Bunny moving litter to pee outside of it??

[R0se]

Hello all,

I have brought a new little bundle of joy into my hose hold and I love her dearly but she has been doing an odd bit that keeps confusing me. (Lina) 

She and the bunny that I had before her (Flop) are not quite bonding at this point but they show promise.  So it makes sense coming into his house, that when I first got her here and set up that she would mark around her pen a bit.  That has since stopped happening except for one bit of a habit that she keeps doing.  For some reason she keep moving her littler box and then peeing in the corner that the litter box was in.  

While our other bunny dose occasionally come around her pen since she is in the living room (only space we have to really let them run around)  He has even laid next to her cage a few times.  The only time we have a problem is when we let them run around the living room a together, then he goes after her.  Other than that they get along great in places like the bath tub where Flop will groom her and flop over on his side. 

So this doesn’t seem to be a territory thing. It’s a spot in the corner of her cage that Flop can’t even get near.  I thought it was a bit of an accident at first but just today I watched her move the litter box, jump in, position her rear over the box and pee.  I have tried trying a string around the litter box to try and keep it in place but that doesn’t seem to have done much of anything. She just keeps pulling at it until the string slides down and she can move it. 

Help?

[jerseygirl]

So she does get in the litterbox after, just pees over it’s edge?

What type of box are you using?

[caudex]

How big is the box?

Call me lazy, but my solution was to get a very large litterbox (18×30 or so–an under the bed Tupperware, actually) and use horse bedding for litter. Much too heavy for even my strong boy to move, high enough sides so they can’t hang their bums over, and big enough that at least one corner should be in an “acceptable” spot.

Have you cleaned that spot well with an enzyme based cleaner, to discourage remarking?

[jerseygirl]

That’s not lazy, caudex. The only trouble with BIG litterboxes is carting them out when they need to be cleaned out. Pet peeve of mine, but i’d rather do 2 big boxes then half a dozen small boxes.

[tobyluv]

Is your new rabbit spayed? You may not be able to successfully litter box train her until she has been spayed. I assume that your male rabbit is neutered, but if you plan to bond the bunnies, the female needs to be spayed too.

[R0se]

She is spayed. He is neutered.

I am using a cat litter box for her right now. about 24×16? inch. (just guessing looking at it.) I don’t really have too much more space to put a larger one at this point.  (she is in an ex-pen but I can only have it extend so far out. So placing anything larger in it at this point in time is not really feasible.) 

I have not tried an ezyme based cleaner, I don’t know anything about them, but I have tried cleaning and have also tired leaving a section of paper towel with a little pee on it in the spot so it still smells ‘marked. Only to fine her eating the marked paper towel. The tile under it is really old and melts easy so I would not wish to use a strong cleaner on it anyway. (there are garbage bags down now, once we found out she was doing this. I have tried leaving a slightly stained garbage bag and then changing as well since they are under the felt, but that didn’t seem to do anything to stop her.)

She will shove the litter box around and last time she hopped in an put her bum outside of the box, while sitting in the box, and peed.
Today she shifted it, hopped next to it and peed next to it not standing in the litter box. I might think today that she could feel the box is too messy as it hasn’t been cleaned in two days, but I have seen her do this with a fresh cleaned litter box as well.

I’m just not sure whats going on with her and this.

Also, horse bedding?? 

[jerseygirl]

The horse bedding is wood pellets that are great for rabbit litter boxes. You can also buy wood stove pellets that are the same thing.

How about putting her box inside a similar size cardboard box that has higher sides, cutting out the front area for easy access. Then ziptie the cardboard box to the pen sides. Or you could do this with a plastic box too, so it acts as a unmoveable holder for the litterbox.

[jerseygirl]

Or you could get a box that is similar size but has higher sides.

Oh and another thing to try is turning the box a 1/4 turn… She might just be fussy about it’s position. You never know.

[Paradigm]

Another storage box user here – it significantly reduced our peeing-next-to-the-box phase. Now we only get revenge/angry wees outside of it!

If she doesn’t take to the wood pellets, you could put a weight at the bottom of her box and then fill with her normal litter. That should stop her from dragging it around.

[R0se]

I’ll try some of thos.
Thank you!

[Author]

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