training

[Penelope]

I’m having some trouble with liter training. I made sure to put her box in the corner she seemed to be going in most but then she’ll just find a new spot in the cage. I’m not really as worried as long as she goes somewhere in her cage but as soon as I let her out there are poops everywhere. I know this takes patience but I’d been working on this for over a month and it’s not getting any better, I feel like I’m constantly cleaning up messes. I’ll make sure to put her messes in her liter box so she recognizes the smell, and I added hay for her to munch on. The only problem is I don’t like keeping wet bedding in her cage for very long for obvious reasons so maybe she’s not getting the idea because I’m changing her bedding so often? 

sorry for the long explanation, any advice is appreciated.

Thank you!

[Sarita]

Moving to behavior.

[Kbana]

When you say bedding, is it in the entire cage or just the litter box? You should leave everything soft like bedding out of the cage entirely. Only the litter box should have bedding/litter in it. Otherwise they tend to get confused and use the whole cage as a litter box. I clean out the litter once a day so if the litter box is big enough, you shouldn’t have to change it more often than that. What litter are you using? Sometimes when litter isn’t absorbent enough a bun won’t continue to use the box once it’s wet.

[Rufus]

Definitely agree with Kbana. Also, make sure she has hay in her litterbox to entice her to spend more time in there and give her something to munch on while she goes.

[Penelope]

thanks for your replies! Here is the problem, I’ve only given her Timothy hay which she seems to pick at a little bit but she is crazy about her alfalfa pellets. I don’t think the timothy hay is as much of a treat as it should be for her. So I should only have soft bedding (I use an unbleached paper bedding) in her liter box? She loves to jump on my bed and almost always leaves a “treat” for me on my comforter. We have hard wood and I almost rarely see any droppings on them, but I lay down blankets for her to run around on and she always leaves a mess. How do I get her to distinguish liter box vs. furniture and blankets when she’s playing? Again, thank you for your advice it’s much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

Gee, what a hard one…. everyone’s buns are so different. My Henry actually chose his toilet and we happily went with the flow. Then when we decided to build him a house (cause I wanted it to look nicer and blend into my kitchen/dining room) I bought a cabinet with doors on the front (I thought great – easy access for toilet cleaning & I called it his ensuite) cut a hole/doorway in the side to sit next to his cage which is open. Bugger me!!!! He then chose to have his toilet at the other end of his area. No probs – just a bit harder to get in to clean. And his old ensuite in the cabinet is just a way out for him through the night – yes he worked out how to open those dam front doors!
Again, different to most BBer’s, I use shredded paper and newspaper in his toilet (change it daily) and the one time I gave him a fleece blanket he wee’d all over it and chewed it. Now I only line his cage with newspaper and catalogues. And I keep his hay available in a cat litter tray. He lays in it after a graze, and he doesn’t wee or poop in it.
My comforter/bed – yes, that was his second toilet till I had him neutered. Thank fully I’ve had no probs with Henry since then. Not sure if this helped, but just to let you know how different everyone and every bun can be…. all the best, Henry’s mum.

[Kbana]

Yes, anything soft will just encourage them to go potty. Whether that be your bed, blankets, carpet sometimes…whatever! Stinkers! Is she spayed? Until then they really don’t get the difference between things they should potty on and things they shouldn’t.

[Author]

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