How much space did you give your bunnies before they were litter trained?

[Annabel93]

 As I’ve said in my previous posts, I’ve got 3 baby boy bunnies (3.5 months old each). They’re not litter trained yet, and everywhere I’ve read says they’re too young to train properly now anyway. Fortunately they do pee in their litter trays but they still poop EVERYWHERE. I’m literally having to wash my bedding every day and hoover/wash the floor too. I’m lined up to start my new job in a couple of weeks and when I’ve got that I’m not gonna have the time for this!

The problem I have is that they live in my bedroom which obviously has my bed in, yet they love to get up and pee (that’s the one other place they do pee) and poo on it. Is it a better idea to keep them inside their cage for most of the day due to this? Atm they’re out 24/7 because I’m away dog sitting at a friend’s house and I can only come back twice a day to feed them.

How do I discourage them from going to the loo on the bed? Is it worth attempting to litter train them even though they’re supposedly too young?

Sorry for the mass of questions, I’m getting a bit desperate though!

[Beka27]

Rabbits aren’t ever really “too young” to litter train. By the time they’re 8 weeks or so, most DO potty in one area… BUT the habits do tend to get a little sloppy as they get older (3-4 months) and the hormones come into play. Neutering will usually get them back to good litter habits without you doing much of anything.

With that said, you also have the added stressor of having multiple buns. Not only are they marking because of hormones (single rabbits do this), but they are also marking AGAINST other hormonal bunnies. Kind of a “double whammy”.

When are they getting neutered? I think you said in another thread that they have their surgeries scheduled, but I don’t recall when.

Litter-trained rabbits pee in the box 100%, and leave a large percentage of their poops in the box (90% maybe). You will likely always have some poop left outside. It’s similar to writing on the bathroom stall “Annabel was here!” (not that YOU do that, but you get the idea…) :o)

Beds (and couches) are hotspots for bunnies because they smell the most like US. Best suggestion for that is to completely block them from the bed. You may need to get an xpen for that purpose, or build some type of pen/fencing that you can place around your bed when you can’t directly supervise.

[Annabel93]

OK, that seems like pretty good advice. They’ll be getting done when they turn 4 months (2 weeks time), literally can’t wait haha.

I’ll get my stepdad to build some kind of block round the bed then as I don’t like to leave them in the cage all day, hopefully once they’re completely banned from the bed they should be easier to keep an eye on and train into good habits.

One other thing – that block probably won’t get built for about a week, until then I’ll just let them out when i’m in the room – but what’s the best way to discourage them from getting them on the bed without spooking them? I’ve tried spraying them with water but they just seem to enjoy it!

[Annabel93]

Actually my brother just came up the idea to attach the entrance of one of these:

http://www.mh-star.co.uk/ekmps/shops/mhstaruk/images/fabric-dog-puppy-pet-rabbit-guinea-pig-play-pen-in-blue-s-size-61cm-high-s-size-[2]-2579-p.jpg

which we had in the garage anyway. They now have the space of their cage (which has things they can jump up on) as well as this, so I think that should be fine for now. Hooray!

[Beka27]

Yeah! That should be fine for now!!!

Something else people have done is put a heavy “junk” blanket on the bed that you don’t care if they pee on, although I would probably lay a shower curtain liner down first, with the blanket on top. But really other than blocking or covering the bed, there’s not a lot you can do. I don’t know how much success you’ll have “training” them to not go up there, especially when you’re not in the room and they know you can’t stop them.

Some rabbits can eventually hang out on the bed without peeing on it. But this would be later on when they are neutered and have matured age-wise (around 1+ year old).

[Annabel93]

Excellent!

I’m really hoping they’ll be able to do that one day as they get so chilled out when they’re up there and seem to really enjoy it.

Thanks for the advice anyway!

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