Litter Training Not Working!

[megraul]

As I’ve always adopted older rabbits, who luckily have all been litter trained prior to me adopting them, I’ve never had to litter train before. I now have adopted Leo! He is adorable and sweet, only a few months old as his testicles have not dropped for me to neuter him quite yet. I read a lot about litter training in preparation for the new baby and it seemed pretty straightforward! 

I have the large Living World cage which has a shelf/second level with a pre-formed ridge for the food dish. I first tried the litter pan with the wire overset that allows the rabbit to use the pan without touching the poo/pee. He used it decently but still pooped/peed outside of the pan. I would always clean the cage and put some poop/pee in the litter pan so he could smell which area to go in, but still would go outside of his pan. I then did some research and thought maybe the all hard surfaces was confusing? I put some soft bedding in his pan with some hay and again, putting some pee soaked bedding and poop in the pan so he’d know to go there, but nevertheless, still going outside the pan, this time even more than before! He now likes to lay in the pan and eat hay but not go to the bathroom! His favorite spot to go to the bathroom is on the second level while eating out of his food dish but moving his litter box here is not an option because of the pre-formed ridge to hold the food dish. 

I know he is young but he is making a MESS everywhere in the cage and I am losing my mind doing an ENTIRE cage clean multiple times a day!!

I am in desperate need of a solution for something that will make my rabbit use his litter pan!!

[Luna's Mom]

Try getting a bigger litter pan, I tried one of those corner things with Luna when she first came here and it was a train wreck. She hated it, you could tell she was not comfortable with it. We also had one of those cages like the one your talking about for the first week because we were not intending on keeping her for permanent, was only suppose to keep her for about a week. Once we decided to keep her we bought her a xpen and bigger litter pan and she was so much happier.

[VivaLaBunz]

A bigger litter pan such as one used for a cat (small size) may work out better, but many rabbits can’t be fully “litter trained” until they are fixed since it is a territorial behavior that will not go away until their hormones are out of the picture.

[Limit]

Unfortunately, unneutered rabbits will scent mark/spray and poo everywhere to ‘claim’. I had no success at litter training until Binky was spayed!

I agree with Lunas mom regarding getting a bigger tray, it encourages them to be in there more I think

[Luna]

I have the same cage. Luna would go to the bathroom on the second level too, but she stopped when I put her food elsewhere instead of using the built in bowl and when I switched out her triangular litter box for a larger rectangular one.

[Jessica]

Being only a few months old remember he’s still a baby and learning, litter training started to really click for my girl at the 10-12 week mark. I let her choose where she wanted to potty in her cage first, after a few days I added a corner litter box to where she chose. I opted to go with a grated litter pan so she would learn she could only potty where there was a grate. She learned to always pee in her litter box pretty quick, however poos took a while. She was pretty good before she was spayed, and then got to be really good about a month after she was spayed.

The hardest part for me about litter training Amelia was remembering she was a baby and still learning. I would move stray pellets into the litter pan when they were anywhere else

[megraul]

Thanks guys! I’m being really diligent about watching for stray poop pellets and moving them into the litter pan right away. I also flipped the cage around so the litter pan could be in the corner where the food dish was originally and am hoping this helps!

[Author]

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