Hi guys,
I’m sure there have been millions of posts on litter training, but wondering if anyone is able to provide some advice for me. I feel like I’ve read everything there is to read and nothing is working
My boyfriend recently gave me a female minilop as a surprise… she is now about 14 weeks and i’ve had her since she was 8 weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore this bunny and we have bonded really well, but litter training is destroying my soul. I’m a very neat tidy person and I really really need her to be litter trained so I can allow her more out of cage time. At the moment I’m having to limit it and I feel awful but she’s just weeing on everything otherwise
Basically, every time Lola picks a corner to do her business, I move the litter tray to that corner and then she switches to a different spot to wee. She loves to sit in the litter tray, but doesn’t seem to want to use it as a toilet. I have noticed very small improvements to a point where she is now weeing in the litter tray maybe 50% of the time, but often in a separate spot as well. When she goes outside of the litter tray I always put some of the wee-soaked bedding in the tray or, if its on the lounge, then I soak it up with a paper towel and put that in her litter tray.
In terms of number twos, she just goes everywhere and it doesn’t even seem like she has any control over it. I’ve been picking up her poos and putting them in the tray but she often just digs them out again and spreads them everywhere. She sometimes does number twos in the tray but I think it’s just luck of the draw because she does them everywhere.
I don’t know what to do. I have her water bottle and hay feeder hanging over her litter tray, and I always put her food bowl in front of the litter tray but she often pushes it further away. I also have a wooden chew toy hanging over the litter tray. I often see her sitting in the tray eating her hay, but then she seems to go elsewhere to go to the toilet. I am using wood shavings as bedding – from the pet store specifically for rabbits (i know some aren’t safe) and then newspaper litter in her tray. She digs A LOT and often mixes this all together within a few hours of me completely cleaning out her cage and replacing it all. Should I not be using the bedding at all? I’ve heard some people say it’s unnecessary and can be confusingly similar to litter? I think I may need to get a bigger litter tray as well – I’m currently using a decent-sized corner one but I do think I need a bigger rectangular one from what I’ve read, although I don’t really know if this will change much because as I’ve said she is just pooping everywhere as if she doesn’t even notice she’s doing it.
Please help. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions so so much as I’m at my wit’s end at the moment. I do plan to get Lola spayed in a month or two – I don’t know if this will help or make things worse. I’m so confused about what to do next and would love any help so much. Sorry for the long post!!