Help! Litter box De-training

[Kddubya]

Help please! I brought my baby bun home 3 weeks ago. I waited a couple days to put her litter box in her cage to determine placement. I noticed she was using a specific corner so that’s where it went. She immediately began using it. About a week and half later after cleaning her cage out I moved her food bowl closer to the litter box to encourage eating while in the box since she was pooping while eating. This did not help and now she won’t even pee in the litter box. I thought maybe she didn’t like having her food so close to the box so I moved it back away but this hasn’t helped. Looking for suggestions on how to retrain her to use the litter box. Thank you!

[JLH]

the way I trained my bun and she still does it this way is how my bunny vet told me. I bought a large enough litter box (my bunny is free roam house bunny) and I put a layer of bunny safe recycled absorbent paper in the bottom and then a layer of hay, she eat’s hay while pooping and peeing. it works perfect for her as she only pee’s in one corner of the litter box and in a different corner of it to poop, plus a bunny won’t eat hay if there’s pee or poop on it. I trained her this way at 8 weeks old when I got her, she is now a year and 3 months old. also her litter box is outside of her cage.

[Asriel and Bombur]

I agree with JLH suggestion. I put the hay right in the litter box with some compressed pine pellets. Works like a charm. Also, how old is your girl? If she’s not old enough to be spayed, hormones are at play and she won’t be trained/adherent really until she is spayed. She’ll mark with both poop and urine rather frequently as a way to show her territory. All you can do is set a good foundation for once she’s been spayed and her hormones die down.

[Kddubya]

She is about 10 weeks. She has yet to have any accidents outside of her cage (knock on wood) so I feel pretty lucky with that. It is just bizarre to me that she was doing so well with the litter box and now barely uses it at all. Only change was the movement of her food bowl which like I said I’ve even moved back hoping it would help but nothing. Thanks for your help!

[Sir Ollie]

My baby bun did really well with litter training for a few weeks, but then I think hormones started kicking in and he started having accidents all over the place, although he would still use his box some too. Now I find he goes back and forth between doing well with litter training and then going back to peeing everywhere. He isn’t neutered yet so I know I can only do so much to litter train him until then.

[Kddubya]

My previous bun wasn’t neutered and never had any problems litter box training. He had a lot more accidents outside but always peed in his box while inside the cage. I just got new baby bun a larger litter box so hoping that will help. I’ve also ordered a food dispenser/bowl that hangs on side of cage so she can eat while in her litter box too. Hopefully these new changes will be helpful! Will keep everyone posted!

[Author]

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