Litter Box Training? New Rabbit Owner!

[white7409]

Thumper is still a baby, im not sure how old i finally got him to eat hay, but thats all he wants to eat, he wont eat his pelletes. But can anyone tell me how to get him to use a litter box. Ive put hay in the box for him, but im afiard that he will just think thats a eating spot. Yees the litter box is in his cage for the time being.

[Andi]

Rabbits eat & poop at the same time, so you are doing right by palcign the hay in the litter box. Rabbits will usually pick a corner (or two) of the litter box to pee in, just palce the hay in the other corner so not to get peed on.
I also sweep up any loose poops around the house and cage and place them in the litter box, so the rabbit eventually get’s thats where they go.
Some rabbits catch on to this quickly, other take more time, spayed/neutered bunnies i find catch on much more quickly then non altered ones.

As for not eating pellets, it’s not really a bad thing if he’s getting his hay and veggies. Make sure the pellets smell ok, and are not moldy or ‘off’ sometimes rabbits know if there is something up with the pellets and refuse to eat them.

[jerseygirl]

You could now remove the critter care bedding. You could put some in the litter box to use as litter, along with some hay. Then keep the rest of the cage floor bare. This will help him define where the potty spot is. You can offer a seagrass mat, a piece of cardboard or bunched up towel if you want something in his cage to lie on – though most rabbits like to lie on the bare floor.

Are you offering a plain pellet or a pellet/grain mix?  It could also be he is not familiar with the feed as it’s not the same as what he ate previously.  Do you recall what he had in his cage at the flea market?

[Karla]

This is how I did the litter training with mine, it might be help for you:

Karl: I put a hay rack over his toilet, put newspapers on the floor of the cage and that was it. Every time he peed or pooped outside the litterbox, I would put it in the litterbox. On the 3rd day I thought he was never going to learn it, but on the 4th day he was perfectly litter trained and has been since. I should mention thought that he was caged during these days.

Molly: Molly was a hard nut to crack. I did the same thing (without the newspapers this time though) as with Karl: caged her, put poo’s and pee back into the litterbox. She seemed litter trained until I let her out the cage, then she forgot all about it. I had to bribe her to learn it. She was fed only in her litterbox, and I gave her a treat every time she was in the litterbox and both praise and treats when she in fact did her thing in the litterbox. It worked.

Good luck I hope you can use some of this.

[white7409]

whats a sea grass mat?

[Monkeybun]

store.binkybunny.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp

Thats a sea grass mat Moose looooved his. Tore it to shreds! He had a blast digging at it and tugging on it.. I’m gonna have to get him a new one soon. 

Edit: hmmm I copied the link location, but just took me to the BB store page, not the mat itself. Well anyway, theres seagrass mats in the store there. Should be easy enough to find to look at

[white7409]

One more question, we have carpet & they are two spots that he loves to chew on, how can i get him to stop???

[white7409]

also why does he do it?

[Monkeybun]

He does it cuz thats what bunnies do One way to stop him from chewing on those spots is to put something there to block the carpet from him. Another use for those seagrass mats. He’ll be happy to chew on those instead. Or a phonebook even. My Moose looves his phone book.

[Moonlight_Wolf]

It is hard to get bunnies to stop chewing, but some suggestions I have are that you could put a loose tile where he chews, or you could put some cardboard there.

[Author]

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