Having trouble with litter training..

[alexa]

 Spooky has been trying to learn to pee and poop in his litterbox. He does a good job of peeing in it when he is in his pen, but he still poops around his cage. He doesn’t poop as much outside of the cage when I let him roam the room, but the thing he ALWAYS does is pees in the bed! My bed is on the floor, I don’t have a frame, just a mattress, so its hard to keep him off of it. He also loves to binky on it since we have hardwood floors now and can’t really binky there. Anyways, What should I do about that? I don’t want to always leave him in the cage because he pees and poops, but I want to teach him not to do that. I have put him back in his cage a couple times after he did it, but I don’t want to make it seem like a prison. I always get thumped at when I do that too, ha ha. 

 

ANY advice?? 

[jerseygirl]

What is his cage set up like? Sometimes if there is things like animal bedding or towels down on the cage floor it can confuse them as to where the right spot is. Usually having floor bare and litter/bedding only in the box with hay helps during training.

Beds and sofas are irresistable to many rabbits! Partly because he’s young and still learning but many adult buns do it too. What you could do is put a protective barrier down on your bed when he has his out time. You could even put a litterbox on top while he’s out and about.

[alexa]

I might try doing the litterbox on the bed when he is out.

I do have a towel down in there since there is hardwood floors. I need to buy a mat or something. Any suggestions on mats? I’m not sure what would be rabbit friendly.

[jerseygirl]

Sorry, he has a pen then, not a cage? It’s pretty typical of them to leave poop about in their own space, especially the young ones. You may even find his habits worsen once puberty arrives (which is pretty much now). Then neutering can help get them back on track again.  You just have to keep on cleaning up and putting everything in his litterbox so he learns.

For the pen floor you could use sea grass mats because they can eat them too. But they’re not so easy to clean up. You could use a tarp or vinyl offcut.  Even a bamboo mat with a sheet underneath.  For the bed some people have uses a shower curtain or plastic tablecloth.

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