Litter defying rabbits.

[Paradigm]

I’ve expected some poor litter habits from bonding three together. After I bonded George and Charlie it look a while for them to settle down dropping wise.

The problem is, now we’ve bonded Albus into the group their litter habits aren’t getting any better. I’ve tried shutting them in their pen for 3 days (my wife won’t let me shut them away for any longer) but they’ve quickly resumed their usual mess. As well as just about every training technique I can think of.

The problems (as far as I can tell) seem to primarily fall into these categories:
– Albus and sometimes Charlie get wet poos from too much salad, so they don’t get as much as Mr Roger did. As a result they go through ridiculous amounts if water a day – some through drinking and some where they spill water.
– In addition to toileting, I get the impression that they all want to mark the box.
– If I put a deep amount of litter in, they dig it out of the box. If litter is on the floor they treat it as the box.
– They also like to throw hay out of the rack. George will use any hay on the floor as a litter box. I’ve reduced this by tying the hay rack to the cage with a shoe lace so it’s harder for them to move the rack.
– If I put a shallow amount of litter in, the litter quickly becomes sodden.
– George will wee all over anything soft (and anything cardboard).
– The above means they’re frequently treading in urine and soggy pellets.

The result is, in addition to our flat looking filthy and smelly, the buns are starting to smell and I’ve noticed that Albus especially often has wet feet. He’s white and so the urine stains are especially noticeable. But all of them do get wet feet.

I’ve tried putting carpet in (peed all over and stunk out the place more than usual), I’ve tried putting towels down (within an hour or two they become damp and I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving them with another area of their cage certain to be wet. I only put wooden toys in their cage now.

Albus shreds puppy pads. I clean out their cage thoroughly at least once a day and change their tray twice.

I’m considering trialling a storage box as a litter tray so that it takes much more to become soaking wet, but I’m also conscious about smell as our flat is hard to ventilate. We didn’t have this problem with Mr Roger – his tray was changed every third day and he’d become angry if it was changed sooner. Obviously, having three I expected more output, but I’m just not sure how to get a handle on the current situation.

George, especially, is difficult. She’s the primary culprit, although Albus does imitate from time to time.

Suggestions? I’m at my wits end and have been driven to blotting their feet with tissue paper.

[Mimsy]

I’ve seen people use a screen over the litter. Perhaps that would keep them from digging it out and you can use enough then to soak up the urine.

If any of your buns love to c hew on cardboard, but you don’t want to leave it out since they are peeing on it you can weave it through the bars of pen. That way it’s out of the way for peeing on, but they can still chew on it.

Trying a really large litter box, or an enclosed one can help keep the hay in their box and off the floor.

Even if some things are not the most ideal, hopefully you can go for several months and they will get out of the bad habits and peacefully go in the boxes for you.

Misc. cleaning stuff:

I have used natures miracle for many decades of all kinds of critters and have good luck with it getting rid of smells, though for tough ones it may take more than one application.

For stuff that they chew on, wood say boxes or toys, I soak in vinegar and then dry in the oven (in the summer, I leave in a hot sunny spot) to get rid of both germs and smell.

For carpet and furniture stains I use Folex. It completely gets rid of them.

[Author]

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