Litter training Issues!

[JessicaElizabeth]

Hi Everyone, 

I’m knew to this forum and have joined ask I have always turned to this website when I have had questions about my two buns. 

I have two female mini-lops (Spud & Arnold) that are around 6 months old. 

My buns are sisters and have been together since birth, they get along quite well and spend most nights spooning each other (aww! ). My latest problem is not a new problem at all. Since getting my bunniesI have been trying to litter train them for obvious reasons. Generally speaking, they get most of their wees in their large litter box, poos are always scattered everywhere. My problem is the, no matter how much training i try, my bunnies still continue to go to the toilet outside of their litter tray. I have had them both spayed! They have a double storey cage as a ‘home base’ and spend almost all of their time with a much larger puppy pen to run around in, attached, with extra toys to play with. Since getting this cage, they immediately dedicated the upper level to sleeping and the lower level to toileting, and have not once weed or pood up stairs. I have fitted the upper story of their cage with a carpet like material as when I had straw up there their favourite thing to do was to push all of their hay downstairs. On the lower level, is their litter tray, hay feeder, and straw bedding. The rogue wees and poos are always in the straw bedding. In saying this, I am cleaning their cage OFTEN as it begins to smell otherwise. The litter that I use is recycled paper pellets and my buns seem to have no problems with it. In the pasty I have kept their water bottle upstairs with a bowl of food until recently. I am now providing them a dish of water and a dish of food upstairs after their spay they, seemed to enjoy drinking the water from the dish more (I have moved their water bottle to their litter try as backup) 

Please help me litter train my buns! I try very hard to accomplish training, and have sourced almost every piece of advice i can find, all to no avail! 

Any ideas would be fantastic! thank you !

 

[jerseygirl]

Welcome Jessica,
Spud & Arnold!

Take out the straw bedding all together and I think you’ll notice a big difference.
Bedding is not necessary.

[JessicaElizabeth]

Thanks for your response! I have thought about this, my only other question would be, if I took the straw out conpletely they would be left on the plastic bottom of the cage, which I don’t think their little paws would grip to, any suggestions?

[JessicaElizabeth]

Also, they seem to love to dig around in the straw, I feel like if I take it away it will make them sad or bored?

[Wakka]

Welcome Jessica!!

For my bun the straw bedding did not work either. Recycled Paper pellets also did not work.
This is what i use:

It smells great, it’s easy to clean, does not get messy and my bun started peeing there without me ever needing to do anything. I basically never litter trained her, she just learned.

[JessicaElizabeth]

Thank you for your advice wakka! I’ve never seen that product before, I’m in Australia

[Bam]

Wakka, I would be wary of that bedding, corn cobs are very dangerous if a bunny happens to eat of it. I don’t know this particular brand, but it seems risky to me.

[Gina.Jenny]

I use five under bed storage boxes, line them with a sheet of newspaper, half a puppy training pad, then half/third fill with hay (third if they are out in garden all day, like today) they can dig, eat, sleep, pee n poop in the boxes, and I change them every second day. I’ve four buns, including a boy who can’t be neutered and they all reliably use the boxes. Just a few territorial poops to sweep up.

[Wakka]

Posted By bam on 4/20/2016 6:40 AM

Wakka, I would be wary of that bedding, corn cobs are very dangerous if a bunny happens to eat of it. I don’t know this particular brand, but it seems risky to me.

Really? I didn’t know it could be dangerous, my bunny never ate it, i don’t know if it’s because of the smell or not but she just assumed that stuff is to pee on and not to eat.

I was even advised to use it when i first got my bunny using the “excuse” that even if my bun ate it (which wouldnt happen according to the person who advised), it wouldn’t matter as it’s organic. I never knew it could be dangerous. Glad my bun ignores it 

[BinkyBunny]

Welcome JessicaElizabeth!  

I think taking out the bedding would be best too.  You can line the floor with sheet vinyl, which can be still a bit slippery, but many come with a bit of texture and that can help.  When my bunnies did have cages/pens before, I would get great deals from flooring stores in their remnant section.  I would then also use those carpet samples – usually 1 x 2 feet and place them around for good gripping and resting areas. They usually are only $2 a piece and so you can buy a few while you figure out if they would pee on it or not.    
 Not sure if the flooring stores in Australia have the same options, but it might be worth looking into.  

Wakka – I also ditto Bam about the corn cob litter.  It’s great your bunnies don’t seem to have any issues with it, but for those reading this — for rabbits, the corn cob litter is not as digestible and has the possibility of leading to impaction. Even if a bunny doesn’t eat it, if it gets stuck on paws and fur and then when they groom themselves, it can get into their system that way.  Just not something I would recommend. 

[JessicaElizabeth]

Thank you BB! I think I will replace the straw with the same sort of carpet I have in their upstairs, any ideas for their digging habits? They both love a good dig and I don’t want to take that completely away from them. I have a dig box with newspaper both shredded and ready to be shredded, but they much prefer to dig in their cage

[JessicaElizabeth]

I finally figured out how to upload photos! this is my setup, just so you can understand what I mean 

[jerseygirl]

You could put the straw in a box for digging on the lower level if you wanted. This will basically turn into a second litter box though. But easier to clean out then the entire cage floor.

In the past, I’ve used pieces of vinyl I bought at bunnings for flooring. I used it upside down as the back has a little more texture but is still washable. Maybe you could use something like that to live the cage floor? Just watch for chewing! Some of my bunnies would start to chew it if they could get to the edges.

[Author]

Messages