed stores, UFA, and Peavey Mart. Several brands are available. The one I have been using is Simply Straw.

Wood stove pellets can be made from any left over cuttings, waste wood from lumber, etc. The raw materials are ground into a fine powder and then run through a high-pressure, high-temperature press that extrudes the final pellets. The processing pretty much destroys all possible pathogens.

They create very little dust. Rabbits typically won't eat them although they may try them out if they've never seen them before.

It is also fairly absorbent (see below). When moisture is added, the pellets come apart while they soak up the liquid.

Used wood pellets compost better than shavings, but not as quickly as straw.

Wood Stove Pellets are usually available at most hardware stores.

To test the absorbency I used comparable amounts of the bedding, added 3 tablespoons of water, and waited 10 minutes.

The wood shavings were the least absorbent of the three. After soaking 3 tablespoons of water in the shavings for 10 minutes, I was able to pour off TWO full table spoons. That means that only 1 TBSP was absorbed (1 out of 3 Tbsp)

The straw was second best.
I used about the same volume of material as with the shavings.
I added 3 tablespoons of water and waited 10 minutes.
I was able to pour 1 tablespoon of water off after 10 minutes, so it absorbed 2 out of 3 TBSP of liquid.

Since the wood pellets are far more dense than either the shavings or straw, I measured out one tablespoon of pellets and used that. I still added 3 table spoons of water, and let it sit for 10 minutes.
There was NO water to pour off. All the water was absorbed.

Just to double check - I did it again only this time I added a 1/2 cup (8 TBSP) of water.
The last picture shows how well the wood pellets did. There was clearly water that hadn't been absorbed. The sample that had 3 TBSP water added seemed pretty saturated, so I suspect that's pretty close to the limit.