Impatient new bunny mum!

[Deleted User]

Hi, I brought Dylan home a few days ago, he is about 12 weeks old and very cute. He’s an accidental baby, French lop crossed with a giant continental, and has one ear lopped and one pointing straight up! I have him in a 4×2 foot cage in our spare room, and have been letting him out a couple of times a day. Before anyone mentions the cage size, I fully expected him to grow pretty big eventually, but didn’t realise just how big he’d be already (small cat size!)! The cage was only ever intended as an intermediate measure while he’s getting used to me and the house, when he’s done with litter training he’ll be able to live in the kitchen (which is ready bunny proofed!). The only reason he’s not in there now is to give him a bit of peace while he’s getting used to us. Anyway, I have a list of how soons, which my other half keeps asking and I keep answering him that we have to be patient!

How soon should I start litter training in earnest? He’s a natural with the litter tray in his cage, and when he’s out in the room pops back in to use it. There have been a couple of stray poos, but I think he seems too excited about the space to think about boring stuff like pooing!

This one’s pretty much linked in, how soon should I introduce him to the rest of the house? He’s upstairs at the moment, and will pretty much be allowed the run of the house, but will I need to pick him up to negotiate the stairs, or let him figure it out, or put him in his cat carrier (which he likes to hide in). And should I bring his cage downstairs for him to feel safe, or just his litter tray? The downstairs doesn’t really have much space for a 4 foot long cage! Just answered that in my head – take him down in the cat carrier, then put that and the litter trayy in a corner – bingo!

How soon should I wait before trying to pet him? I’ve been doing everything I’ve read about – sitting quietly reading a book while he potters about etc. He seems really happy to be in there with me, and if he’s in a fidgety mood will be out of his cage door straight away and binkying about like nobody’s business! He let me stroke his nose today while he nibbled on some pellets I put on the floor, but only a very little bit, then went back in his cage. I’m a bit worried that if I don’t attempt to pet him he’ll get used to not being petted (had a bad experience as a little girl with a grumpy, and I’m ashamed to say, neglected, dwarf rabbit who would flatten herself against the hutch floor and growl if I went anywhere near her.).

Sorry, loads of questions, just want to do it right!
 

Charlie

 

[MooBunnay]

Hi Charlie, welcome to BinkyBunny

It sounds like your bunny is very lucky to have such a great new bunny mum! As for the litter training, you can start right away by putting any stray poops back into his litterbox, and cleaning up any pee accidents with vinegar. It is normal for buns to start marking the house with their poops at some point, since he sounds very happy in his new house he will probably want to “claim” it sooner or later, so don’t be surprised if he leaves a little trail of poops. Also, if males are not neutered, at their “teenage years:, around 8 or 9 months, they really start to lose their litter training habits, and the best remedy for that is neutering.

I definitely agree about bringing him his litterbox downstairs, he may even need a couple different ones around the house if he has a lot of space to run around.

How does Dylan react when you pet him? Does he seem scared? One of the best ways to get a rabbit to be comfortable with you is to hand feed treats. Usually the larger breeds of bunnies are much more comfortable around people, and I’m sure that Dylan is really going to warm up to you and enjoy your company. Right now, he is probably just having so much fun that he is more interested in exploring than pets, but once he gets used the area he will start demanding frequent pets

[Elrohwen]

It sounds to me like your bun is already litter trained! I got my bun at 8 weeks and he’s only had one accident outside his cage since we’ve had him and I never did any “formal” litter training. He just picked it up himself and it sounds like your bun has too. After neutering the stray poops might clear up a bit too. I haven’t seen more than 1 a day in his cage since he was neutered and before that he left maybe 4-5 per day.

I would pet him as much as you like. If he tries to walk away when you do it, leave him and try again at a later time. He’ll let you know if he doesn’t like the petting and as long as he sticks around while you do it I’m sure he likes it. As long as you’re not harrassing him, it’s fine to pet him as much as he’ll allow. And try petting him different places. Most buns like being petted on their head, but mine actually prefers petting on his back and butt and fidgets if I pet his head too long. So don’t be afraid to try different places.

I agree with MooBunnay about hand feeding treats. I just sit and hand feed pellets to Otto and he loves it. No treats required!

[KatnipCrzy]

sounds like you are on the right track with having a secure pen area and allowing some freedom.  If you allow him on another level of the house you should have a litterbox available until he is old enough to get back to his litterbox on his own- and has the attention span to do so.  But with littertraining you will probably see a bit of a setback when he gets a little older and hormones kick in- but then after the hormones settle after the neuter littertraining seems to get better again.

Having a smaller restricted area like a room or 2 is better at first for littertraining- as too much freedom can lead to more accidents.  But I have noticed as my bunnies really “get” littertraining the better they are and they are allowed access to 3 levels of our quad level home and they are able to keep most of the poos where they belong and as long as there are no wee accidents I am happy.  But as a youngster and pre-spay they never could have had that much freedom without having tons of accidents (and some of that was purposeful marking).  So small steps are better for consistent training.  (I can only allow my bunnies out when I am home since I have other pets- dogs, cats, parrots).  My bunnies are pretty quiet during the day and like to come out more at nighttime when my husband and I are watching TV- they will hang out, beg for treats, and do cute things to get our attention.

[NickiM]

 Your so lucky to have a bunny so natural with litter box traning. My bun is having trouble with it still.  My bunny also has 1 ear up and one down and is just a little of 3 months old. 

[Deleted User]

Cool, thanks for all the advice, since he seems so good with his litter tray I’m off out to get him another one today, so he can have one upstairs and one downstairs, we’ll see how it goes pre-neutering when the hormones get going! Pets-wise, definatley going to keep up the hand-feeding. He seems more resigned to the nose rubs than anything, it’s like ‘oh, okay, seeing as I’m getting some food I’ll let you!’ But he’s taken to coming up and nudging my toes while I’m sitting on the floor, so he’s obviously not scared of me. Hopefully it won’t take long till he realises petting is nice, not scary!

And Nicki – how cute are the ears? The lop ear kind of pulls the other one across so it’s sticking straight up in the middle of his head!

Charlie

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