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› FORUM › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › litter training q’s
hi, i am trying to litter train my Lily, shes about 3 months old, she has a cat type litter tray, with newspaper in.
she did have sawdust but she didnt use it with that in.
anyway she’s started using it when she’s in her house, but when she’s roaming she has taken an unfortunate liking
to peeing on my daughters bed!!! it has stopped a little, as everytime she’s done it ive been putting her on the floor, or clapping.
my q’s are….
what IS the best thing to put in her litter tray to encourage her?
am i doing the right thing with her peeing on the bed?
are the high-sided rabbit trays better?
any other advice or critism welcome!
You do have hay in there right? That is the most important thing to encourage them. Use as much hay as you can.
Also, thinking about it I would put as many toys and fun things as you can in her area around the litte box to encourage her to hang out in that area. That helps as well! If you make it her little sanctuary that may help. I would say to limit her space when she is roaming as well. Maybe she is just needing a more confined area like the living room or one room to start out with until she is spayed. Until ours was spayed we really couldn’t give her too much space.
will add plenty of hay! did read that in the FAQs this morning and realised!
she has mainly one bedroom, sometimes i let her in the other rooms too.
will add plenty of her favourite things around too and hopefully that will help, thanks!
Clapping or taking her off the bed is good to stop her peeing there, you could also spray her with a water bottle. High sided trays are better because bunnies tend to pee over the edge of the box if it is too short. Yes put hay in the box, it really helps. Also you could use Wood stove pellets as a litter and possibly a grid over the litter to keep your bunny off the pee. Persistance is the key, my boy bunny took FOREVER to litter train, while my girl was as easy as pie to train. Don’t be discouraged if your bunny has a few accidents after you thought she was trained, my boy, thistle kept having accidents but eventually the accidents became fewer and fewer, and now he is pretty trustworthy.
Good luck!
Hi and welcome to the forum! Some of your questions have been answered already with helpful advice, but I’ll try to go through them all
hi, i am trying to litter train my Lily, shes about 3 months old, she has a cat type litter tray, with newspaper in. she did have sawdust but she didnt use it with that in.
Newspaper does fine for lining litter boxes, it’s really absorbant and I know a lot of people on here use it. However, it’s not so great with odor control, and as your bun matures and hits puberty, the hormones will start kicking in and her pee might get really smelly, so you’ll have to clean the box about every day. I use a stack of newspaper, folded to fit, in the bottom of my litter box, and then layer a scoop of wood stove pellets on top. The WSP are great at odor control, at least, in my experience, and SUPER cheap. Check at your local hardware/home improvement stores. I can get a 40lb bag from Menards for $4-5. Your bun has a vote in the type of litter you use, as you’ve already found out. Some like softer litters like carefresh, others like the harder litters like WSP. If you find that your bun likes softer litter, you could do a layer or newspaper, a layer of WSP and then a layer of the soft stuff on top. It’s really just personal preference. Wood shavings are fine (wood stove pellets are just compressed wood shavings, and they expand into fine wood shavings when they get wet), but just make sure you don’t use any kind of shavings made from aromatic woods like pine or cedar. The aromatic oils have been shown to be linked to liver problems in small animals like hamsters and rabbits.
Definitely put hay in her box. Buns like to munch and poop simultaneously, and the hay in her box encourages her to visit her box. Make sure her box is large enough for her to fit in comfortably and for the hay.
anyway she’s started using it when she’s in her house, but when she’s roaming she has taken an unfortunate liking to peeing on my daughters bed!!! it has stopped a little, as everytime she’s done it ive been putting her on the floor, or clapping.
Since she’s young and not entirely litter trained yet, it would probably be best to confine her to one room or a large pen in a room for playtime, like Jessica and Moonlight Wolf suggested. And then gradually introduce her to a larger space. All the freedom probably gets her thinking “ooo goody! lots more places to pee on and claim as my own!!! silly humans need to be shown who really runs this place!” *running around peeing on the bed and in corners too far from the reach of human arms* “Mine…. Mine…. OOO Definitely MINE!” Buns especially like to pee on things like beds and couches that tend to smell strongly of us or that are really soft and comfy and absorbant.
As far as discipline goes, clapping your hands and saying “NO!” is good, as is a spray bottle of water and moving her off the bed – if you can, put her right into her litter box! You could also try ending play time as soon as she pees. The main thing is to be consistent and to catch her in the act. Watch her when she’s peeing, usually they give a small tell-tale sign, like a lifting of the tail, and if you can stop her before she pees, even better. And until she gets spayed and all those crazy bunny hormones dies down (she’s probably just starting to hit puberty), you might just want to restrict her access to the beds. Some buns have to be kept off the beds entirely, like my Leroy – unless of course, you don’t mind cleaning up pee spots!
are the high-sided rabbit trays better?
I have a high sided corner tray for Leroy’s cage. It takes up less space and is great for containing any splashes and for keeping the pee in when Leroy lifts his tail a bit too high! Outside of his cage, he has a large cat litter box. I started off with the kitten sized litter box, and it did fine for a while, but then just this weekend Leroy started backing up too far and peeing over the edge. I got him full grown, so it’s not like he outgrew the box, just changed his mind, the little stinker! After 3 times in 30 minutes, I ran out and bought a large cat litter box. I don’t know what size it is, my store only had two sizes, but of the large litter boxes, I bought the generic, cheap one; it was only about 6 bucks. That one is doing really well for us. One end is a little lower than the others, to make getting in and out easier, but Leroy doesn’t seem to mind, he’ll hop over the tall sides anyway!
Good luck!
EDIT: Wow, that was long. Sorry!
Hope some of that helps!
LOL no it really helps! thankyou. she is going alot less for pees on the bed. and using her tray more and more, especially since i added the hay, so im guessing after shes spayed in a couple of months too she should be great! will keep updated! ![]()
› FORUM › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › litter training q’s
