Good morning lovely/knowledgable people, I have a question about litter training, I'm not sure how,litter trained my bun is, or if this is the the best it's going to get.   Buckley would sit in his corner litter  tray watching the world go by but would wee/poop at the other end of his cage so I put another corner litter tray at the other end where he was doing his business, hoping this would solve the problem. However, I am still finding droppings pretty much evenly scattered all over his cage but with a pile of poop in one particular place (between the two litter trays!). These poops are dry not the soggy ones. When a bun is "litter trained" does this refer to just wee and wet poops and the dry ones are everywhere or  can I live in the hope that one day his cage won't be such a mess?

When he's out roaming he doesn't appear to be pooping or seeing on the carpet, it's just his cage that is a mess.

Also, there's  a wet patch on his sawdust under his water bottle, it's not wee as it doesn't smell, I thought the water bottle was leaking so I bought him a new one (different variety) but the wet patch is still there. Do buns dribble when they drink?

Any advice/suggestions gratefully received

Thank you

Jane

Hi, I'm moving this to the Behavior Section.

Is anyone able to offer any advice???? pls

Hi,
Sorry I am checking the posts kind of late today.
If you have sawdust on the bottom of the cage itself, that's probably a part of the problem. You want a clean cage bottom, not a wire bottom one btw, and only have litter in the litter boxes themselves. Bunnies don't need sawdust, just smooth surfaces for flooring. Plastic bottom cages are fine, as well as low pile rugs or tiles. Anyway, you want to be careful to never use Pine or Cedar shavings. They cause long term illnesses in bunnies. Aspen shavings make a great litter, however. The paper-based brands such as Carefresh are good, as are pelleted pine, aspen, Yesterday's News, etc.

It sounds like Buckley enjoys the brand of litter you've chosen if he's hanging out in the litter pans. That's a good sign. You want both pee and poos in there eventually. A good way to train him to confine the poos is to get them as soon as you see them elsewhere in the cage and toss them into the litter pan. This is frequent and tedious for you to do for a few days or even weeks, but he will learn that it's the place they really belong. You can also put some hay in one end of the litter pan so he can munch and poop in there at the same time, which is sometimes why there are poos outside the pan.

One last possibility is that either pan is just too small, as many corner ones are for a growing bunny. If he's getting around 4-5 lbs or more, change to a rectangular one for more room. My Sammy looks like she's on a cruise ship now that I got her a really large pan, but she obviously loves it and uses it even better than she used to.

Thank you for that RabbitPam, Buckley is a 16 week old Netherlands dwarf so is probably not going to grow very big anyway. Both his corner litter trays have some kind of recycled paper pellets in half of it and hay for the other half so he can poop and munch at the same time. I will try removing the sawdust and see how that goes. Will he not slide/slip when he jumps back in his cage? He's a bit weary of smooth floors as he has yet to venture off the carpet on the kitchen floor as he finds the smooth slipper surface scary, but I'll give it a go tonight.
Thanks