Litter Training Frustration (Outdoor to Indoor Rabbit)

[Tia]

We’ll have had Roza for a week tomorrow so we are still getting to know her and her habits. I have found that she loves to dig and push her litter EVERYWHERE. We made a litter box with a grated cover that I finally put in her cage after cleaning up today. It’s not big enough (the materials had been bought for Milly, who was smaller) so I put it inside of the regular litter box in an attempt to get her to go in there. I put a pee soaked paper towel in the bottom and some of her poop. In observing her, though, she pees while she walks. It looks like she doesn’t even have control over when she goes. She is a former outdoor rabbit that lived in a hutch with a wire bottom, so I know that could be a factor, but she also had two litters of kits and I’m hoping it’s not an issue from that. 

I know that once she is spayed it may help with litter training as well. Just frustrated and venting currently. We’ll get there eventually… I hope.

It was so easy with baby Milly. She was litter trained in less than a day. I miss her so much! 

[blubudgie]

It took me over a month to partially litter train my bunny.
Then when she learned of carpet and blankets, it took another month or two to train her not to pee on those. So, don’t give up you still have plenty of time.
Although it is really weird that she pees while walking. Are they large pee puddles or small spots of pee? You could take her in for a visit with the vet to make sure it is not a health problem. I think sometimes if rabbits don’t have control over when they pee it could be indicative of a URI.

[cinnybun2015]

If she’s been given too much space at one time, she will pee and poop in other places. If she has a big space, I would recommend downsizing it (using an Xpen, probably) and putting lots of litterboxes in. Eventually, she will choose one litterbox to go in predominantly, and you can slowly decrease the amount of litterboxes.

[Tia]

I have her in a medium dog crate currently. It’s about the size her hutch was that she used to live in. As of last night, she started spraying me when I tried to clean up her cage. This is proving to be difficult because… how am I supposed to get her to go in just a litter box if she won’t let me clean up the rest of the cage? I added another litter box with just ripped up paper in it so she can dig in it, hoping that will help her out. I am also wondering if anyone has successfully litter trained an adult rabbit that has lived outdoors for at least 18ish months, and had two litters of kits on top of it. I’m working on getting the money together to get her spayed in hopes that helps some as well. In the meantime, I may have to see about getting some other type of storage type box that will fit in there better and give her less room to pee in the floor of the cage.

[Love4Bunny]

Tia, I once temporarily took care of a rabbit that would pee as she walked and would scatter her litter outside of the box. I suspected she had a bladder problem like a UTI. She also drank 3 large bowls of water a day, which was excessive, and her pee was clear.

This may not be exactly what Roza is experiencing, but I would have the vet check her out to rule out loss of bladder control, like you perhaps suspect may be due to post-pregnancy issues.

It seems wiser to rule out health issues first than trying to figure out a problem which may not have anything to do with your methods of training. The neuter helped my first rabbit calm down, so I suspect Roza’s spraying is due to hormones. Roza is also probably acclimatising to you and her environment, so she may also need time to settle in and adjust to a different (but better) lifestyle.

[Tia]

I think I have figured out the peeing while walking problem. She does it right before she sprays. I stopped cleaning up the cage and let her be and she has only sprayed once since and that was tonight when I wasn’t giving her her greens fast enough. She was spraying anytime I came in the room at first, so I wasn’t able to see that it related in that way.

I also found out from the former owners boyfriend(my brother-in-law) more about her. He said she bites and scratches everyone and pees and poops everywhere. I do love when I’m told one story before and then getting the truth after.  Either way, the first night was the only night she bit and scratched at us(which is completely understandable) and she’s been a cuddlebun ever since. 

She’s not drinking to excess and her pee is was white at first and is turning more yellowish since she’s gotten here. I will be taking her into the vet soon hopefully. I just don’t want to traumatize her anymore than I have to while she’s still getting settled in. It is a one hour trip to the vet, one way. 

This digging/scratching, though…  

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