Bunny Won’t Litter Train (Please, Please Help)

[K&K]

Hi everyone! 

I’ve never joined a forum before but I have literally exhausted every other avenue trying to solve this problem – blogs, books, youtube videos, articles, talking to their vet etc etc – and I’m at the end of my tether and very, very desperate for help.

Background of my girls: We have two adopted girls – Kin and Kit – they aren’t from the same litter so are different breeds. Kin is a real mix (probably with some dwarf in her) and Kit is probably a Satin. We adopted them when they were between 3-6 months old and they are very closely bonded. They are both spayed and very healthy, happy and loving rabbits who are around 1.5 years old now. 

They are indoor rabbits with a huge homemade hutch and they have free roam of our living room which is big and 100% rabbit proof.
Kit is a very intelligent girl, she figures things out quickly, is less fond of people but very friendly and accepting of attention when she wants it. She is very clean and litter trained pretty much instantly. Dream come true! Kin is a bit slower to pick things up but is SUPER friendly. She will kiss you all day, loves cuddles and attention, has no fear whatsoever. She is not as clean (always has a dirty bottom) and she WILL NOT LITTER TRAIN. 

What we have tried: We have tried absolutely everything with her – only giving her very small sections of the room with litter trays in her chosen toilet areas and slowly opening up more space. Lots of hay and positive encouragement to use the trays. Rabbit safe deterrent sprays. Teaching her where the trays are. Watching her closely and putting her in her litter tray when we can see she is about to go in the wrong place (this gets tiring very, very quickly!). Putting more trays so she doesn’t have to go as far to get to the toilet. We use the same litter that is in her tray at home so as not to confuse her. There’s loads more but you probably get the idea.

The problem: Nothing at all works. She will still pee and leave lots of droppings (so not just territorial ones) right next to the tray or in very random places. She basically goes wherever she wants to and will sometimes use a tray. I’m cleaning up after her constantly when she is out and it’s been this way since we got the girls. I don’t know if she is finding litter training difficult because it’s confusing for her, if she just doesn’t want to do it or other reasons I haven’t considered. 

We are really, really hoping we can get to the position where the girls can have the whole run of the room because they love it and have a wonderful time exploring and playing. But we can’t do that right now because of Kin. I’m finding it quite draining and upsetting – I know that sounds silly but it is so frustrating and I don’t know what else to do. 

Brief summary for those who don’t want to read my waffle!: 1.5 year old girl who just will not litter train. We have tried everything and are now at a loss for what to do. She goes where she wants, when she wants. Any ideas, suggestions, ANYTHING would be so, so welcomed. We are committed to supporting her to train and will put the work in, we just don’t know what else to do. 

Thank you all so much for your time and expertise. It is genuinely so appreciated. 

[Deleted User]

Some bunnies will train themselves, others need more time. Females especially are not as clean as males.
How long have they been spayed?

The first thing you could try is getting them a bigger litter tray. Storage plastic boxes (or trays) make great litter boxes.
The second thing is place the litter box where you find her going pee-pee more often. Sometimes we humans do not get to decide where the litter tray goes. 🙂
Wipe the pee up with a tissue and place it inside the litter box everytime she goes outside of the tray and sweep up poops and pop them into the tray as well. keep doing this until she gets it!

Rabbits also love to munch hay while going to the toilet — so put their hay inside the litter tray as well! 🙂

[K&K]

Hi Emma! Thanks so much for your reply. They have both been spayed for coming up to 12 months now. I didn’t realise females need more time than males to train so I’ve learned something new today!

We use low storage boxes for their litter trays, you’re right about them making great litter boxes. They are a good size for both of them unlike a lot of the rabbit specific ones in the pet shops. We have tried putting the kitchen roll in the litter box after she pees, I’ll go back to doing that again as anything is worth a try. I’ll also make sure there is extra hay in all of her boxes.

We’ve been going through the training process for 14+ months now and I’m beginning to worry that she’ll never get it! Fingers and toes crossed

[Sirius&Luna]

Ugh, that sounds horribly frustrating! I have three single bunnies at the moment, and the territorial poos and pees over their shared room are exhausting me. I’m only getting through it because I hope they’ll be bonded and it will stop in a couple of months. So I feel your pain!

Has anything ever worked? For example, when you say you tried giving her small spaces then opening it up, did she use the litter tray in the small spaces, and gradually lose it as you expanded it?

Will she deliberately go next to the litter trays when you put them where she normally goes? Or is there no pattern to it whatsoever?

Finally, when you say she has a messy bum – do you mean she gets soft poop stuck to it?

[K&K]

Wishing you the best of luck with your three single bunnies! I hope the bonding happens quickly so you’re not spending your life cleaning up after them in the same way I am!!

Very few things have worked and only for short periods of time. There are a few corners of their room that she doesn’t go to the toilet in so when we were transitioning cages (they went from a out of the box cage to one we built ourselves) and we had the room all topsy turvy we sectioned K&K off in that part of the room. She was very good then, only used her litter trays and was close to 100%. It was genuinely blissful. They could both be out all day and night and had a great quality of life. Unfortunately we couldn’t keep that set up going so when we changed things around things went downhill very quickly. 

When she has had smaller spaces in the past and we have gradually opened things up she has always gone backwards eventually. She’s currently in a small section and for the life of her cannot even use the trays in that small space. She’s still going wherever she likes. 

It seems like she will deliberately go next to the trays when they are in the places she normally goes. Almost as if it’s fun to go where she shouldn’t or maybe she just can’t be bothered!

Kin is a white bunny so mess will always show up on her more but generally speaking she’s always getting a wet bottom from pee and doesn’t keep herself as clean as Kit does.

I’m really hoping there’s something I’m missing or just haven’t tried so it will give me some hope!

[Wick & Fable]

Have you included sound association in your training attempts? Every time she pees/poops outside the box and a reinforcement to the litter box isn’t done instantly, it reinforces to her that it’s an acceptable behavior. Adding a sound cue is very helpful because producing the sound can be instantaneous with the accident occuring, while getting up to move the rabbit incurs a delay, where the connection between her pooping/peeing outside the box and your action weakens a lot.

I recommend a loud, sharp hiss every time she has an accident outside, and go to move her. Yes it’s exhausting, but do it as many times as you can. That includes literally putting her back in if she jumps out without peeing. It also means putting her back in if she jumps out and pees outside it. There were times I’d plop Wick in the box 3 times in a row because he’d repeatedly hop out and start to arc a pee.

Hopefully this helps you.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Sirius&Luna]

Have you had her checked by a vet? I wonder if she has a UTI or problem with peeing because she shouldn’t really have pee over her butt, even as a white bunny. I have a white lionhead, and even though he has loads of fluff on his butt, he still doesn’t get pee in it.

I also wonder (not to be rude), but perhaps she is just a not very smart bunny, and this is something that you’ll need to keep reinforcing. It’s good that you’ve had success at some points, but perhaps you need to keep reinforcing that association when it does work, so Wick’s sound suggestion is a good and relatively easy way to try and make it stick.

[Wick & Fable]

Yeah, Wick’s not smart so. Litter training got to him eventually…

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

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