I wouldn’t spend money on a new cage, especially not a hutch, right now unless you were getting an xpen (which can be easily stored and used for other pets over the years). Do you have an xpen now or is it a traditional plastic bottom cage? They are going to need to be confined until the litter habits get better, but you’ll need a large enough space for three. As you know, you have a couple things working against you… new territory, new bunny. I think it’s really just going to take going back to the basics and being diligent with cleaning (which I know is hard when you’re gone most of the day!!!) If you have them in an xpen, you could try to do a larger litterbox (maybe even a plastic under-the-bed storage container?) so they have a large litterbox-to-floor ratio. Are they in a linoleum or tile area right now? If not, you can lay down a scrap of linoleum to make clean-up easier.

Unfortunately, there’s not always an easy fix with buns. Especially when you get into larger groups, poop marking will sometimes happen forever. You may have 2 perfectly trained buns but the dynamic of a third is enough to send everyone reeling (even if they get along!) If you can get them all peeing in the box exclusively tho, that’s going to be a major help.

So, are they free roaming then in the room? I think that may be part of the problem – too much space.

Obviously you cannot put all 3 rabbits in one little cage either – I think I would totally eliminate this – I’m not sure why if you have them free roaming you need a cage at all…they just need a large litter box – the bigger the litter box, the better.

An x-pen would provide much larger space too than a cage if you decide to confine them to a smaller space until you can get them using their litter box properly.

Karla, your trio is new and the space is large and new —littering would be logical, you know? (sorry, I think I am being patronizing with my bolding)

I would turn that cage into one litter box for them and leave it open for them just as a potty house. You can put that inside a pen. You can make a pen by using a corner of a room as two sides of the pen and then using xpen panels for the remaiining sides. Make sure to bunnyproof the walls with cardboard. They don’t need that much space while you are away. They probably just loaf around all day.
 

With three buns regular litterboxes often don’t work. You need to have at least two litter boxes for them and large. Put fresh hay into the litter boxes daily to munch on while they potty. Diligently pick up and wipe up after them. Show your bf you’re really trying. Littertraining of bonded multiples takes time. The most important thing is that you get the peeing under control.

I will attach a photo of another member’s trio setup, (I hope it’s ok, mrmac!)

(I love this setup. )

courtesy mrmac.

Once you change them over into their new setup, there will be marking but it should be temporarily.

Stay away from rugs and cardboard houses in the beginning as they will likely pee those up, too. Make it bare for the first little while. This is really important. Keep at it!

My trio still leaves poos in the morning and they have been bonded for a few months. I will say the number of poos has lessened. Adding two large rectangle litterboxes really helped alot with mine. My trio has issues at first peeing ouside the box too. This stopped once I got the two new boxes. For a while we had no house of any kind in their pen, except for the little itty bitty one, but nothing “sharable”. I have since then been building them cardboard houses as they eat them.

If it’s only around the cage, I don’t understand why you conclude it must be a stress reaction. If they only litter around the cage, a larger, maybe more easily accessible litter box might do the trick. — hey Karla, I didn’t mean to say you’re not aware of the dynamics, it’s the nature of the forum to re-iterate those things over and over when the topics come up for those lurking readers

Having no house specifically, made them alot closer to eachother too. I could tell who was leaving the poos. They do not pee at all on the cardboard, they lounge but no pee. Washing the floor may help but then they will just re-mark everything. The litterboxes I got, one is big enough for two of them to sit in it together and the other is big enough for all three.

My trio never pee or poo outside of their pen. They spend most of the day under their favorite chair in the living room, but they still leave me poos in the morning to be swept, but ONLY in their pen.

Some pics might help. Are they caged or in a pen?

Again, I’ll be watching this thread with interest. “Karla”, you know of my woes and it’s similar to yours. And No, I have shut them up for litter retraining yet!!! *roll eyes* so I only have myself to blame. I’ve noted the same thing though post bonding. The marking of their space is persistant. Nowhere else, just the bunny area. Mainly Jersey. I sort of wonder the more a warren (or rabbit family forms) the more they feel the need to mark their home?
btw, I think it’s a bit unfair of your BF – for what it’s worth. Wasn’t it a joint decision to get the 3rd rabbit? And obviously he knew that you all moving into this place meant you, him and 3 rabbits… and it’s a pretty big deal that you’ve sold your own place. Ok, finished now.

Have you thought about removing the small cage altogether? If they are only pottying around the cage, maybe there’s something they don’t like about *THE CAGE*. If they are used to be free roam in a room, they don’t actually need to have a traditional cage in there. Ideally, they would be confined all together. I’d hate for their bond to break at this point because then you’ll just have another issue.

Bean has free-run of the living/dining room except for at night. We bought an xpen, an LG “Animal Exercise Pen”. For one small bun, it works great. Another thing we did was to buy an inexpensive carpet; a carpet remnant would work, too. It goes underneath his xpen and that’s where his food and water dishes, hay, bunny bed and litter box are. He can dig at it, chew on it, and have an accident on it without harming anything. Would your boyfriend be more comfortable if the buns had the occasional accident on an easily replaced carpet rather than all over?