Complicated litter question!!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

OK I miss the potty trained rabbit days  

 

we brought home Noot, an apparently litter trained rabbit-who SOOO isn’t.

Here’s the situation. He lives iwth Chuck. Chuck is old (and probably aged due to neglect in hisyounger years) He’s seven, blind and deaf. He uses his litter box without fail. Noot is nine now, and does not use the litter box AT ALL!!

 

It’s not that BIG of a problem because I can clean. But it’s staining the flooring I have in there and Noot sometimes pee’s near Chuck and then they both need a bum/foot rinse. They are both in love of course-but I have to imagine Chuck is frustrated with Noot peeing and pooping everywhere!! Noot even pees while moving-Once I was tossing some veggies for everyone, and Noot peed while running up to the lettuce!!

Chuck loves soft things-pillows blankies etc. Prob of course is Noot pees on them

 

So my question-they are both old men. Do I try -and if so what? I don’t want to stress them but I can’t help reminiscing on the days when all my buns (before Noot came) were litter trained and pee always happened in litter boxes along with most poops

[Adalaide]

I really don’t know if this is something that even happens to buns, so if I’m totally off base here someone with a clue please correct me. The first thing I thought of is maybe a medical problem. You said Noot is old, and I can’t really speak for any intentional peeing, which it may be of course… but when you said he was peeing while running for lettuce it made me think that maybe he is having bladder control issues. Of course, he could also just be an opinionated, grumpy old fart who needs to leave his mark everywhere.  Like I said, maybe buns don’t even have issues like this, someone better educated than me may know.

[Deleted User]

I was thinking incontinence too.. but I am sure you had him checked by your vet, have you? — I wouldn’t accept this situation easily; would you consider caging him alone to retrain him and figure out if he even will use a box ever? Could be the large space and sharing a box is confusing him. They might have lied about his litter habits (you think!)

[Sarita]

I agree about a medical problem – could be arthritis too. Also consider a low sided litter box, perhaps that will help.

[jerseygirl]

The running and peeing sort of point to medical…..What was he like at the rescue? Did he use a box or generally the cage floor? Could it be to do with the extra space he now has? With his former home, I remember he was one of a pair, but were they always caged?

[RabbitPam]

Spockie became incontinent when he lost use of one of his back legs and he was 8 years old. There may be little hope of retraining.
I did a couple of things however. I bought several pieces of Palace Pet Bed rugs that can be cut to sizes. They absorb pee for puppies, elder pets and those recovering from surgery. Would toss them in the washing machne and change them out as often as needed. Does he sleep with Chuck? You could put some down in his cage bottom. A lower litter pan helped, but not after his leg became useless.

Also, I would watch Spockie and not let him out in the apt. until I saw him pee in the cage. That way he had just gone which made it a longer time before he needed to go again. He had little accidents around, but just kept cutting up pieces of carpet samples and the Pet Bed carpets and stuck them on anything I was trying to protect.

[Sarita]

I recommend that Palace Pet Bed rugs as well. Good stuff and they come in colors :~) I just ordered some for Maxine’s area.

I don’t think it’s normal to pee while running either – makes me think bladder infection or incontinence.

[Beka27]

I was also thinking more along the lines of something absorbent (carefresh or a washable bedding?) in their area. AFTER determining if this is a medical issue or just old-age. I’m not sure if you are going to be able to retrain him like you would with a younger bunny.

[RabbitPam]

I thought of something after I’d shut down earlier. Maybe you could give him some treats only in the litter pan. Like lure him with the lettuce by tossing it into or next to the litter box. Make it a reward for him to go in there. Maybe he’ll be excited where it doesn’t do as much damage.

(Yes, I got the rugs in purple, blue and green. Their saleswoman on the phone was so nice that she told me about some bigger remnants on sale which saved me a lot of money by buying that and cutting it with a matte knife.)

[Monkeybun]

You could just replace all your flooring with CareFresh. Monkey approves of this idea. She doesn’t like the taste of carpet, thinks Carefresh is much tastier.

*disclaimer* Monkey told me to type this, it isn’t recommended to replace all the flooring in your house with bunny litter.

[jerseygirl]

lol! Yes, that’d be an awful lot of carefresh, but Monkey is young and probably doesn’t understand about expense yet.

K&K, how does his habits compare from what they were in the condo and your old apartment?

[Scooter]

I think I’m going to invest in the CareFresh company now. They have confetti colored! lol… We’d all live in a house that looked like it was a party all the time!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Thanks all!!

Ok to answer the questions:

1) He was checked by a vet. We didn’t do a blood workup thought-perhaps we should? I don’t know about incontience, as he seemed to pee because he was starting to pee but ran and kept going…Also he is VERY clean and although he makes a lot of work for me, he’s not getting any on himself.

2) He was like this since I’ve seen him. He didn’t potty much at the shelter becasue he pretty much wasn’t eating or drinking (Which is why I took him home and told Dave too bad) but used his box for what little potty he made. AT the apartment-same thing-peeing and poopign all over. His pervious home said he was trained-but they pretty much dumped him in a hurry and never responded to me ‘here’s how he’s doing email’ soooo who knows if they were telling the truth?

3) I tried putting the food and water in the litter box. Two troubles here-Chuck is blind so he backs up and pees in the water, and Noot started pooping in the food bowl (which he has continued doing…). I put up a water bottle-chuck is using it, noot does not know what it is.
I did this because it seems that he pees and poops while he’s eating and drinking…weird I know

I don’t know about arthritus-he is super spry-very fast and seriously you would have no clue how old he is by how he moves, how bright his eyes are or coat condition. He’s pretty super looking.

I have considered replacing flooring with carefreash-trust me!!!

Here’s what I was thinking-since it’s more about keeping it clean to them and not about expense or work…What if I cut their area by 2-Rupert and Kahlua wouldn’t mind more room, and I could give them another level to give some more room, put high solid sides, and filled the floor with carefresh or other bedding…After doing a blood work up to ensure he’s not got a UTI or something…What do you guys think?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

And I can’t spell today sorry!

[Monkeybun]

Monkey approves of your plan. Carefresh floor sound tasty.

[jerseygirl]

Have you tried reducing the space but leaving floor as is – like litter training refresher? Back to basics? (I soooo need to do this but have been procrastinating. It’s sounds easy but…..)

Or what about litter box switches to see if he has a preference? I’m just imagining cleaning carefresh up of that rubber flooring would be challenging…

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I havent’ tried reducing it…yet.

He had much less room (besides out time) at the apartment. I gave them just one condo level. Noot peed everywhere-but I figured new place, new rabbits, new smells-part and parcel. But he has not settled down.

I have two litterboxes in there…I guess I should try reducing the area first and see what we can do from there.

[jerseygirl]

Mmmmm………? Well if he never did have proper litter habit, likely at 9 yrs old he has some pretty well entrenched habits. I can see now why you’re looking at the flooring modifications! Still, the old check up won’t hurt. I’m trying to thing of something like carpet tiles but more absorbant and washable. So you could cover their area and just take out the soiled squares as needed. Something that’ll wick away the urine quickly.

Lol – i’ve got to thinking about sphagnum moss…There’s a “new type of litter” idea forming in my head.  Edit:  Yeahhh…so maybe not. That stuff’s expensive!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL Yeh I’m kind of wondering if he was never litter trained-OR maybe just kept in a cage/enclosure covered with litter. But we’ll do a checkup with our vet soon (she’s out of town getting married!! -I told her marriage was fine but she was not to have children because she’s not allowed mat leave).

[Sarita]

I imagine those people lied. It’s not uncommon for people who are surrendering animals to lie to make them more adoptable because they feel guilty about dumping their animal.

[jerseygirl]

Makes you wonder if he is the age they said also…

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

True But he would be nine by what they said. Its not really likely he’s older-may be younger?

[jerseygirl]

Yes, I meant that he could be younger…but after posting above I thought why would anyone claim he was older than he was?….

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