Going from two litter boxes to one

[Little Lion Head]

Pumpkin only took a few days to litter box train (minus the pills she leaves on her bedroom floor) and we haven’t had any pee accidents since that first week!

As some of you know, she has her own bedroom. There is a litter box in her cage (rectangular cat box) and another cat litter box in one of the corners of her room. We put one in the corner because it was where she was marking her territory before she was completely trained. Here are my concerns:

1) I don’t think she pees in the litter box hardly at all. She’s in her cage during day while we are at work and then overnight while we are sleeping. When we let her out in the mornings before work and afternoon when we get home she makes a beeline for the box in the corner of her room and pees immediately. I’m worried she’s holding it in and could harm herself?!

2) I would really like to get rid of the second litter box. Pumpkin’s room will eventually become a nursery when we decide to start a family and we’ll be moving her cage to the living room. It would be nice if she had just the one box in her cage, since our living room is quite small and there’s not a good spot to put a lone litter box.

Do you think if we get rid of the box in her room she’ll just pee there any way? Do you think she’s holding it in and why?! 

Here’s a picture of her room. She’s hanging out in the litter box in the corner. We just bought her the rugs b/c she was slipping and sliding on the hardwood! You can see the litter box in her cage; it’s right under her hay rack.

Her

[JackRabbit]

I know she has alot of free time out of her cage, but I think it might be easier to get rid if the second litterbox and happier for her if you replaced the cage with an xpen. That would hive her more room to hop around at night and while you’re at work, and provide room for her litterbox. Since the room is really open, you could even have the xpen in the corner where the 2nd litterbox is if she decides that’s where the bathroom belongs. During out time, you could just leave the xpen door open.

I’m really not trying to be critical of your cage – I bought that same one originally and it is one of the larger bunny cages. With so much space in the room, and since she does spend time in her cage, it would just be so nice for her to be able to use more of the space all the time. The xpen could also be helpful in the transition to the living room.

[Stickerbunny]

With the smallness of that cage, she may be “holding it” because she doesn’t want to mess up her living area. My buns won’t pee anywhere near where they sleep and she can’t really “get away” from where she sleeps comfortably. They’ll rearrange their furniture to get their “bed” (it’s a cat condo) in just the right spot and it’s always pretty far from the litter boxes. If floor space is an issue, you could try a NIC grid condo and do levels? Those pet store cages are really too small for any bunnies main living area… especially talking 16 hours or so a day in them (assuming 8 hours of work and 8 hours of sleep). I know, pet stores push them, not blaming you.  

An issue with removing the second litter box right now would be she’ll probably mark that spot if you don’t block it off, since she’s used to it being the litter box. My two will go right to the spot their litter boxes are and pee on the floor if I move one (for cleaning). If you move her to another room, you could try not giving her the second box and see how it goes.

[Little Lion Head]

Our original plan was to allow Pumpkin to roam free in her room 24/7…but I’m just too dang paranoid that she might chew on drywall or get hurt, etc. etc. Plus I don’t want her to get used to that just to have to move her to the living room. So I talked to the hubby about it and he agrees that an xPen or NIC cubes makes sense since we can move it from the bedroom to the living room once we need to. I think what we’ll do is create a large pen area that attaches to the side of her cage, so that she still has access to her cage. Should we put some kind of cover to make sure she doesn’t jump out? Hubby is thinking a giant piece of plywood but I don’t want her to feel trapped!

This will also come in handy when we have to move her into our sitting room off our bedroom for a few days while we have company over Thanksgiving. And we’ll make the pen area away from that 2nd litter box and just keep the one. Should we keep the one litter box in her cage? Or keep one out of it? Bunnies like to eat and poop at the same time right? So I’m thinking it makes sense to keep her box and food together on one side of her cage. Or that might not make sense if she’s more comfortable sleeping in her cage away from pee and poop!?

[Little Lion Head]

Here is where Pumpkin’s area will be eventually; probably the next year or two. We’ll put her cage in the area to the left of the fireplace–it’s actually a perfect fit. So the NIC cubes will come out into the living room from that corner (we’ll move the coffee table). We won’t be able to do different levels b/c the shelves are there, but I think this could work!

[JackRabbit]

Honestly, an xpen is easier than NIC grids IMO, and less expensive. Kieko has a NIC condo (4 wide x 4 tall x 2 deep), and it can’t be taken out of the room without taking it apart, and we spent 4 times as much on her condo as we did on an xpen.

The pros of the xpen: easy to change shape and relocate, built-in walk-thru door with latch, no zip ties to have to make sure are pointed outward when setting the xpen back up after relocating, harder for bunny to climb; cons: if you buy one that’s too short you have to replace and can’t add to the height.

NIC grid pros: can be added to at any time, great for blocking off areas especially small spaces or odd shaped spaces. Cons: must use tons of zip ties to make sure it is sturdy, while zip ties last well there are always some that break, must make sure zip ties are pointed outward so bunny doesn’t get scratched or must smooth each after cutting.

I know there are lots more pros and cons to both, but these are the ones that came to mind.

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