The Good: Easy to clean, Inexpensive, Durable, Good design
The Bad: None inherent in the product, but rabbits may outgrow it way too fast!
The Basics: A surprisingly good device, the deceptively simple Long John Litter Tray is worth buying for small animals to get them litter trained!
Before rabbits came into my life personally, I had no idea that they could be litter trained, like cats. And yet, when I met my mother's rabbit, Bunny, Bunny finally earned her freedom from the cage when she began constantly using the litter box in her cage. It didn't matter where in the house she roamed or if her cage was moved, she would return to her cage to poop and urinate. Now that my wife and I have a rabbit of our own, Rowe, we are working to litter train her. One of the earliest victories we had in getting Rowe to use a litterbox was purchasing the Long John Litter Tray. This was a victory for a simple reason; Rowe was no longer able to urinate over the edge of her cage.
The Long John Litter Tray is basically a giant bowl that attaches to the side of a cage and owners fill with bunny litter and rabbits hop in and do their business there. The low lip on the front allows easy access from multiple angles and the high back acts as a splash guard which prevents bunny pee from going elsewhere in the cage.
Made of fairly thick (about ¼” thick) glossy plastic, the Long John Litter Tray is 9 1/2" long on the two straight sides and 7” deep, oriented like a nook in the corner of the cage. As a result, it has two straight sides which essentially line the corner of the cage before coming out to a curved dish where the rabbit stands. Attaching the litter tray is absolutely simple. All one needs to do is find two of the bars of the cage (which are laying horizontally) and slide the plastic hooks over them. Because of how the litter pan is shaped, the only possible way to attach this to the cage side is in the corner. This is almost idiot proof, save that one needs to leave the tray on the bottom of the cage; actually hanging the litter tray will cause the plastic hooks to snap when filled with litter or when the rabbit hops in. The hooks are intended to be a stabilizing measure which prevents the litter tray from being moved around the cage, not hanging it up.
I tend to recommend only filling the litter tray half full with litter because most rabbit litters expand when rabbits urinate on them. It is part of the clumping action that litters possess.
If, for some reason, the litter tray becomes dirty, the glossy plastic is exceptionally easy to wash and as a result, this product – which we found locally for $9.00 – is both inexpensive and easy-to-use. Since installing the litter tray, Rowe has used it every few hours and I need to empty it only once every three days. It does what it promises and our rabbit is on her way to an expanded measure of freedom as soon as we're sure she has mastered it!
Ultimately, this is one of those simple products which is pretty much idiotproof and when it works, it works. There's little else to say about the Long John Litter Tray, so if you're getting a rabbit this ought to be the first accessory (outside a water bottle) you purchase for it! Unfortunately, about two months after we bought Rowe and the litter tray, Rowe outgrew this and stopped using the Long John tray, making it worthless in her cage. Between that and the footprint in the cage – the space it takes up – it is hard to consider it an absolutely perfect product, though I initially thought it was!
For other products for rabbits, please check out my reviews of:
Lixit Hay Rack
LM Animal Farms Timothy Hay
LM Animal Farms Vita-Bits Rabbit Food
8/10
For other products for rabbits, please click on over to my index page!
© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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