In a rut with litter training…

[LoveyBuns]

So first off I will apologize if someone has already asked this very same question…but I looked through the archives after searching for “litter training” and didn’t find anything quite the same. Basically our newer bunny Lola is sort of stuck in a rut with litter training. When we first got her, she pooed everywhere and we managed to get her used to using a litterbox. At this point I’d say she pretty much exclusively pees in the litterbox which is great. And she also doesn’t poo outside her pen (well occasionally, but its pretty rare) which is also a huge step for her. However she still poos a LOT in her pen, outside the litterbox. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for it…I thought she was marking her territory, but we’ve had her for almost 3 months now and its still going on. I always scoop up her poos and put them in the box, but regardless she always seems to do about 50% of her poos in the box and 50% outside. She was spayed shortly before we got her. There is no pattern to her pooing as far as I can notice…its just everywhere inside her pen. Her pen is quite large as well 2 feet by 4 feet, and she has a big litter box (a cat litter box in fact).

At this point I’m just wondering if there is anything new we can do. I mean she stopped pooing outside of her cage…I just don’t know why she still wants to poo in it! And I’ve also tried moving her litterbox to different corners…she doesn’t like that. So I know I have the right corner, but is it possible she may need two litter boxes? That seems extreme…but we do have an extra if that’s the case.

Our other bunny Milo is so neat and always goes is his box, and we did everything exactly the same for both of them, so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Any advice/tips would be appreciated!

[jerseygirl]

What age is Lola? Some do just take longer and some will just always poop outside the box too…
Do you have hay in her box or elsewhere in her cage? Sometimes they’ll poop where ever the hay is while munching on it. Also, do you cover her pen floor with anything?

[LoveyBuns]

I’m not quite sure what age Lola is…she’s a pretty skittish bunny so both times we’ve taken her to the vet she hasn’t allowed them a very good look at her teeth. But they’ve said she’s defniitely adult, likely between 1 and 2 years. Personally I’d go towards the younger end, I think she’s just over a year old. She gets hay in her litterbox, and in another bowl in the pen…so maybe that’s part of the issue. Her pen is in the 2nd bedroom which is carpeted, and then in her pen on top of the carpet we have a blanket down which covers the entire bottom of the pen.

[jerseygirl]

I would try offering hay only in her litterbox and see whether that improves things. Hopefully! I know of the frustration – mine used to be sooo good…

[LoveyBuns]

Well we tried hay just in the litter box yesterday…to no avail. But I have some changes I need to make today/tomorrow so we’ll see what happens. Basically I am planning on dowsnizing Lola’s pen slightly (back to the original size 2 feet by 3 feet) because we want to use the extra grids at my parents house where we are building a super pen for them over the holidays lol. And I’m planning on washing all the animal blankies (rabbits, cat, dog) today to get all the stink off…my parents, sister and her bf are visiting this weekend and they are tolerant of animals at best lol. Having a stinky apartment won’t help my case for them to adopt homeless animals! Anyway….I’m hoping between washing everything, changing her litter today, and downsizing her pen, we may notice a difference. I’m going to try re-arranging her litterbox once again to see if she wants to use a different corner now. We’re also trying to bond her to our other bunny Milo, so we have their pens very close (but not close enough to bite) so I wonder if by making hers match the set up of his pen it’ll be easier when swapping pens…

[Sarita]

Are you using the regular cat size litter boxes? Not those corner ones?

[LoveyBuns]

Yup we use a full size cat litter box for Lola.

[Sarita]

How much poops are outside her litter box? Many of my rabbits always leave a few here and there – not a pile though.

Sometimes it’s a result of kicking them out of the box when they get out too.

[LoveyBuns]

Oh these are definitely not kicked out of her box…unless she’s catapulting them to the other side of her pen! Her pen is in the upper-left corner of her pen…and her poos are just everywhere. I know it would be normal if she left few around (our other bunny Milo does that occasionally and he is definitely litter trained) …but this is an extensive amount. Some days I feel as though she poos more outside her box, than in!

[jerseygirl]

Sorry to hear the hay trick didn’t work. It could be the bonding scenario – a bit of the poop wars? This is when my Doe’s habits deterioted and they never did return to what they were before. I’m working on it… After you’ve finished bonding perhaps then you can really try work on her litter habits. You may have to tell the visiting family it’s due to bonding and temporary. If that means anything to them…lol

[LoveyBuns]

I’m trying all kinds of things now, lol. So her litter box takes up almost a full side of the pen…but to keep the other corner inaccessible as well, I ziptied a basket to it that I figured could be good for hay munching. So I filled that basket and part of the litter box with hay…and well, she pooed a lot in the basket, which ok fair enough, could be a good litter box once she ate the hay…and then pooed all outside her litterbox. What I’ve noticed is that even when I put the hay in her litterbox, she stands outside the box and pulls the hay towards her, instead of climbing in and eating in the litterbox. Now I understand maybe you don’t wanna hang out in the litterbox while you are having dinner…Milo never does…but he always manages to go into his litter box in between munches to do his business! Sigh…at this point I’m just giving up for a bit and going to continue to scoop the poops up and put them in the box and hope she gets the idea.

[Sarita]

I had a few rabbits that would eat their hay that way as well – lazy rabbits! I would say that if she were older perhaps it was a mobility issue. I’m thinking perhaps you may have to try different sizes or types of litter boxes.

I also have to wonder if perhaps she doesn’t like the litter that you use. I had some rabbits in the past who had a hard time balancing on the rounded pelleted litter.

[LoveyBuns]

Haha I would definitely have to say its not a mobility issue…Lola loves to jump on EVERYTHING. Her pen is 3 feet high, and she still has to have a top…she views it as a challenge. The only thing I can imagine is if the litter box gets even bigger? We’ve done smaller sizes (the large size of the corner type litter box) and that didn’t really work. Although now that I think back about it, we switched to the cat size litter box to see if her habits would improve which they didn’t…is it possible for the box to be too big?

We currently use wood pellets as litter, but have used Yesterday’s News in the past…however the shape of both litters would be the same. Is there anything else that would could use?

[Sarita]

Well, the only other litter I can think you can try is Aspen Shavings.

As for the box being too big – anything is possible. But in my opinion, too small is worse. Have you tried the high sided cat boxes? Just thinking of other possibilities – maybe if it’s a little higher sided (and these aren’t that high sided) she would be forced to jump her lazy self in to get to the hay and poop in the litter box that way.

[LoveyBuns]

Well since I zip-tied the hay basket to the pen, along with her litter box, that’s two corners of the pen blocked off. She’s pooing in the hay basket after she eats, but I do notice she’s using the litterbox a whole lot more. Overally there seems to be an improvement, so maybe after I clean out everything today, it will be a more noticeable difference.

[Sarita]

Well, that’s hopeful! Sometimes it just takes an arrangement that suits them – whatever that is :~)

[Beka27]

With my buns, I had to make it so their only option for hay was to sit in the litterbox.  They would always leave poops wherever the hay was.  What I did was I butted their two litterboxes up next to each other and attached the hay container to the corner of the pen.  They can reach the hay from either litterbox.

This is what we were doing before and it was just not keeping the poop contained…

[LoveyBuns]

That looks like a much better idea for Lola, I think it would make a big difference! There’s been some improvement, but yes I think if the hay was only in the litter box with no way for her to move it…it would probably make all the difference. As an aside washing the blankets for the visit from my family this weekend was thoroughly unappreciated. Milo (our other bun) and Ebony (our dog) seemed perfectly fine to have clean sleeping blankies again. Lola…not so much. I put the blanket down on the floor and put her pen back over it while she was having playtime so I wouldn’t be bothering her while she was inside. She came close to the blanket (without touching) sniffed, then ran away stopped in front of me and thumped! She kept doing this for at least 15 minutes, until I got so annoyed (after being exhausted from a full day of work, to do laundry and cleaning while my partner was still at work…) that I got up thumped the floor and left the room! That put an end to the thumping though, and she went in eventually :p

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