Poopie Problem!

[Helena]

 Hi all,

My bun, Chewie, is about 6-7 months old and is pretty good about urinating in her litterbox; however, when it comes to dropping pellets, she’s terrible! For some reason, she refuses to poop in her litterbox and loves pooping on our carpet. Everytime I catch her in the act, I herd her back towards her litterbox, but she just jumps out and poops outside again. She clearly likes urinating in there so I’m not sure what the problem is. =( There’s always plenty of hay so I’m not sure what else I can do. 

Thanks!

[LoveChaCha]

I would just throw the poopies into the litter box. It shows her “This is where you poop!” Also, throw some hay into the box

Is she spayed at all?

[TriBun]

Hi Helena. I’ve had the same problem with my Rosy. Not a single poop in the litter box and I tried EVERYTHING. The only thing that helped was getting her spayed. I’m still struggling with her (not that this means you will too), but her pooping outside the box has improved by at least 50% since her spay 2 weeks ago.

I’m guessing Chewie is not spayed?

[Helena]

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for responding. Chewie was spayed about a month ago and her litter habits did improve, minus the pooping! She used to urinate everywhere and drop pellets as she walked around…that no longer happens but i just can’t get her to poo in her litterbox! She’s more than happy to jump in to urinate but pellets are all over the ground. =(

[TriBun]

Oh no, so much for an easy answer :p. What kind of litter do you use? Maybe she doesn’t like the litter. I’m really not much help since I”m having problems myself. I like to re-read the House Rabbit Society’s page on litter box training every once in a while to see if I’m missing anything:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/litter.html

[Stickerbunny]

Is there anything that might be confusing her, like a scent that isn’t normal? Maybe you or anyone in the house get a dog cat or whatever scent on you and spread it in? Or other humans scents she doesn’t recognize? It sounds kinda like territorial marking if she’s putting her droppings around the house.

[jerseygirl]

Could be a combo of her being a teenbun and not long post-spay. Hopefully you’ll start to see an improvement in time.
Is she pooping mostly near her litterbox or when she’s out and about or both?
What type of litter are you using?  Does she just jump in, pee and go or does she sometimes just like to sit in there?

You might have to limit her time out of her enclosure until her habits improve. If she’s in a cage you could add a pen to increase her space for now. Also, try a larger litterbox, load up the hay, maybe hide some yummies in it and generally make it a place she likes to hang out in.

[Author]

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