Litter Box Training- The Balance

[The Law Bun]

Hey All,

I would first like to say this forum is incredible. I have been looking into a pet rabbit for the better part of 3 months and this forum has been incredible for knowing what to expect, how to prepare, what to do, etc. As my name kind of dictates, I am a law student so I am OCD about researching and this forum has been phenomenal. I can also HAPPILY say, today Lilith (lily for short) has officially joined my household and is spending some time in her cage while I do my 2 hours of class today. Now to start, I am going to let her have 48 hours to herself, no interference, but I may sit outside the cage and read, watch netflix (with headphones) etc. so she gets used to my presence. However, I have 3 questions I am hoping you long time bunny owners can help me with. As such, I will present facts, issues, and then the question.

First the Facts- New 11 week old female bunny (spayed), dutch, living in 2 story NIC condo (2 grid by 3 grid but second story is currently blocked to limit her space for behavior and litter training). 



Issue- I SOMEHOW will manage to not try and pet her or invade her space despite her absolutely gorgeous fur (except food and cleaning ONLY pee and putting it into litter box). However, now I have to start planning some free run time so she can be strong and her muscles don’t atrophy. 



The Question- Do you guys limit roaming time/space in the early weeks for litter box training. I feel letting my bunny get free roam of my apartment or even just my bed room for 2 hours will be counter productive to litter training and the concept that I should limit her space. So how do I balance this need to let her run and explore with litter training? Would setting up a 4×4 xpen for the first few weeks be good? Should I limit her time out to say 2 hours? I just don’t understand how I can litter train and limit her space when I am also supposed to give her all of these hours outside the cage to run and explore (though I cannot wait until I can give her the run of my room ). Any tips?

Second Question: I currently am limiting Lilith to only the first floor of her condo for litter box reasons. So after she gets used to that, I have 2 options, (1) open the second floor to her, or (2) attach the open of NIC grids as a front yard (not just for run time). Which do you guys think should come first? I think the second floor will likely be first.

Third Question: I am headed home for Easter Break (bad timing I know) for about 3 days, so Lilith is finally coming home to meet the family very excited, and yes I know the potential issue. My plan is to bring along the XPEN, lay a sheet down underneath, and bring her hay rack and litter box and some toys. Is this good? She can stay in the open and I will likely be able to even get her outside depending on her mood, timing, general acclimation to new environment.

Fourth Question: Thought of a fourth as I was doing this haha. Any ideas for keeping the hay smell out of my bed room? I am thinking large plastic container that seals. Also do females mark territory? I don’t want to start picking up her poo from first week if she is just using it to mark. 

Thank you all so much, and I will keep this updated with further questions (though i do have a 3 inch binder full of resources haha).

P.S. I will have photos ready shortly, I don’t want to bombard her. My avatar is her adoption photo. I also will get some pictures of my cage setup because I think its slightly ingenious haha. My father is a wizard with carpentry and we got some cool stuff. 

[Little Lion Head]

Welcome to BB and welcome Lily!!

As for space and litter box, it will be good to limit her space for a little while. Run/exercise time is super important, but you don’t want to overwhelm her. If you do let her out, start with part of room, then the full room, then eventually the whole apt. if that is your hope. Just do it in small bits. See where she’s choosing to pee and put a litter box there. We did this with Pumpkin when we first brought her home. We still do keep a couple extra litter boxes around the house so she has the option to go where she wants.

As far as marking, I don’t think females spray if that’s what you mean. But any gender might mark with poops. Pumpkin did this a lot in the beginning. She would leave 10-20 poop pellets around; especially on the couch! She did some marking with urine as well. We haven’t seen that behavior in months though.

I think you have a good plan for traveling. Just make sure Lily can’t jump out of the xpen and it should work great! We took Pumpkin on a great Christmas adventure and she did just fine. Hay, food, water, toys, maybe a blanket and you’ll be okay! We too are traveling for Easter but this will be the first time with two buns and they probably won’t be bonded yet…so it will be interesting!

Glad you found us! You’ll get lots of good insight here!

[The Law Bun]

Thanks so much for you response! So the first 18 hours are done, and I have managed to not interfere with her much (though I want lie I failed once and held my hand to the cage for her to smell then tried to rub the tip of her nose).

But since the start of today, I seem to have 2 more questions, and given their relative complex nature I am unsure of which section or “forum” to post these in, so moderators feel free to move as necessary.

1) When in the litter and eating hay, or sometimes when she is self grooming, she tosses her ears and head side to side. Being a new bunny owner, when does shaking the head border from normal to ear mites. I should say I bought Lily from a very renowned vet clinic who did all of the vet tests on her before I got her and she was fully clean (they don’t usually rescue bunnies but one of their client passed. So that would mean she would have had to have gotten the mites in the 24 hours since picking her up (she hasn’t been outside at all). I also don’t want to look in her ears and make her angry so soon .

2) Is it normal this early in the process that when I come to sit by the cage for her to get startled and may run to the other side? Sometimes she doesn’t sometimes she does. But i assume being not even 24 hours since her arrival she may just be overly jittery still. Though she did flop in her cage which I am told is a good sign.

[The Law Bun]

One last question: When a bunny sleeps, if there ears are back but up, its still just sleeping right? She is not agitated if her ears are back but she’s flopped out.

[JackRabbit]

Welcome!

I agree with LLH on taking the space expansion slowly, and xpens are great! Attaching an xpen to her condo is a perfect way to give her extra space while she’s not out and about too.

Female bunnies can spray (Kieko got the wall next to her condo good!), but usually don’t after being spayed. Poop marking is going to happen, but you don’t have to leave poop everywhere while she claims her space. Let her see you clean them up and put them in the litterbox (btw, leave a little poop and a tiny bit of used litter in the litterbox when you empty and refill so the litterbox smells like her and she’ll hopefully get the idea quicker). Others may make fun of me, but I’m a firm believer in “poop and pee go in the potty” talks during litter training!

Keeping the hay smell out of your bedroom . . . How are you storing the hay and what kind of hay is it? I actually like the smell of fresh western hay — smells like a spring meadow (although I’ve found that some eastern hays I’ve gotten are a little too sickening sweet for my nose!).

Can’t wait to see pics of your bunny!

[Little Lion Head]

I’m not sure about the head shaking thing, but both of mine do shake their heads/ears quite a bit when grooming, running, waking up, etc.

She is definitely just needing time to adjust. It took Pumpkin a week to come out of her cage on her and several weeks before she would come out of her room and explore on her own. You’re doing just fine and her behavior is totally normal in that area! She’ll get used to you and your smell and your voice and feel safe eventually. Speaking of that, talk to her (even if it’s crazy potting training talks!) so she gets used to your voice. When we kept Pumpkin in a bedroom, we would let her know we were home (b/c she could hear the door and keys, but not see us) by yelling “Pumpkin we’re home!!” so she wouldn’t get spooked–she knew our voices and I think this helped (or I’m as crazy as JR?!?!?!?!)

The hay smell is never going to away! But you can find the dust by getting a good air purifier!

[The Law Bun]

Jack and Lionhead, thanks for the responses.

Jack in reference to the picking the poop up, what about those in her cage? From my understand I should never violate her cage space with her in there (though I had to yesterday briefly). Should I wait to clean the poops up once she’s out tomorrow (she’s still on 48 hour cage lockdown)? I can happily say however she has been nearly spotless with her litter box on the first day, though a lot of it has to deal with her needing to be in there to get the hay from the hay rack (thanks BinkyBunny ). The few poops that were outside her litter came earlier in the day before she realized she had to jump in the litter box HAHA. She still so much tinier than the litter box, but outside like 4 or 5 strays, there wasn’t any other marking (cannot tell if she has peed or not, though none in the cage). Though I guess we will see how it goes today.

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