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Forum BEHAVIOR Litter Training a Young Bunny

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    • [138]
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        Hello, all!

        My girlfriend got a new baby bunny a little over 2 weeks ago, which pretty much means I got a new baby bunny a little over 2 weeks ago. His name is Brynjolf. We kept his cage in her basement for the first week. We would let him out to roam the basement freely after bunny-proofing as well as we could. We never took our eyes off of him and, once he warmed up to us, we would play with him. He would get hours of exercise a day throughout 2 rooms in the basement and the worst he would do is dig and chew at the carpet and leave droppings sparingly. 

        After a week, she moved his cage to her room so we could spend more time with him. We blocked off most of the room with plywood so he couldn’t get behind or under things like bookshelves and her bed. His cage has a thick wire bottom (with about a third of it covered by a Timothy Hay woven mat for comfort and fun) and a tray for litter underneath, and he has always used his cage as his litter box. Now that he is in her room, however, he comes out of his cage to go. He does go in his cage and night and midday when it’s closed and he doesn’t have an option, but when we’re home and his cage is open he’ll lie around for an hour until he has to go, and when he does, he’ll come out to do so. We tried suggesting the cage to him (gently nudging him towards his cage when he tries to go and putting the droppings from the floor in there), but to no avail. 

        We just picked up a litter tray the other day, filled it with Timothy Hay, and put it in his favorite spot. At first he wanted nothing to do with it, but I put it in his cage around where he usually goes that night and he seems okay with it now. But he will not use it to go. He’ll eat the hay, or lay in it when it’s in his cage, but he will not go. When he’s out of his cage, he’ll go at a spot a little further along the wall than the litter tray (where he would go before).

        What should we do? Should we move him back to the basement? Is he just too young? He’s only 3 months old. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I would love to be able to give Brynjolf more freedom around the house and more room to exercise, but first we must overcome this obstacle. 

        Thanks in advance for any help you may offer!


      • Mocha
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          Get him neutered when he is of age (when he reaches sexual maturity usually 4-6 months of age). It will REALLY help. Don’t use a wirebottom cage. The cause sore hocks, and those are a pain. You can use an x-pen (doggie pen), or you can build him an NIC grid condo.

          Where they go to the bathroom, they’re generally marking their territory.
          Also, getting him neutered would stop him from spraying.


        • Tessie
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            I agree with Mocha, getting him neutered will help, but he’s a bit young at the moment.
            Wire floored cages aren’t good, look for an ex-pen, they’re really flexible and give lots of space

            Soak up any pee with tissue and then put the tissue in his litterbox. Then the areas he’s peeing on with vinegar, that should help with the smell.
            Poops are a bit harder to train, but they’re less messy anyway.


          • Tedster
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              Based on my experience with my bunny, a lot of people said that he’s too young to be litter trained and I don’t 100% agree with that. I mean I know it may be harder since they are so young, but I still kept trying because I mean, hey, it doesn’t hurt to try. My bunny Teddy will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. He is fairly well litter trained but sometimes, he does go outside of his litter box, like a few droppings but 99% of the time is in his litter box. I would let him out in my room for hours and when I put him back in the cage, he goes straight to the litter box right away to do his thing. Ever since I got him, he has never pee or poo when he’s running around in my room. I don’t know if it’ll help your bunny or not but I heard that neutering will help a lot (as those two lovely people posted it above) but what I do is that I put his litter box where he usually goes and I put a hay rack next to it, so as he eats, he goes in the litter box. I personally don’t like putting hay directly on his litter box because I thought it was really messy like he would poo and pee on the hay and then he wouldn’t eat it and that’s a waste of hay. I also put his food right next to the litter box so when he has to go, he’ll know where to go. In the beginning, yes he will go outside of his litter box every now and then, but eventually he will learn. Also, when my bunny goes outside the litter box, I pick up his dropping, get his attention and when he’s looking, put it in his litter box to show him that his droppings should go in there. Now, every bunny may be different, so I’m not sure how long it should take your bunny but it took my bun around a week and a few days. Also, minimize the space that he should be running around in because two rooms seems like a lot of space which will be harder for him to learn to use his litter box. I know that you said that he barely poo outside but if you start him off in a smaller room, it’ll definitely be easier. Hope that helps and good luck!~


            • Tedster
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                Oh gosh, sorry for posting again but I forgot to say something important. Bunnies do need their exercise but when I got my bunny, on the second day I start litter box training him right away. When I started training, I didn’t let him out his cage for about 2 days. I would sit outside his cage and monitor him. At first he would try to reach for his hay without getting in the litter box and so I would nudge him to jump on his litter box, pick up his fresh droppings, and etc. So overall, I’m just monitoring him and letting him get used to his cage and realize that poo and pee only goes in the litter box. After two days, I started to let him out to run around. I started off small like letting him out in the bathroom and it took him like 4 days to finally run around the bathroom for hours and hours without leaving behind pee and droppings. Then I started to move him to my room and this time it was faster for him to pick up the process. It took him about 2 days. Now I am letting him run around the hall way (I blocked the staircase if you have any with a baby gate) and he seems to be doing pretty great with not pooing or peeing when he’s running around my room or the hall way. Next it will be the Teddy room, which is an empty room and I’ll be buying a play pen for him because I can’t have one now, since I don’t have any space to put it and I’ll be moving his cage in there, so he’ll have a room all to himself. Also, having more than one litter pan will increase the chance of your bunny using it. Hopefully this will help you. As always, patience is key and I think you will have fun going through the journey of litter training with your bun (well, I had fun, lol).

                About the cage, each cage have their own advantage and disadvantage. I personally prefer a wired bottom cage because it’s easier to clean and my bunny just loves to lay in it because it’s very cooling. To certain breed of rabbits, it can hurt their feet if they have less fur on their feet, but the breeder who sold me the bunny raised all this bunnies with wired cage and they seem to be fine and Teddy seems to love it too. He can lay around on the wire all day long. If you are afraid of it hurting the bun’s feet, place an edible grass mat in there, and like a comfortable bed or something like that to take up the space of the cage. I got Teddy a comfortable bed and he never used it, not even once. He hated it. Wire bottom cage are also easier to clean and they don’t give off much of an odor and keeps your bun cleaner because a plastic bottom cage can cause your bunny to eat the beddings, sit or lay on his pee or poo when they aren’t litter trained and trust me, you don’t want that when they have gooey poo, and get wet tail which is diarrhea. I think your cage will be fine, just make sure that your bun’s feet won’t get caught in it, if he can run around freely and fine in his cage, he’ll be fine. If you want to be on the safer side, buy him some mats. He will love sitting on it and chewing it. 


              • Tessie
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                  Hey, just wanted to say that we don’t recommend wire floors at all, they are very bad for bunnies feet and cause painful problems.


                • Eepster
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                    Meeting him halfway by putting the litter box where he pees is a good start, but only a start.

                    Part of the issue might be him wanting to mark the bedroom b/c it smells too much like you girlfriend and you. So he might not be ready to be in there yet.

                    The litter box needs to smell like pee for him to view it as the place to pee. Next time you have a pee spot, blot up as much of it as you can with a clean dry unscented paper towel or tissue and place it into the litterbox before you clean the spot with something that will eliminate the odor from where you don’t wan t him peeing. I recommend white vinegar diluted with water. Make sure any pee spots are well saturated, so that no smell lingers. Keep in mind, just b/c you can’t smell doesn’t mean your bunny can’t smell it, humans have less sensitive noses.

                    Fill the litter box not just with hay, but also litter. Something nice and absorbent and bunny safe. A little hay in the box is good, but it soon becomes soiled if bunny uses the box. Hang a hay rack above the box so that bunny can use the box and still have fresh clean hay.


                  • Tedster
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                      Tessie, I heard about this a lot, but the breeder that I got it from handmade the wire cage and they said it wouldn’t hurt the bun’s feet; however, I still have mats in the cage for him to walk around in since he’s pretty well litter trained now. Only the top floor doesn’t have a mat or anything because he would just throw it down, because that’s where he likes to lay and sleep.


                    • Tessie
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                        Breeders tend not to know/care how bunnies are kept, and often recommend things that are bad for them, so breeders aren’t the place to get bunny advice from unfortunately!

                        The mats probably help but I’d encourage you to cover both floors in mats or get a new cage, and like I said, we don’t recommend wire floors here


                      • Mocha
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                          I agree with Tessie. Cover both floor with mats and/or fleece, or buy a new cage.


                        • Tedster
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                            Hey Mocha and Tessie, sorry for such a late reply. I tried placing grass mats on all the wire part, and all he does is trying to nudge and push the mats to the side and when he can’t push it out of the way; he won’t rest or lay down and relax like he always does and for the first time ever, he was thumping very agressively and loudly, so I took the mats out, leaving only one for him to chew on and he stopped. I wanted to buy a plastic bottom cage, but I did some researches and it seems that many wired bottom cage are made incorrectly which causes sore hocks. The cage that I got, each wire is about 1/2” x 1” which gives him the support he needs. It’s just enough for the poo to fall down. Also based on Shiny Satins Rabbitry, clinically, wired bottom cages, if made correctly, provides a more comfortable, cleaner, and healthier lifestyle for rabbits. Plastic bottom cage means beddings, which is bad for the bun to ingest a large amount and since the bun will be pooping and peeing every (if not litter trained) they will be sitting and laying on their poo and pee, which is more likely to cause parasites, urine scald, and even sore hocks. Beddings can get stuck to their fur which means for baths and baths aren’t good for rabbits (as I’ve been told), and the rabbits will be exposed to a higher level of ammonia fumes laying in their pee or even being near it. So I’ll try to cover the bottom floor with grass mats or a wood panel so he can chew on it, but I definitely can’t cover the top floor because that’s where he sleeps and if he doesn’t feel the wire, he won’t lay down to sleep. Thank you so much for the advices, it got me to do a lot of thinking, experimenting, and researching, but he seems to love his cage the way it is. He can run freely in it without being caught. It’s a very good custom made cage (I did paid a lot a lot for it to be made), there’s no sharp edges and the wire will never rust. As that being said, I definitely will still keep a close eye out on him to see if anything will change. If it does, I will be sure to take actions right away. Once again, thank you for your concern!


                          • Tedster
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                            33 posts Send Private Message

                              Hey Mocha and Tessie, sorry for such a late reply. I tried placing grass mats on all the wire part, and all he does is trying to nudge and push the mats to the side and when he can’t push it out of the way; he won’t rest or lay down and relax like he always does and for the first time ever, he was thumping very agressively and loudly, so I took the mats out, leaving only one for him to chew on and he stopped. I wanted to buy a plastic bottom cage, but I did some researches and it seems that many wired bottom cage are made incorrectly which causes sore hocks. The cage that I got, each wire is about 1/2” x 1” which gives him the support he needs. It’s just enough for the poo to fall down. Also based on Shiny Satins Rabbitry, clinically, wired bottom cages, if made correctly, provides a more comfortable, cleaner, and healthier lifestyle for rabbits. Plastic bottom cage means beddings, which is bad for the bun to ingest a large amount and since the bun will be pooping and peeing every (if not litter trained) they will be sitting and laying on their poo and pee, which is more likely to cause parasites, urine scald, and even sore hocks. Beddings can get stuck to their fur which means for baths and baths aren’t good for rabbits (as I’ve been told), and the rabbits will be exposed to a higher level of ammonia fumes laying in their pee or even being near it. So I’ll try to cover the bottom floor with grass mats or a wood panel so he can chew on it, but I definitely can’t cover the top floor because that’s where he sleeps and if he doesn’t feel the wire, he won’t lay down to sleep. Thank you so much for the advices, it got me to do a lot of thinking, experimenting, and researching, but he seems to love his cage the way it is. He can run freely in it without being caught. It’s a very good custom made cage (I did paid a lot a lot for it to be made), there’s no sharp edges and the wire will never rust. As that being said, I definitely will still keep a close eye out on him to see if anything will change. If it does, I will be sure to take actions right away. Once again, thank you for your concern!

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                          Forum BEHAVIOR Litter Training a Young Bunny