Thanks all!
Neither of my 2 buns has flat out rejected their litter boxes. The wood pellets were only a trial for a few hours one evening before I took them away. I’ve been using Carefresh or Boxo over top of Yesterday’s News for a long time (and of course lots of hay at one end which they spread around). Then I went without the Yesterday’s News. This was just to try to find what works best for *me* in terms of costs, odor, and mess. They originally had 2 litter boxes in their condo of 18″ L x 15″ W x 5″ D. Then I swapped those for 2 huge Tupperware containers at 22″ L x 16″ W x 5.5″ D. I placed one of the smaller retired boxes in a corner of my bedroom where I could not seem to dissuade them from pooping. I change them all every few days.
So the doe, Mars, uses her litter box but has *also* had these weird peeing habits. I’m thinking she might take well to a plastic grate type of litter screen (if I can DIY something larger), given her affinity for hard surfaces.
Since we’re on the topic though, in addition to peeing in her litter box and bee lining for non-absorbent surfaces when available, she certainly does territorial marking (poo and pee) around her litter box, perimeter of her condo and perimeter of the bedroom. I didn’t originally post about this simply because I didn’t find it to be a mystery like the hard surfaces.
I believe the reason I hear more often about females being more challenging to litter train is because spaying is a more invasive surgery and therefore delayed later than neutering of males. Hence, her hormones kick in and these behaviors have time to get ingrained prior to surgery, unlike males who can be neutered promptly.
She was spayed one month ago and is still territorial marking, which is driving me batty. The interesting thing I noticed is that if I don’t promptly clean the stains out of the carpet, these problems seem to subside. Its like she is satisfied that the area is sufficiently marked with her scent. But as soon as I clean it (vinegar and baking soda), she promptly starts marking again. Once she actually came over and peed ON MY HAND while I was scrubbing the carpet clean. Its like she’s saying “hey, stop removing my scent, I have to put it back now!” Brat! Thankfully, she is not spraying though. (On the other hand, the neutered male, Reese, is very well behaved with only the occasional “oops” dropping or dribble.) I intend to confine her to a smaller area with her litter box and restart the litter training process by gradually expanding her area again. What a headache! *fingers crossed*