Litter Training .. whats the best way??

[Helenmarie85]

My 2 girls are 11/12 weeks old. I have a kitten litter tray I bought from pets at home. At the moment I have filled it with shredded paper. I have hung the hay rack above it so they spend most of the day sat in the litter tray eating hay .. since I read rabbits naturally pee and poop while eating hay, and on watching youtube videos I see the hay rack above the tray. I am emptying it every day (as paper really isn’t that absorbant lol). They do still pee and poop on the ground .. but majority of poop is in the tray, and i’m assuming since the paper is wet, pee is as well. .. the poop thats on the ground I just sweep up and chuck in the tray. But what do I do with pee. They still go in the two spots the always pee in. How do I stop this to ensure pee is only in the tray?? Are they too little or something I need to keep working with?? What can I clean the pee up with to rid the smell in there normal pee areas?? 

Also what is the best thing to use for bunny litter??? 

Thank you!!! 

[Paradigm]

Rabbits uses urine and faeces for both elimination and as marking, so they may be demonstrating their territory by “poor” litter habits.

It’s also entirely possible that they don’t know where to toilet or at some point they didn’t and now the pee in those extra spots out of habit.

If you thoroughly clean those areas with either diluted white vinegar or a commercial product to break down urine the area may seem less compelling.

Rabbits also like to pee on soft surfaces and surfaces that smell of others so if you are using blankets or rugs and/or the items in their cage smell of others they may feel compelled yo wee on them. Although 11 weeks is quite young for spraying.

The best thing to do is to make sure the other surfaces in the floor are solid, I.e the cage bottom (unless it is wire than you must cover it) to reduce temptation. If you have no luck with thus, try putting litter trays where they are peeing and then gradually moving the trays closer to the one you want.

Paper is both poor at absorbing and awful at neutralising smell. I ran out of litter recently and had to use toilet paper – the smell was horrendous!

This a good list of litter types (scroll past the box types): http://www.sandiegorabbits.org/litter-box-training/safe-litter-box-materials

I use care fresh but lots of people use wood stove pellets as a cheap and absorbable alternative.

[Helenmarie85]

Thank you. Before we got them at 8/9 weeks they were all in a converted shed. Without these two there are now 9. They have a huge run attached to the shed. So assuming they just all pee’d and pooped where ever they pleased. I usually spray the pee areas with the hutch cleaner I have, it says its safe to use in the hutch, bowls etc .. basically anything that comes into contact with them .. although dubious of using it on their bowls. They are doing pretty good at pooping and peeing mostly in the tray .. they have only had the tray a few days .. I just thought since they were trained in the house for the most part (they poop on the towel I lay down), I thought they would soon pick this up!!
Paper is really rubbish .. its all I had to hand lol!!
Thanks for the link .. uesful litters on there .. are any wood pellets safe .. IE here we can get wood pellet cat litter??

[Helenmarie85]

These are the litters I can find in the rabbit section at our local store .. what do you think??

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/small-pet/rat/rat-bedding/burgess-excel-small-animal-bedding-and-litter-4kg-%28online-only%29

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/small-pet/rat/rat-bedding/back-2-nature-small-animal-bedding-and-litter

or there is this in the cat section

http://www.petsathome.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/pets/non-clumping-wood-pellet-cat-litter-30ltr

[Kitty]

I use that second one Back2Nature it’s good cause it’s made of paper and it absorbs it well…. my Pippin piss under cat litter tray too but poops only inside…. so what I do – he has a straw on the bottom of his cage and he ocassionally eats it too… then he has hay in litter tray (on the side of it as he eats in when he poops) and then bowl of food and I put little bit of that litter to corner of cage ( behind litter tray ) and underneath it as urine is always there but I think it’s marking I don’t know how he urinates under tray but somehow he does lol ….. i think I have a picture of my cage in album….. also, if he is outside he goes back in to wee and poo …. i wouldn’t use other litter as the back2nature is best !

[Helenmarie85]

Posted By Kitty on 9/22/2015 7:09 AM

I use that second one Back2Nature it’s good cause it’s made of paper and it absorbs it well…. my Pippin piss under cat litter tray too but poops only inside…. so what I do – he has a straw on the bottom of his cage and he ocassionally eats it too… then he has hay in litter tray (on the side of it as he eats in when he poops) and then bowl of food and I put little bit of that litter to corner of cage ( behind litter tray ) and underneath it as urine is always there but I think it’s marking I don’t know how he urinates under tray but somehow he does lol ….. i think I have a picture of my cage in album….. also, if he is outside he goes back in to wee and poo …. i wouldn’t use other litter as the back2nature is best !

Ahh thanks!! I may get some of that then as its a good one. Thank you  

[Author]

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