Small Pet Select Litter vs Fresh News: Which Paper Litter Is Better for Rabbits?

If you keep a house rabbit, you already know the litter question is not a small one. I have kept rabbits for about fifteen years, and I have tried most of what gets sold as small-animal litter. When I put Small Pet Select's recycled paper pellets next to Fresh News, the honest short answer is this: both are safe paper litters, but they are built for different jobs. Small Pet Select wins for everyday litter box duty in a house. Fresh News wins if your rabbit wants to dig, burrow, and turn the whole box into a nest.

Over the past two months I ran both in Clover's corner box. Clover is a 4-year-old Holland Lop, about 4 pounds, who free roams the living room during the day and sleeps in a pen at night. I gave each litter a full box cycle, scooped daily, deep cleaned weekly, and kept notes on smell at the 12-hour mark, dust when pouring, tracking around the room, and how much I ended up throwing away. Here is what I found.

Side by Side: Small Pet Select vs Fresh News

	Small Pet Select	Fresh News
Base material	Recycled paper pellets that hold their shape until they get wet	Recycled paper that expands into soft, fluffy fibers
When wet	Breaks into sawdust-like bits that scoop out cleanly	Swells into a damp pulp that can cling to box corners
Odor control	Holds urine smell for a full day between scoops	Good, but needs stirring once it gets damp
Dust	Low dust, comfortable in a living room	Also low dust, though fresh fluff can drift a little
Tracking	Pellets mostly stay in the box	Fluffy bits ride on paws and show up around the room
Best for	Everyday litter box duty in a small house	Rabbits that love to dig, burrow, or nest
Bag size	20 lb bag, sized for daily box changes	Smaller bags, handy for trying it out

Where Small Pet Select Wins

The pellet structure is the whole story. Small Pet Select comes as firm little pellets, and they stay firm until urine hits them. Then they break down into a sawdust-like crumble instead of turning into a soggy mat. That matters more than it sounds like it should. When I scoop Clover's box, I can lift out the wet spots and leave the clean pellets in place. With a fluffier litter I always felt like I was either leaving damp material behind or throwing away dry material along with it. The pellets waste less.

Odor control is where the pellet format earns its keep. Clover's box sits in the corner of the living room, which is also where I drink my coffee, so I am a harsh judge. With Small Pet Select, a morning scoop keeps the room neutral until the next day. The pellets absorb urine fast and hold the ammonia smell instead of releasing it. Fresh News absorbed just as quickly, but the damp pulp needed turning, and if I missed a day the sour note showed up in the wet corners. For a box in a shared room, that difference decides it.

Where Fresh News Wins

Fresh News is a different texture entirely. Instead of pellets, it is shredded paper that expands into a soft, fluffy bed. If your rabbit likes to dig, toss, and rearrange, this is the litter they will have fun with. Clover is a serious chewer and a light digger, and she enjoyed kicking Fresh News around more than she ever bothered with the pellets. Rabbits I have kept before, especially the ones who wanted to build a nest, would have buried themselves in this stuff happily.

There is also a comfort angle. Fresh News stays softer underfoot than pellets, which matters for a rabbit who likes to sit in the box and think about things. If your rabbit spends a lot of time lying around in the litter box, the fluff is gentler. I would also use it as a top layer over pellets, which gives you the absorbency of pellets and the softness of fluff. That is a legitimate way to use both, and it might be the best of both worlds. If you have ever watched a rabbit fling bedding with total focus, you know this is enrichment, not mess.

How I Compared Them

To keep the test fair, I used the same corner box, the same hay rack, the same daily scooping routine, and the same weekly deep clean for both litters. I ran Small Pet Select for two full weeks, then switched to Fresh News for two full weeks. Clover has one box, so running them side by side was never an option, and honestly a rabbit will pick a favorite corner no matter how many boxes you offer. Two weeks is enough to see the pattern, because a rabbit's habits do not change much week to week.

I judged four things. Smell, checked in the morning and again in the evening. Dust, noticed when I poured fresh litter into the box. Tracking, which I measured in how many bits I found on the living room floor and on my socks. And waste, which is how much litter I threw away at each deep clean. I also watched how Clover behaved with each one. She used both without complaint, which tells me both are safe, familiar-feeling paper litters. The differences showed up in the routine, not in her willingness.

Odor Control in a Small Living Room

Clover's box is in the living room because that is where she lives, and I do not want to smell it. With Small Pet Select, the routine is simple. She pees, the pellets around the spot break down, I scoop the crumble once a day, and the box stays neutral. The key is that the wet material turns into something I can actually remove. If I miss a scoop, the box smells like paper, not ammonia, for a good while longer than I expected.

Fresh News handled a single day fine, but it demanded more attention. Because the paper expands when wet, the damp area grows wider than it does with pellets. If I did not stir or scoop it, the wet pulp would sit against the box and start to smell sour by the second day. It is not a bad odor, exactly, but in a small house it is noticeable. If your rabbit's box is in a garage or a room you pass through quickly, this matters less. In a living room, it matters a lot.

By day two, the damp corners told the story. Small Pet Select scooped clean, while the fluffy Fresh News needed stirring before it started to smell.

Dust, Tracking, and Cleanup

Both of these are low-dust compared to clay litter or wood shavings, which matters for rabbits and for the humans in the house. Pouring Small Pet Select raised almost no visible dust. Fresh News was similar, though the lightest fluff drifted in the air for a moment when I poured a fresh bag. Neither ever made Clover sneeze, and neither left the kind of film you get with dustier brands. I also checked the bottom of the box at deep clean, and both brands left the plastic easy to wipe down.

Tracking was the clearest difference. Small Pet Select pellets mostly stayed in the box. Clover kicked a few out when she hopped in and out, and I swept them up, but they sat where they landed until I did. Fresh News fluff stuck to her paws and rode along, so I found little paper bits on the rug, on the couch, and on my socks. It is not a dealbreaker, but if you are particular about a clean floor, the pellets win. Cleanup inside the box followed the same pattern: pellets scoop into tidy crumbles, fluff needs more sifting. That matters more than it sounds, because a trail of litter through the house is how you end up sweeping twice a day.

The Setup That Works Best

Whichever litter you choose, the box setup matters as much as the brand. I use a corner litter box with high sides, because Clover likes to back into the corner and spray. I add about two inches of litter, then a thick layer of hay on top. Rabbits like to eat and poop at the same time, and the hay keeps their feet off the wet litter. With Small Pet Select, the pellets stay put under the hay, and the hay gets tossed out with the daily scoop. With Fresh News, the fluff worked its way up through the hay more, so I found myself picking paper out of the hay pile.

The second thing I learned is that less is more. A deep layer of paper fluff holds a lot of urine, but it also holds the smell longer because the wet material sits against the bottom of the box. Pellets do the same job in a thinner layer, and because they break into crumble instead of expanding, the wet spots are easier to find and remove. On deep clean day I empty everything, wipe the box with a pet-safe cleaner, let it dry, and start fresh. Both litters made that weekly job easy. Neither stuck to the plastic the way clay litter can.

What I'd Change About Each

Small Pet Select is not a litter your rabbit will want to play in. If you have a digger who loves to toss bedding around, they will find the pellets boring, and they may kick them out of the box out of pure attitude. The pellets are also heavier to pour than fluff, and the 20 lb bag asks for a bit of shelf space. None of that bothers me, but it is worth knowing before you buy.

Fresh News asks more of your daily routine. It is lovely and soft, but it needs stirring, it tracks, and the bag does not last as long for the same box because the paper expands as it absorbs. If you are the kind of person who wants to set up a litter box and just scoop it, Fresh News will feel like extra chores. If you enjoy giving your rabbit a soft, nestable material, those chores will feel like part of the fun.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy Small Pet Select if your rabbit lives indoors, if the litter box shares your living space, and if you want a scoop-and-go routine. It controls smell, stays put, and the 20 lb bag means you are not reordering every week. This is the litter I keep buying for Clover, and it is what I would recommend to most house rabbit owners, especially first-timers who are still figuring out their routine. Clover has used it for months now, and I have no reason to switch.

Buy Fresh News if your rabbit is a dedicated digger, if you want the softest possible surface in the box, or if you plan to use it as a top layer over pellets. It is a good litter, just a higher-maintenance one. And if you are not sure which rabbit you have yet, start with paper pellets, because they make a tidy baseline, and add a handful of fluff on top so your rabbit can tell you what they prefer.