House Keeping

[Firsttimer]

Well I now have two rabbits getting along great together in their little home and boy are they messy!  I’m currently cleaning up their cage every day and I feel that they should be better trained than they are.  Dylan, our new rabbit, learnt litter training extremely fast and is a very tidy little boy with his litter.  However, he loves to throw his food around and the heavy ceramic bowls haven’t stopped him – he also manages to throw the litter tray around until it’s empty unless I remember to tie it down. I can cope with his mess no problem.

Pepper is now a year and a half old and although she is litter trained I think her habits are getting worse and her pellets end up all over the cage.  Is there a way to improve the training of a rabbit a year after their initial training? Pepper was never perfect and there was always a couple of pellets lying around, but now I am having to use a mini shovel every morning in their tray!

[Beka27]

some buns are just always going to leave poops about. you could try scooping them up and putting them in the box, restricting freedom.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I feel your pain. My 3 buns all have separate cages and they are SUPER messy. I’m constantly cleaning up poop and hay. My little girl is especially messy and loves to fire poops out of the cage. I have to clean and vaccuum that room every day.

[bunnytowne]

my 2 girls are taking forever to litter train. Ruby has almost got  it down. I don’t see pee spots on her rug anymore. PUff is another matter entirely. AGh     oh my the bug man came and i cannot let them out for an hour. cotton is furious. he just peed on the floor outside his cage. I just fussed at him. he knows what he is doing. showing me he is mad. MAD I have more work to do with PUff. she is using the cardboard box I put to collect her poop. she is peeing in that too not her litterbox oh yiiii buns.

[BinkyBunny]

Regarding the litterbox, you could try and get a litterbox with a lip or cover. That should eliminate the litter going everywhere. And with my bunnies, I just set their food on a mat on the floor when it’s dinner time. No bowl to be tossed around. Many time rabbits will toss it because, with their little short necks, they can’t get to the edges closest to them, so they learn that if they pick up and toss it around, it will either get the food to the other side or throw out of the bowl completely, therefore making it easier for them to get to.

[Scarlet_Rose]

I have a question, how much to do you reach inside their cage with them in it? Rabbits need a “safe” place where no human goes while they are there (except of course if they need to go to the vet or something is medically wrong with them) and when a human is in their territory too much, a rabbit will revert to “messy” litterbox habits by marking up everything with poo. This can also happen especially if you have bonded a new pair and they are figuring everything out, especially when one moves into the others’ cage. You can also opt for a covered cat litterbox since it seems that your fella is throwing it around rather than just digging in it. As for the food bowls, my two love playing discus with theirs and I learned long ago that they do not get ceramic crocks, I give them plastic food bowls I found in the small animal section at a local pet supply store. Along with Binky Bunny’s interpretation of throwing the food dish, I find that my two just like playing with them as they really like to toss things. What kinds of toys do you have to divert Dylan’s attention? It may be that if you provide him with throw-type toys he will simmer down. Pepper on the other hand may take some time and some understanding. You can start over with her from square one with litter training and under BUNNY INFO you’ll see Litterbox Training.

[Firsttimer]

Thanks for all the advice. Scarlet Rose you have an interesting point there.  Since getting Dylan and finally bonding the two rabbits my rule about not reaching into their cage has relaxed a lot. This is mainly because they are both very timit rabbits, particularly Pepper, and catching them outside of their cage to groom them etc is pretty much impossible, so I’ve been taking them from the cage to groom them before letting them run free in the house – Dylan is heavily moulting. They have also been getting lots of trips to the garden with the lovely weather lately and to get them there I need to catch them, put them in the carry case and walk them right round the house to get to the back garden (the safest place way from neighbourhood dogs).  So there is a lot of handling that they might not appreciate – all for a good reason I think.  Now that the weather is getting better I am able to leave doors open to the rest of the house and I think pepper senses this as she has already started to follow me to try to get to other rooms – whereas in winter she knows not to bother.  I’m not sure how I would go about retraining – especially as they are now both in the same cage.

Their litter tray is currently a cat tray which they can get in and out of easily and the high sides stop the mess coming out with them.  They don’t pee outside of the tray, it’s just pellets and I’m pretty sure it’s just Pepper.

As for Dylans playful tossing this is not a problem and he has a lot of toys which tend to bounce on Peppers nose when Dylan plays with them.

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