Can I litter train an unspayed bunny?

[SuperCheesetastic]

I have a bunny in my avatar.

She is my only bunny.

She is my first bunny.

She is 11 and a half weeks.

I read that she cannot be spayed until 6 months old.

Can I begin litter training her now?

I could not find any information on litter training unspayed bunnies specifically…

So, here I am.

Have a hoppy new year!

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Sure, you can try to I had success with litter training my first one prior to spaying

Have you found an exotic vet? I’d ask when they spay, my vet spays girls at 5 months.

What kind of set up do you have? We’d love to help

[SuperCheesetastic]

She’s in a pretty tiny cage now.
It’s one of those cages sold for rabbits, but everyone knows they’re too small for any real use.

I plan on buying a dog pen to place her in.
I don’t mean the wire kind with the wide bar spacing that she can poke her head through.
I mean the soft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md43L2kYeQw
^Like that, but rectangular.

Then I could house her and her box in there until she’s fully trained and we can let her free roam…
Unless she’s too young to free roam.
Yeah, she probably can’t free roam until she’s bigger.
She’s very tiny now.

 

 

EDIT: We have quite a few exotic vets here. They want over 300 to spay a girl. A few hours away is a vet that’ll do it for under 200. That’s fine.

[Bunnehs]

Yes, but it depends on your bunny, if they will or not. You can try removing all bedding and just placing the bedding into a litter box. It will take more time though. Just put all their poop and soaked up pee into the litter box. Back then, I put all the bunny’s food in the litter box so when they eat, they will poop in there.

HOPPY NEW YEARS EVE.

[SuperCheesetastic]

YAY! I’ve read that I cannot use aspen.
Why not?
It doesn’t smell like pine or cedar and those are toxic.
I never thought the kiln-dried aspen was toxic.

I’m kinda lost on transitioning from small cage to litter training to free range.
Can free range rabbits have access to all rooms once litter trained (and once the entire house is bunny proof)?
I’ve noticed most free range rabbits are limited to their own room.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Well first, like you know the petstore cage is too small, even for baby bunnies. The pop-up pen isn’t any good either, a determined bun would chew through that in a couple of hours. I personally love exercise pens (xpens), it give an acceptable amount of in-cage space and is pretty inexpensive, on amazon for about 40 bucks. XL dog cages/pens make a good alternative cage too, if you need something with a bottom and don’t want to buy a rug or linoleum for a floor. I use xpens on our tile floor for a home base, but both buns have free roam of the house most of the day.

To start, buy a couple of litter boxes, and put litter in Put hay in the boxes, I usually put it on one end and then my girls would jump in the other end to eat and do their business. Its not gross, though it seems it, the bunnies are used to foraging and wont eat what has been possibly soiled.

Remove all bedding from the rest of the pen, no blankets or shavings/litter/newspaper anywhere but the litter box.

Put the boxes in locations where you see she likes to pee and poop. Clean up any pee with a tissue or toilet paper and put an occasional one in the litter box.

My Samson was litter trained the first day she got home at 6-8 weeks old, they naturally like to use one section and don’t like to be dirty, so it *should* be easy.

Some people do variations of free range. I say my buns are free range, but I guess they really aren’t because I lock them up at night. Its mostly for their safety, if there were a fire or emergency I know where they are. Mine are also both young, one is 10 months and the other 13 weeks, so I’m not confident in letting them loose in the whole house at all times and not worry about damaging something. Although really they just can’t go in the spare room and the closets. I think there are degrees of Free range, is what I’m saying

ETA- I actually don’t know much about the different shavings, I’ve never used them because I don’t like the overwhelming smell. I use wood stove chips, I actually really like them and they are only 4 bucks for 40 lbs

[SuperCheesetastic]

I think I should later post a youtube video of my living space and ask for advice on free-ranging to make sure i’m doing it right.

It’s gonna take a while to bunny proof my room!

For now, I think I can limit her to my room (carpeted, oh no!) and bathroom.
How do I block off the hallway?
I have storage cubes but I believe her head can stick through…
The squares are 8 squares long and 8 wide.

Yeah, keeping her in my room is probably a good idea.
I’m a college student and my mom is kind odd when it comes to rules.

She’s always randomly making up new ones.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Yes of course-training is training It’s just that spayed rabbits will not have territorial urges. But if you work hard and are diligent you can train any animal to do anything it’s physically and mentally capable of AND this work will set a great base for when she is spayed
Small area, put her in the litter box when she goes; be flexible and put the litter box where she wants to ‘go’, add more if needed-more litter boxes equals more chances for success, small space to start off with; And put any accidents back in the litter box, wipe up pee with a paper towel and put that back in the box-and put poos back into the box. Put yummy hay in the litter box so she wants to be in there-they naturally toilet when eating hay so this reinforces going in the box. You’ll do great!

[Mandyyy]

My Nava is and is not spayed, and she uses the litter box. Mind you it is easier (and better for your bun) to get her spayed. Litter habits are better with fixed bunnies, but I would introduce her to the box now so after she is fixed she’ll know what it is.

[Monkeybun]

Should be fine to start litter training now And aspen is fine, just stay away from the pine and cedar

[New Bunny Mum]

Pancakes isn’t spayed yet – I’m waiting until she is six months in feb – as I have over a week off work then too, so I can make sure I am with her over the recovery period.

She took to litter training very quickly. I started off using about 4 litter boxes in all the corners she chose to ‘go’ in. (I have her living in my kitchen which has wooden floors anyway so accidents weren’t too much of a problem.) I gradually took them out, keeping the ones she used most. Now she is down to two litter boxes – one in her open indoor cage – she is never shut in it as it is small, but she likes to have it as her base. It has a cardboard box in with a blanket inside that she mostly sleeps in and a litter box with litter and hay in. She rarely uses that litter box to go in, but having it in her cage means I dont end up with hay everywhere. The other litterbox is in a corner of the kitchen. She uses this one to pee and poop in. I have in sat on some newspaper just in case, and to catch and poops that get kicked out as she goes in and out.

I use wooden stove pellets – I have tried shavings- they were terrible and recommended to me by a pet shop which was ridiculous. They are bad for rabbits and they are so lightweight they just end up everywhere. I have also used Carefresh (a paper bedding that is very popular) but again found she was kicking it everywhere as she went in and out. The wood pellets are massively absorbant, smell nice and are heavy enough that they don’t get flicked everywhere.

I found hay in the box be crucial when training her, although now she is trained she seems to ignore any hay I put in in the box she uses the most, preferring to eat in her cage box. Funny bun!

[kinggoblin]

My boy was litter trained before he got neutered, he never lost his litter habits before or after the neuter either, but it varies between bun, being fixed helps if they make territorial poos or pees.

[SuperCheesetastic]

Are the lavendar or cinnamon scented Kaytee soft-sorbant litters a “no”?
… And shall I put the box in the cage, or in the hallway…

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Posted By SuperCheesetastic on 01/01/2012 06:19 AM
Are the lavendar or cinnamon scented Kaytee soft-sorbant litters a “no”?
… And shall I put the box in the cage, or in the hallway…

Yeah, scented anything is a no-no.

Put the box where she’ll have access to in 100%. If she lives in the hall, put them in the hall.

[SuperCheesetastic]

I think i’ll put the litter box in the bathroom. During playtime, she likes to pee behind the toilet.
We do keep or plunger at the other side, but it has a case.
So does our toilet brush.
Plungers cannot hurt bunnies, right?
We have wooden cabinets under our sink, but she doesn’t seem to be a chewer.
We also have closed and hinged cabiniet drawers that can be opened.
We keep our detergent in there.
I don’t think our bunny can open them…
But the toilet is next to the shower, so her litter may get wet sometimes after the shower is used.
But then we’d have to change it.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

You need to keep the litter box where she is 100% of the time, otherwise she wont learn to use it. Putting it in the bathroom where she has occasional playtime wont work :/ A toilet brush and plunger might make get chewed, which is pretty gross. I’d put them up for playtime.

[equalsign]

 In my opinion training rabbits to urinate in their litter boxes is quite easy. They pretty much do that on their own. To an extent they can be trained to leave their pellets in the litter box, but until you get them spayed/neutered they’re going to leave many out and about. This is especially true for their cage/pen and any area they consider *their* territory.

 

For me, it definately got worse around 8 months, so if that’s a problem get her spayed before that. I think I’ve heard it’s a way they mark their territory, so as they mature and get more territorial it becomes more of an issue. They will always leave a few poos here and there, and can sometimes knock some out of their litter box when they hop out.  Not really a big deal.

 

The occasional cecal or urine can be gotten up with some Nature’s Miracle. Just the regular kind works fine for me, but I’ve heard some users buy the cat urine variety (I think). In my opinion it’s really a must have, ESPECIALLY for the owner of an unadjusted rabbit. It’s one of those things you’re going to be grateful for when you need it.

 

My boy wasn’t a chewer until we got him neutered. In my opinion, the only true way to stop rabbit chewing is more toys . Better safe. Willow cubes and the maze haven have have been real hits for mine.

[RabbitPam]

Looks like you’ve gotten plenty of good advice here already.
I’ll just add that a baby bunny is very willing to train itself, and the sooner you work with her on it the sooner she will learn and have good habits. In fact, she should be better now then possibly start to lose them as her hormones kick in later on before she gets spayed.

Aspen – a big YES! It’s excellent! I use the pellets first, for a long lasting absorbent litter that is the best for eliminating odors. Then Aspen shavings, which are quite safe, for a softer top layer.
Untreated Pine Pellets are OK, but NOT pine shavings. No cedar either. Feline Pine Pellets are sold for cats, but is a fine and cheap litter for bunnies. Use a large litter pan that she can grow into. She may lay down in it, but that’s OK too. Soak up pee with a paper towel and toss it into the litter box to get her to learn it goes in there. Scoop up poos and toss them in also. If she persists in peeing in a corner, place the box in that corner.

[BadAbunny]

So my little bun is 6 weeks old, I’ve got one of the Wabbitat cages so it’s a bit larger and he’s tiny so he’s got room in there. I’ve put his food and water in a corner litter pan, which he happily hops in to eat, but he is pooping all over the place. I’ve got another cat sized little box downstairs with pelets and hay in it, he’ll jump in and probably poop but is there a way to minimize the amount of bunny bombs he leaves all over his cage and living room when I have him out to play? Maybe he’s too young and honestly I don’t mind picking up after him but would like to train him if he’s able.

[DanaNM]

Hi @BadAbunny,

This thread is many years old, so you may not get many responses. We ask members not to reply to old threads to avoid confusion, but you should start your own thread to get some input. 🙂

Going to lock this thread now.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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