Purpose of hay over the litter.....

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This topic has 9sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 2 months ago by Alicia Conklin.

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- 09/14/2008 at 5:10 PM
  Alicia Conklin
  Participant
  721 posts
  So I have been putting hay over top of Tucker’s litter boxes…to entice her to go into her box and eat her hay so that she does her business there. Well..there is always sooo much poop all over the place. Right outside the boxes. Well tonight I went in and cleaned and then while I was filling the last litter box I noticed that she was sitting with her head in the litter box eating the hay and her butt outside the litter box pooping away. I already put a hay basket hanging behind the litter box to entice her to eat while IN the litter box but that doesn’t seem t always work. I was wondering..is there any other reason why there needs to be hay IN the litter box? Or could I just do away with that part and only have the hay hanging behind the litter box so that she has to jump in to get to it.
- 09/14/2008 at 5:48 PM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  the hay doesn’t need to be in the bottom of the litterbox at all. i was having that with mine. they were eating their hay and then pooping right where they stood, so i repositioned the hay container so they must be in the litterbox in order to reach it. it solved the problem immediately.
- 09/14/2008 at 5:49 PM
  somebunny
  Participant
  168 posts
  I have the but hanging over the litterbox problem too! maybe a bigger box will be better?
- 09/14/2008 at 5:56 PM
  Alicia Conklin
  Participant
  721 posts
  Well, we have tried all different sized boxes. We had the bottom of her old cage in there as a litter box before but I finally took that out because it didn’t seem to help with the poop all over thing and it was just toooo much litter that was being used. Now we have a large cat box on one side. Then we have two small cat boxes that are side to side covering two grids worth of space and then a big round one up on the second level. If she gets into the box she fits fine..she just sits with all but her head OUT of the box and just puts her head in to grab the hay!
  
  I’m going to take the hay out now though and just put the hay in a basket above the litter boxes as the only hay areas. *fingers crossed* that this works!
- 09/15/2008 at 6:17 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  Hi Tuckerbunz! The hay over the litter does serve a purpose other than bunnies like to eat while on the toilet. The hay helps to keep bunny paws and fur away from the wetness of the urine which can cause problems like urine scald and irritated skin. How often do you change the litterbox? If it is pretty often then this might not be an issue, plus if you hang or set hay nearby it will fall into the litterbox anyhow. I usually sweep the leftovers my two leave strewn on the floor of the cage to cover the litter in the litterbox so I am not wasting “fresh” hay right out of the bag or off of the bale. It sounds like you have a great plan to get yout stinkpot to go potty in the box. Let us know how it goes!
- 09/15/2008 at 6:29 PM
  Alicia Conklin
  Participant
  721 posts
  I change it once a week usually. She only pees in the corner of the box though so I don’t know if urine burn would really be an issue. What I’ve been doing though is just putting the brome hay that she really likes back behind the box. That where this is some hay on top of the litter but she’s got to get in to get the good stuff. So far I’ve seen a slight improvement.
- 09/15/2008 at 7:07 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  That’s good, even if it is slight. Have you read over Binky Bunny’s tips on litterbox training? I didn’t want to get into them so much if you already had.
- 09/15/2008 at 7:09 PM
  Alicia Conklin
  Participant
  721 posts
  Yea, she’s pretty well trained with the peeing. Poops..mostly her big amount of poops are in there but I doubt I’ll have that much success until after she’s spayed next month.
- 09/15/2008 at 7:22 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  Well, I think you are doing a great job diagnosing and trying different things to make your life easier cleaning up after her. Have you tried sweeping up the poops and placing them in the litter box? Perhaps that might help too. Some have also tried a covered cat litterbox and the rabbits seemed to use it more, perhaps because it is more burrow-like. It sounds like she doesn’t prefer a particular corner over another either. I have found that with my two they like a private corner away from the path of human foot traffic for their litterbox.
- 09/15/2008 at 7:40 PM
  Alicia Conklin
  Participant
  721 posts
  Yep I usually do that daily. If there’s alot of other things on the ground..like a ripped up mat then I just toss them out but most days I sweep up the hay and poops and throw them into the litter box.
  
  She chooses EVERY corner as her spot for pees..for poops it’s wherever the heck she wants.
  
  A covered cat box might do it though….I’ll have to try that!
  
  Most all pees go in the back corner though and so I have that full of litter boxes.
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