Litter training

[Zafnlfl]

I have a newly acquired French Angora rabbit. He is around 5 months old and up until Saturday, spent his life living in a metal wire cage in a barn. Now is he a house bunny and as expected, his toilet habits are awful. He is in a small plastic bottom cage in attempt to litter box train him. I placed a litter box in there with a urine soaked paper towels and some poops but he will not use it. Instead he has begun urinating on one corner on the plastic, which is a start but he drops poops literally everywhere. The combination of peeing on plastic and pooping everywhere has left him quite a mess and very stinky. He is going to the vet tomorrow for a check up and he will be neutered in the very near future.

Basically, I was looking for ideas on how to get him to use the litter box more effectively because large, long haired bunny + urine + poop is quite the stinky mess. He is also very friendly and seems pretty comfortable already and has no problem flopping in urine as soon as he’s peed.

Not to mention the smell of a new bunny in the house has made my other perfectly litter trained mini Rex forget all of his litter box habits.

[Theresa]

Hi, Zafnlfl! Welcome to BB!

I would recommend reading up on the “litterbox training” section of the site for some great ideas – you can find it here: https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/5/PID/940/Default.aspx

A couple quick things – what type of litter are you using, and did you put hay in the box on top of it? The reason I ask is because buns like to eat and “go” at the same time. Also, if your bun is already using one area of the cage for his potty – put the litter box there.

Depends on the size of the bun, but here is what I do: I got one of those “sifter” cat litter boxes – the one where there are two trays – one on the bottom where I put the wood pellets I use for litter, and then the other tray (the screen one) goes on top of that, and I put a couple handfuls of hay on top of the screen, spread it out.

I also have a hay rack that I made that hangs on the crate above the litter box – so my bun can either eat the hay at his feet or from the hay rack.

The urine goes through the screen and into the pellet litter. The poop pellets stay on top with the hay. It’s easy to dump the screen tray every day, and put in fresh hay. When you do that, it’s easy to scoop out the pee-soaked areas in the litter and put some more fresh in and mix it around, but the screen back on, and voila, clean litter box!

I do this every day and keeps everything fresh!

[Zafnlfl]

Thank you for the reply. This is my third bunny and my other two were very easy to litter train. I don’t know how my other two were kept before I got them but I know this one was kept on wire. Does this seem to hinder consistent use of the litter box? I realize I’ve only had him since Saturday and it may take a while for his habits to improve.

I was at home all day today and he successfully urinated in the litter box without any accidents. Poops are another story but I have been scooping them up and placing them in the box all day so hopefully we will make progress.

Thanks again

[Theresa]

Hi, Zafnlfl – I see now from one of your other posts that you have had bunnies before, so I’m sure you’re using the right stuff for litter, etc.

Your new Angora is the same age as my Roscoe, who is currently going through the same behavior with leaving pellets EVERYWHERE, especially around my hubby’s stuff or when he sees my hubby interact with me (like a kiss goodnight, or something.)

If your bun isn’t neutered/spayed, then he’s probably got raging hormones! From what others on here have told me about my situation, our buns are basically horny teenagers. I’ve been told that if I get Roscoe neutered, then the marking should diminish significantly – if not completely. I’m just waiting for some $$ to come in this week so I can schedule his appt next week!

Best of luck to you with your bun!

[Author]

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