Litter training issues (Photos)

[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 !

[vanessa]

My bunnies all figured it out on their own, without any help from me. I think it is in their nature. They will figure it out – our job is to make it easy and convenient for them, and not to get in their way.
I setting up homes for our bunnies, we move things around till we find a “furniture” arrangement that works for them and us. But for litter training, moving things can cause disturbance. Once you find what works, stick with it. Stop moving fod and water and other items around. Let them get used to a single setup. Moving their items can cause a break in litter habits.
Put litter boxes in corners. In their open space, put bozes in ALL corners, to start with. They naturally tend to use corners for toileting. Once you see which boxes they are using, remove the unused box. If they go outside the box, put the box back that you removed. Try to keep status quo.
I have found that me bunnies poop while they eat. So I use hay in their litter box, with access to a frresh hay rack, and access to their pellet dish. They cant access their food unless they go into the litter box. I moved their water outside the box obce I could trust them, but I still obly allow them to access their food from the litterbox.
Next thing I knew, they were only pooping and peeing in the litter box. One of my current 4, Guinivere, took a few years to stop having random pees. She likes to pee on fleece carpet, so I removed it, on other soft fluffy blankets, I removed them, and anytime there are new rabbits int he vicinity – she pees outside the box untill she is use to the new rabbit’s presence. Witgh her, I also found that she 3 boxes in her main room, and 1 box in my bedroom, keep her from random pees. The other 3 bunnies only need 1 litter box. She still leave plenty of stray poops. She is very terretorial, so I think she is reminding me and her pal, that the house is still hers.
I’ve read all sorts of things about praising, treating, etc. I honestly found that they automatically figure out as they grow up – that they like to poop/pee while they eat. So my job is to make it easy for them to do that 🙂

[jerseygirl]

Hi JessicaElizabeth, as you already have a thread on this topic with photos included, I’ll lock this one. That way the responses can all be given in the one place.

Here’s the link to other thread.
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/145454/Default.aspx#470963

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