Litter Box

[Carolyn]

Hello everyone,

I am still fairly new to bunnies, My first bunny Scamper, I got back in June and he pretty much litter trained himself of course with some information from the net and these forums helped.

I have just adopted Molly about two weeks ago, the place we got her from, her owner was not able to care for her anymore. Her sister and her were kept in a very small rabbit cage barely big enough for one let alone two and no litter box.

Anyways, we brought Molly home and put her a large rabbit starter cage. So she can have a house to hide in, some toys and a litter box.

Molly will pee in her litter box but she poops everywhere. We have given her a bigger box just in case she thought she was in the box, we have the hay, food bins just above the litter box as well as I put her veggies in the litter box but she stills poops everywhere, even on top of her house.

No she is not spayed yet we were told she is just over 4 month old.

Any other ideas/suggestions on how to get her to use the litter box better then what she is now???

[Spacehopper]

Having one fully litter trained bun and one who just refuses to go in her box, I have no answers, unfortunately. I stood in a veggie poop earlier, and whilst under the bed with my babies the Weeny Bean sprayed up my arm. Nice!!! She’s soon to be spayed!!!!! Phewf!!

[Sarita]

She probably has no clue what a litter box is at this point. She will learn eventually. Try putting some hay in her litter box to encourage her to use it. Spaying will help eventually too. At least she is peeing in her litter box so that is a good start.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Welcome! It sounds like she may be marking her territory right now at the excitement of having such a big space to call her very own! My her previous conditions weren’t too good. But I am very glad she is out of that situation now. Have you picked up the poops and placed them in the litterbox, just so she knows? If it keeps up too much and she doesn’t learn from the other bunny like they often do, you may need to line the entire cage with litterboxes until she gets the hint and start taking out the boxes one by one when she stops making deposits in them. Once the litterbox training is over then she gets to earn outside run time in a small area to start or it could start the poo explosion all over again. Fixing her will also help but you don’t want to do it when they are too young either. I hope this helps!

[Gravehearted]

welcome silvanesti19! I usually try the same thing ScarletRose recommended and try to limit their territory and add more litterboxes until they improve the litterbox habits. Since she’s so new to your house and she’s competing with Scamper for territory, it’s going to take some time to adjust.

Also, once she’s spayed it should improve too – but it likely will have to wait a month or two until she’s old enough to spay.

[BB Administrator]

OOPS!  I just realized I’m in admin mode – This is BinkyBunny – Welcome silvanesti19!! This is normal under the circumstances – she’s in a new place so she’ll mark it up (especially since she has yet to be spayed), and if you still have Scamper still, then she will be able to smell him, even if she can’t see him. Her behavior should decline a bit once she feels more secure, becomes spayed and becomes bonded with Scamper. The others suggestions are also good to help her develop good habits, though you may still find it a bit challenging since three things New place, not spayed and another bunny all happening at the same time.

Out of curiosity, how is Scamper dealing with a new bunny in the house. I know that even neutered littertrained bunnies may temporarily lose their habits when a new bunny enters into the picture.

Helloworld!!

[Carolyn]

 

Actually Scamper is not neutered yet, so Molly and Scamper have not met face to face.  He goes in this Thursday to get neutered and I have been worried about it ever since I made the appointment but I know it’s for the best.  Scamper’s litter habits seem to be the same as always. He’s really good about going in the litter box other then in front of our rats’ cage during his out of cage playtime.  I know that it’s him marking, we are going to try putting a litter try in front of the rats to see if that makes a difference.

Now Scamper can sniff Molly’s cage when he is out for a run but is not able to get into it.  She is usually in the hallway blocked off from Scamper enjoying her run with me or my boyfriends supervision. Scamper hasn’t shown any aggression at all towards the cage I think sometimes he goes looking for Molly but can’t understand why he can’t find her. He’s a very playful little guy. Some times he can’t  figure out why his stuffed dog won’t chase him or return any affection. its alway funny to come out seeing him sleeping under or cleaning his stuffed dog.

 

 When I notice molly has misses the litter box I keep dropping her poop into the box in hopes she well get the hint. I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to make sure she is a happy bunny.

Right now, the bunnies’ cages are separated where they cannot see each other.  Do you think it would be better for them if they are placed where they can see each other and maybe put Molly at ease just in case she worried about being able to smell Scamper but can’t see him???, or do you think it may add to the stress of a new home???

[skunklionshow]

Jessica’s litterbox skills improved when we got a 2nd female in the pet therapy program.  Since moving in w/ the cats she began pooping and peeing everywhere on the cat’s stuff (i.e. their bed, the couch, etc).  Her skills got excellent once she got spayed.  Now I think she gets aggrevated w/ her bunny boyfriend, Leo.  He always used the litterbox for pee, but seldom for poops.  I thought it was marking b/c our program had another male bunny.  But he still has been lousy w/ the litterbox since moving in w/ Jess.  I can’t wait to get him neutered!  I don’t think Jessi appreciates the poops in their bunny bed!

[Floppy]

yeah my bun just got neutered last week and already he isn’t marking territory anymore
and I finally got him to use his litter box instead of just using it as a pedestal. His behavior
has improved so much I can’t wait for the following 5 weeks to see how much more his
behavior will change (than I can participate in the survey!)

[MooBunnay]

Hello Silvanesti19!

As far as your question about whether you should let them see each other – I don’t think it will affect Molly too much stress wise either way – but if you do let him get to close to her cage she might become territorial and try to defend her cage from him which could make her anxious. I’ve found that new bunnies coming from a bad situation to a good one often become very territorial of their new good situation because they don’t want the old one!

The way I have litter trained all my bunnies is by putting a huge layer of hay in their litterbox, and then any time I would see any poops outside the box I’d make sure to pick them up and put them right in. I think the cleaner you keep the floor the more they realize its NOT where they poop. If there is hay on the floor, or food, or poops, they might just think the floor itself is a litterbox, and not realize the litterbox you INTENDED for them is not the floor

[BinkyBunny]

Oh, and remember, a male can still get an unspayed female pregnant within a month after surgery, so you should keep them separated for at least that long since she is not spayed.

[Carolyn]

Oh I know about keeping them apart for over a month after the scamper gets nuterued, We  do not want any babies. there are too many unwanted animals in this world.  I think we well keep them in sperate cages until after molly is spayed, I’m starting to save the money so when she is six months I can affored it.  They well get supervised play time to start bonding in a month or so after Scamper is fixed.

Mollys new thing is she thinks the top of her house is the litter box, She gose there the most, some on the floor too….. ugg……..  Do you think we should swich the litter box and the house around in the cage or take the house out and give her box back although she keeps flipping it over so it dosn’t give her much of a place to hide when she feels scared???????

Another quick question is it normal a bunny to bearly go to the batheroom druing the day and go alot at night??….we are thinking its because she getting unlimited food and hay unlike before.

[BinkyBunny]

You can get clamps to clamp the side of the litterbox to her pen. You said that if her box was inside, that she wouldn’t have much room…is that right? If so how big is her space? If her cage is smaller than you’d like her to have, check out the cool habitats section of this site for some good ideas on giving bunnies the space they need – Cube cages are great for people with limited floor space but can build “up”.

[Carolyn]

her lilte box is inside her cage on one side. She is for now in a cage that is 39"lenght x 18" wide. Its big enough and for her to have a house, lay out flat in the space and a small kitty litter box with all her food in it. She well move into the cage with my other bunny which is much larger for them but we are going to wait until eveyrone is fixed. .

[MooBunnay]

Hello Has Molly improved at all with the litterbox habits? My bunny Raymond would poop on top of his covered litterbox sometimes because he was also trying to mark that area as his territory. I have noticed that rabbits with push on pretty much anything that moves, so clamping down the litterbox and house somehow will help keep her from flipping them over. I think sometimes they flip things because they are trying to “dig” to find somewhere to hide, so I think the more she is able to hide under the house the better she will feel. Maybe you could use a small cardboard box instead of the house? She might enjoy ‘remodeling’ and hiding in it!

[Carolyn]

Sorry I haven’t replied for the past few days I’ve been busy looking after scamper.  He just got neutered on Thursday and is doing well enough now I can relax.

Molly is doing better, we took out her big wooden house, gave her back her box that she seems to like to flip over. Added another litter box. I have to say she is getting in the box now 50% of the time. It’s a work in progress. Today would make two weeks since we had gotten her, and this morning when I was picking up her messes she actually wanted some attention. Every time I’d stop petting her she stand on her hind feet with her noise in my face. Hopefully it’s a sign she starting to settle in.

 

[MooBunnay]

Thats so cute! She’s definitely setting in if she’s already demanding pets from you and yay on being up to 50%! hopefully she’ll get the rest in sometime soon!

[Gravehearted]

ooo glad to hear you were able to get him neutered this week and that he’s making a good recovery. we use binder clips to help secure the litterbox to the side of one of the bunny houses and it’s helped cut down on the crazy box mess we used to have.

[Carolyn]

Though I give an update on how Molly is doing. She is using her litter box I’m going to say about 85% to 90% of the time.

As well as I decided to let Molly and Scamper meet with supervision while one is lose and the other is in the cage.  Scamper trys go get Molly to play with him by trying to get her to follow him. So after a couple of trys he give up and they he gose on with his time out or he eats out of her hay bin…lol..

Molly seems to be much happier now that she know for sure scamper is in the house. She gets all excited when they get to see each other….lol…I think she is  missing her sister, She like to lay in front of scampers cage when she get tired from running around the living room and Scamper trys to groom her throw the bars.

So two and half weeks before we can let them actually let them out together to play. By the looks of things they are bonding together already, Hopfully things are well go well.

[BinkyBunny]

YEAH!!!!!! This sounds so promising. I look forward to hearing future updates!

[Gravehearted]

glad you updated, it sounds like the litterbox issue is improving.
it sounds like there are already some good signs with the bonding too – the grooming and laying in front of the cage are both good signs 🙂

please let us know how it’s going

[Author]

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