[Clarebelle]

Has anybody tried using sand as bedding material in the place of woodshavings? It would be beach sand as appose to builders sand or play sand.

My problem with woodshavings is that we have to order in big bags of it from the farmers merchant on mainland. The haulage company on the island charges 68p to handle a 25kg bag of feed but £4 per bag of woodshavings! It is pushing my monthly bill with the haulage co way up!

Is there any reason why rabbits cant live on sand?

[Garvie]

I use straw for the bedding and bedmax for their litter trays don't see why they couldn't use sand it would clump when wet so easy cleaning out

[nutterly_uts]

I'd worry about them getting sore eyes, and I don't know if it could cause intestinal problems if they eat any on other food?

Edit - we have loads of bunnies on our sand dunes locally, so thinking about it, it's probably ok

[shygirl]

I was also going to say our beach has loads of warrens.
some rabbits live on wire so anything is better than nothing. I use to feed my seaweed also.

[NicandChic]

Guess it depends on your set up, my 10 are in wooden hutches so sand would be no good - nightmare to clean up, unhygienic, heavy when wet, not sure where I would dispose of it when cleaning out! I use timber flake wood shavings, mum & babies get Fitch - paper bedding when kits are young. Have you spoke to your haulage company they may be able to reduce the price if you order a larger qty!
How about contacting some local saw mills 

[shygirl]

How about contacting some local saw mills 

     in Orkney?

[Clansman]

Clarebelle are your rabbits in wooden hutches?

I've recently altered a few of my hutches so that their toilet area is now wire floored.

Hutches are 4 foot long, 3 feet of that is wood floored with shavings as normal, I removed the last foot of the floor and replaced it with 1/2 weld mesh.

I've fitted a small inch high threshold to keep the shavings in the main area.

So far its working great and the bedding is staying clean for a lot longer and I catch all the waste underneath in a basin.

might be worth looking at.

[NicandChic]

How about contacting some local saw mills 

     in Orkney?

Ahh I hadn't noticed the location    Orkney has an industrial estate! Why not a sawmill 
(in which case may be an opportunity to sell locally to other small animal owners! Off set your haulage costs)

90% of my guys use corner litter trays.

[Clarebelle]

Most of my bunnies do use a corner which I scoop out every other day so we don't use a massive amount of wood shavings in each hutch but, even so, the amount does add up. I wouldn't have the know how to alter the hutches, plus they are stacked so the droppings would only land on the hutch below if they had wire bottoms!

I use sand for the chooks and it works brilliantly and we have a never-ending free supply so I'd rather use that than pay nearly half again for a bag of wood shavings. Perhaps I'll do a trial in one of the smaller hutches to see how we go, as long as no one can think of any specific reason why I shouldn't.

[Clansman]

Sounds an interesting idea.

Its worth a go 

[cloddopper]

sand is perhaps not so good inn the bed area  as it is cold it adopts the ambient air temperature , rabbits are fur coated to keep them warm .
They chill easily ,  that's why they live down holes away from the worst weather and have dried material for lined nests . There is also the likelihood of them suffering salt sores if the sand you're using is from around the high water mark or lower.
 As has already been said  things like eye and ear infections may well happen due to using sand .
 I feel that the use of sand will not absorb their urine in the manner of shavings or straw  so it can then evaporate the moisture content off easily off , this may lend it to attracting lots of biting mozzies & other insects and give your stock a wipe out of myxi etc .

 One other thing also comes to mind  , using sand may well see them need more food to compensate for the heat loss stress this may end up with a lower feed to meat conversion rate if not met and also cost you much more as feed costs in the long term.

Chickens homed on salted sand is quite different as are the chickens welfare needs  .

[Clansman]

sand is perhaps not so good inn the bed area  as it is cold it adopts the ambient air temperature , rabbits are fur coated to keep them warm .
They chill easily ,  that's why they live down holes away from the worst weather and have dried material for lined nests . There is also the likelihood of them suffering salt sores if the sand you're using is from around the high water mark or lower.
 As has already been said  things like eye and ear infections may well happen due to using sand .
 I feel that the use of sand will not absorb their urine in the manner of shavings or straw  so it can then evaporate the moisture content off easily off , this may lend it to attracting lots of biting mozzies & other insects and give your stock a wipe out of myxi etc .

 One other thing also comes to mind  , using sand may well see them need more food to compensate for the heat loss stress this may end up with a lower feed to meat conversion rate if not met and also cost you much more as feed costs in the long term.

Chickens homed on salted sand is quite different as are the chickens welfare needs  .

disagree with almost everything you said there cloddopper, in fact I'd say your post is unadulterated scaremongering....

(Those weren't my first choice of words but in the interest of keeping to the forum rules and trying not to be rude i've settled on them)

Was any of your post based on actual fact or did you just make it all up?

fair enough sand will adopt the ambient air temperature but is that not also the case with sawdust, shavings, straw, wood, stones and every other non living inanimate object in the universe??

The act of the rabbit sitting on sand, just as it does with sawdust and other bedding will warm the sand and therefore the rabbit, its an insulation the same as any other material, in fact dry sand is only slightly less efficient than sawdust or wool, it has similar insulation properties to rubber which i'm sure you'd agree is a pretty good insulator!

Ear and eye infections from sand? sounds plausible, but Google it, I can't find any case of it, ever, in the history of the world...

Wood shavings in the eyes however, thats a different story its happens regularly!

I'm assuming Clarebelle is going to wash her sand before use and that even if she didn't I have to question your statement about rabbits getting salt sores from it, there is very little salt content in beach sand, if you Google it you will find (once again) its apparently never happened in the history of the world...... in fact any salt content is probably more beneficial to the rabbit rather than the other way around.

Dry sand will certainly absorb urine as well as evaporate it, I fail to see how it would attract more or less insects (biting insects no less) then wood based bedding, if its cleaned regularly and replaced as is the case with any bedding types then this would not be an issue.

Your statement about using sand as bedding possibly causing Clarebelle's stock to be wiped out by Myxomatosis is scaremongering in the extreme!! 

More food to compensate for the rabbits heat loss??? seriously?? Its not ice she's using its sand!

As you said yourself, rabbits are fur coated to keep them warm. if they are dry and out of the wind then whatever they are sitting on is going to have a very limited effect on their actual body temperature.

More than happy for you to come back with some evidence and prove me wrong on any of these points Cloddopper, lets give people good advice based on facts and not just opinions

There are billions of rabbits living in sand as we speak, not just near beaches but in very sandy soil..

you better let these guys know what mortal danger they are in! 

[in the hills]

Think sand could be cold when wet and stay wet longer than shavings. Would it freeze in the winter?  Maybe okay in the litter boxes and thrown out daily. Rabbits living on the beach/dune systems are a bit different in my opinion as they are not stuck in a confined area with the sand that they have wet on ... they are sleeping below ground and well away from soiled areas.

Also, would they dig in it? ..... scatter everywhere and end up with no material in runs.

[Clansman]

Think sand could be cold when wet and stay wet longer than shavings. Would it freeze in the winter? 

Shavings are cold when wet, everything is cold when wet, its part of the physics of evaporation.

Wet shavings will freeze in winter, exactly the same as wet sand would, i fail to see the difference.

To be fair, I haven't tried it so I don't know how successful it would be but very interested to hear how Clarebelle gets on with it.

[Clansman]

Clarebelle do you have access to dried peat?

I've been contacting some island rabbit keepers just to follow up your question and quite a few use or have used that successfully.

You can just burn it as normal once its been used 

Sand and dried grass from sand dunes also seem to be used fairly regularly