Suggestions for kennel flooring

[angelaw]

I've tried cypress, eucalyptus, cedar. All irritate the eyes down here to where I've had to get drops, ugh! Glad others aren't having problems with it. It would be so much cheaper if I could use it! Needless to say we're pouring a slap for the puppy area before the next litter arrives.

[Chris Wild]

Really? Nope, never had a single eye irritation problem here. Straw irritates *my* eyes for the reasons I mentioned above so I figured that was why we'd had no problems with the cedar chips. But maybe it's something else. Just further proof that nothing works for everyone. I'm just glad they're working for us thus far.

[questbest]

I wonder too if maybe shredded paper in the one pen where you have cedar chips would even work-good for recycling and there is always lots of places to get it.I kind of like the cedar chips idea tho because it will reduce the smell issue.Chris -how often do you find you re changing the cedar chips?And is it costly?

[Romance]

We used pine chips for a bit this summer (in the box) we changed chips every 2 days.

[Chris Wild]

Originally Posted By: LindasilChris -how often do you find you re changing the cedar chips?And is it costly?

How often we change them depends on if it's a litter that uses them for playing/sleeping or a litter that uses them for a litterbox.

If used for playing/sleeping, we take out all the chips, clean and disenfect everything once a week, and replace with new chips.

If used as a litterbox, we clean the litterbox several times a day. Scooping out the stools and urine soaked chips and refilling the box as needed with fresh chips to replace the fouled chips we take out. Then all the chips get removed, the box cleaned and disinfected, and all fresh chips put in every couple of days.

We buy the chips in 20lb bags for about $7 a bag. The chips are very compacted in the bags, so what looks like a rather small amount in the bag is actually a lot of chips once they're spread out and fluffed up. One 20lb bag will do 2 complete box changes.

[selzer]

I use cedar chips outside, but never did inside. I am considering it though. I have never had any eye problems with the chips. For the adult dogs, I used to have a four foot by fourteen foot potty area on one end of the concrete kennel. This had to be changed at least once a month even when you remove poo daily. It would require four bricks of chips to fill it. and these cost about six - seven dollars each.

These are a PITA when it comes to hosing down though. And in the winter if you put straw in the houses for them, they pull it out and mix it with the wood chips, add in melting ice and snow and then it becomes an awful mess. The chips can prevent the ice/snow from draining out properly.