Litter box ARRR

[brook]

I can’t get bomber litter trained.  he is trained in his cage because he only pees in his box and poops there mostly but sometimes all over the cage, but the pee only in the box.  Outside in the living room it’s a different story.  His cage is in that room and the door is always open.  His favorite place to pee is on the couch, but since he isn’t allowed up there anymore he has started to pee on the floor next to the couch and under the coffee table.  He has always pooped everywhere and that is not the worst thing for me because the dustbuster works great, it’s the pee that I can’t handle.  He knows when he does it because he sniffs it and if he sees one of us come into the room or look at him he runs and hides because he knows he’s in trouble.  i pick him up make him smell it and put him in his cage for awhile and tell him he’s bad.  I dont know what else to do.  He is not neutered yet… will this help???

1910421530271.GIF

[Lionbunny]

Making an animal smell their urine or poop doesn’t work, not even in dogs, and even less in rabbits. Litter box training is usually done in a small enclosure first, so the first step would to restrict him from free reign of the living room until you have his habits in order. And yes, neutering will help in most cases (from what I’ve read). I’m sure more people will chime in with some tips.

By the way, he’s adorable. The collar makes him look even cuter, like a puppy rabbit!

[MooBunnay]

Hi! As Lionbunny said – making him smell his urine and also getting angry with him will not help because he will not be able to associate these actions with his peeing outside the box. Can you make him one or two extra litterboxes and place them in the areas where he pees the most? This should help him associate the litterbox with where he is supposed to pee. Also, neutering will help because he might be “marking” more so than actually peeing. You can restrict his area, but I wouldn’t recommend confining him to just his cage all the time because he can’t get the exercise he needs. I would try the additional litterboxes first, and only let him out when you can supervise him. Then, watch for when he backs up into a corner and lifts his tail, which means he is going to pee. When you see that happen, you need to nudge him towards the box and say something like “itterbox” to stop him BEFORE he pees, which will have much greater success.

Also, I agree that the collar looks very cute but there are a few big differences between dogs and bunnies that make collars a bit more dangerous for bunnies, which you might want to consider. One is that you’ve probably seen your bunny scootching himself into small areas, and exploring and squeezing around little areas etc., and this makes it very easy for them to get their collar caught and injure or suffocate themselves. Also, bunnies necks are not designed the same way as a dog, they do not have as much muscle around their neck, and their skin is very tender there, which makes it very easy for the collar to choke or injure them. For these reasons, the rescue I work with recommends not to use collars to prevent any unfortunate incidents

[Spacehopper]

All i can say is neutering made NO difference in Brian. He was litter trained after about 2 weeks (of weeing and pooping on the boyfriend’s side of the bed, in the sleeping bag when he got comfy with me on the sofa….) He’d hold it in when we used to keep him locked in the cage overnight and rushout of a morning to relieve himself. So THAT was fortunate. Weeny Bean on the other hand….well i don’t think there’s any training her…she copies Brian and wees and poops in the litter box…APART from the the soft squidgy TOO MANY VEGETABLES..which she does ALL over the floor, and again I found out i’d trodden in one in bare feet after work today as i discovered why my jeans were sticking to me heel! I’d say stick with it, and be patient… but patience is a virtue that I have now given up on in her case. 🙂 GOOD LUCK!!!!

[Deleted User]

Bomber is a real cutie!

Heck, it is in some cases absolutely impossible to litter train some bunnies (oh ask me) … Sprinkles is a prolific pooper/pee-er everywhere.  I have never been able to littertrain her, even in her cage she poops all over the floor like it is the best thing ever invented.  The pee-ing thing is worse though I totally agree, particularly on the carpet/lounge floors and cleaning up pee is crap (literally)!

After placing like three extra litterboxes around in the lounge room and tiles/plastic and god knows what I ended up giving up.  It was so much hard work trying to get her in the litterbox to pee.  So I had to restrict her to her pen area and even then she would pee on the floor.  When I bought Lily home it was worse and she would spray Lily.  Lily was extremely tidy and never used anything but her littertray.

Oohhh and by the way Sprinkles was spayed … absolutely made no difference at all.  Sprinkles is now with my friend … two bunnies for me was way too much hard work.

I can understand what you are going through, but once you get Bomber neutured it will be much better (I hope for your sake, fingers crossed).  Hope I have not dampened your good intentions.

Dawn xx

[Gravehearted]

Most bunnies do much better with litterbox training after being neutered.

By pooping and peeing around the house he’s marking his territory. When rabbits aren’t doing well with using the boxi, I like to limit their territory and add more litterboxes, espcially if there are certain areas he seems to repeatedly mark. This has worked really well for me, and once they’re really doing well with litterboxing I slowly increase the roaming territory over time.

[brook]

thanks for all the help and also wanted you to know that the collar on him is merely for show, this is the only time he would allow it!!! I don’t even keep a collar on the cat most of the time for fear that she will hang herself… but I appreciate the suggestion.

[skunklionshow]

He is soooo frickin’ cute.  I don’t collar my cats either, but I do have one that looks adorable in his collar!

Dawn—do you think naming your bun Sprinkles set him up for litterbox failure?  I just thought that the name b/f the sprinkling would be funny!

[Deleted User]

Skunky – I have never renamed Sprinkles … I inherited her when she was probably about 1 year old and kept the name as I thought it was cute! (NOT).  Other than that she is an extremely gorgeous rabbit … and is very affectionate and loves sitting on your lap.  I miss her terribly now, but I see her when I can.  She lives with my ex boyfriend who is great with her and loves her to pieces as well.

Dawn xx

[BinkyBunny]

Neutering can lessen their need to do territorial marking, but you still may need to go through a training process even when your bunny is neutered. Like gravehearted suggested, start from square one and start limiting territory. Have you had a chance to go through the littertraining section on this site?

Though some people do have “stubborn” bunnies regardless (My Bailey is one, but she has gotten worse only due to illness, but prior to that she was more challenging) But for the most part neutering/spaying does make a difference.

[Author]

Messages