[cloddopper]

     I was just going to post the exact same comments M'lud , but you beat me to it .

 T'is a good comment .

Would the effect of the oxygen in open air and carbon dioxide & other pollutants dissolved in rain also help to reduce  bugs bacteria etc ?

[Kimbo]

That's interesting lord Flynn....so do UV filters work to purify spring water? Sorry...off topic I suppose 

[lord flynn]

  I was just going to post the exact same comments M'lud , but you beat me to it .

 T'is a good comment .

Would the effect of the oxygen in open air and carbon dioxide & other pollutants dissolved in rain also help to reduce  bugs bacteria etc ?

again, depends on what they are. Oxygen is very toxic to some bacteria, successful pathogens generally have some tolerance to it (there's oxygen in blood and tissues after all) or a need for it-most can use either oxygen or CO2 even if they have a preference for one or other.
 Alot of organisms that cause illness through simply being in the wrong place (eg the tetanus bug) are really oxygen intolerant and survive by some of them forming spores. They only form illness in the host when they have an oxygen free environment like an abscess in a wound. I don't know about dissolved pollutants but if anything can survive them, it would be bacteria (if you are interested google biofilms).

[lord flynn]

That's interesting lord Flynn....so do UV filters work to purify spring water? Sorry...off topic I suppose 

yes, they can be used as such but only in part-alot depends on the turbidity of the water and what else you need to get rid of. Not my area

[Bogtrotter]

I'm going to join this one late

Personally I would use neither sand nor shavings.
Shavings are ok IF you can find them not made of pine. The phenols in the pine are an irritant to the rabbits respiritory system. Sand I think would just be annoying, heavy when wet, fly away when dry.
When i kept my rabbits in hutches (which I don't anymore) I would put straw in the bed compartment (or dried leaves/shredded paper, chopped cardboard etc) Lino in the main area with a litter tray under the hay rack. Buns tend to poo where they nibble so will poo whilst at the hay rack.
Mine have a tray under theirs in their compound and it is a doddle to clean up.
Lino is easy to wipe down, and they like the coolness of it in the summer, when cold I put several layers of cardboard under the lino in the winter. I also used to get a cardboard box a bit smaller than the bedroom area, cut a pop hole in it and wedge it in the bedroom. Then stuff the gap round the outside of the box with straw; nice and snug

[Clarebelle]

I might as well update this as someone else has joined in!

I made the switch from shavings to sand in just one hutch to begin with. Straight way I could see that it wouldn't be as easy to 'scoop the poop' as it is with the chickens, mainly because the chicken urates being part of the poo means it all leaves the body in one small compact package! Very easy to scoop! Obviously rabbits dont do this so wee areas were hard to deal with as it just made the sand wet and this blended with the rest of the sand.

The other problem was straw bedding and hay getting trodden into the sand which didn't seem to happen with the shavings.

So, i got a litter tray which i use shavings in and i got a hay net so the hay wasn't low down and also got nest boxes containing straw for the bedding area. With these few tweaks the sand is working really well. I have seen no evidence of the rabbits suffering adversely for being on sand so I am planning to change the other hutches over to the this method when i have time!

It hasn't eliminated the use of shavings completely but has reduced it alot so we wont have to buy it so often.