Litterbox training help

[Petrie]

Hi there!  First, I am new here, so I just want to say hello.  Petrie is my first bunny, and I have only had him a little over a month now.

He is a netherland dwarf that is a little over four months old.  He just got neutered on Friday and is actually spending the weekend at the vet’s, as I was supposed to be out of town.

I have had luck with the litterbox getting him to only pee in there.  He has a cage that he stays in when I am out of the house and a big playpen when I am here, and he has a box in both habitats.  He will poo in the litterbox, but I really think it is random and he poos just as much outside of it (if not more).  Any tips?  Do you think it might be easier now that he is neutered?

[BinkyBunny]

WELCOME PETRIE!   Netherland Dwarfs are so cute.  My first rabbit was a Netherland as well.

Because he is not urinating, only pooing, then it sounds like he is doing this as territorial marking only (does he ever leave big piles outside of the box, or just a bunch  of poos spread out from each other.  IF it is the later, then I do believe he will get better once he is neutered.  Though it can take up to 6 weeks for the hormones that drive him to mark, to die down.  

It sounds like you are restricting his freedom to his cage and pen, and that is good.  Once he is trained in those spaces, then more freedom can slowly be allowed.   You can also help the process by putting his poos into the litterbox.

Question:  Does he enter/exit his cage and pen on his own or do you have to pick him up to either get him out and/or put him back in?

Also, I think that as he realizes this is home home, then he will stop marking.

Many others have gone through what you are going through, and I am sure other members will have tips for you too.

[Petrie]

Thanks for the welcome, BinkyBunny!  Petrie likes to do binkies, so maybe I can get it caught on camera one of these days .

Most of the time I am picking Petrie up in and out of both the cage and pen.  Sometimes he gets to walk in and out of the cage on his own, but the pen had 2.5 ft walls and no doors, so he certainly cannot walk i and out of that on his own .

He is pooing everywhere, not just in big piles.  When I was first training him he was living mostly in his cage, with a few hours playtime outside when the weather was nice enough.  At that point, I would go in the cage daily (when he was out ) and pick up the drops and put some in the litterbox and throw out the rest.  That’s when he finally got the idea about peeing in the box, but the pooing never happened.  I kinda gave up these past few weeks and have not been doing the daily picking.  Should I start up with that again?

[Gravehearted]

Congrats on having him neutered, it likely will really help!

In the meantime – I’d recommend starting back up with moving stray poops into his litterbox. I’d also recommend adding some more litterboxes in his house, particularly in any areas he seems to mark often. I also find that the method Binky Bunny recommended of slowly increasing space after he’s able to handle going in the litterbox only works very well too.

[dmh426]

Hi there! It might be that the area is too big for him, so you might need to scale down the size of the playpen if that’s the case. I noticed that my bunny was confused when she was left to her own devices in a larger area.  My bunny loves her litterbox! To get your little baby to go more in the litterbox, make it somewhere he wants to be.  I put a little hay in one corner, and make sure the food dish is right near the litterbox.  Now, my bunny Sophie hangs out in there all the time. It’s her fave place to be.

[qzobevmama]

most bunz aren’t reliable with their litterbox until after spay/neuter.

good tips on hrs site:  http://www.rabbit.org

binkies to you & your furry baby petrie — 😎

[poopy]

i am having a similar problem with my rabbit. she was spayed maybe 4 weeks ago (i recently adopted her) and she has been dropping around 10 territorial poops all over per day. i’ve been picking them up and putting them in the box. i am hoping she will become 100% with her poops……i am hoping she has time to improve and this is not a permanent habit

do your guys’ rabbits make ALL of their poops in their litter boxes?

[Anita Stark]

My bun has been 100% since his neuter surgery.  If your bunny was just spayed 4 weeks ago, it might be a couple of weeks yet before her habits improve.  It takes a bit of time for the hormones to work out of their systems.

There is still time for improvement!

[poopy]

Posted By anitastark on 12/15/2006 2:41 PM
My bun has been 100% since his neuter surgery.  If your bunny was just spayed 4 weeks ago, it might be a couple of weeks yet before her habits improve.  It takes a bit of time for the hormones to work out of their systems.

There is still time for improvement!

thats great! so there was no adjustment time? i’m REALLY hoping she can clean up her act (so to speak) because i’m becoming increasingly paranoid that this is a habit….she has a huge pen living space so i don’t know why she feel’s she has to mark her territory…there are no other pets other than a hamster if she can smell him…

[Anita Stark]

Just keep tossing those stray poops into her litterbox and she should eventually come around.  I know I’ve read that some bunnies still have problems, but I really think it’s too soon to make any judgement with yours.  As a matter of fact, it was his territorial pooping that was the only reason I had Sable neutered.  He really had no other behavioural issues (at least not with me, though dh did complain about getting lunged at).  It was my couch that was his target for marking. . . and my lap!!  It’s so nice to let him come up for a cuddle now without worrying about getting pooped on. 

Hang in there and good luck!

[BinkyBunny]

Posted By poopy on 12/15/2006 5:35 PM

Posted By anitastark on 12/15/2006 2:41 PM
My bun has been 100% since his neuter surgery.  If your bunny was just spayed 4 weeks ago, it might be a couple of weeks yet before her habits improve.  It takes a bit of time for the hormones to work out of their systems.

There is still time for improvement!

thats great! so there was no adjustment time? i’m REALLY hoping she can clean up her act (so to speak) because i’m becoming increasingly paranoid that this is a habit….she has a huge pen living space so i don’t know why she feel’s she has to mark her territory…there are no other pets other than a hamster if she can smell him…

Some bunnies do have an adjustment time.   You may need to start from square one if his bad habits are ingrained and he still marks after surgery.   Note:  It can take weeks for the hormones that drive marking to die down. 

So though Anistark ‘s "Sable"  has cleaned up his act, if I remember right, she had him doing pretty well even in his earlier days.  She was training him from early on, so it was probably easy for him to fall back to good habits, even though he fell out of him during his hormone rage time.

So, i think you need to be sure not to just rely on the surgery to solve the problem completely.  Still follow litter training techniques – start small, don’t allow too much freedom too fast,(slowly allow more freedom as your bunny "gets it"      You may need to add a few litterboxes, and remove them one by one as he gets better.

Keep us updated!  And check out the litter training tips on the this site in the "Bunny Info" section.

[poopy]

Posted By BinkyBunny on 12/19/2006 11:15 PM

Posted By poopy on 12/15/2006 5:35 PM

Posted By anitastark on 12/15/2006 2:41 PM
My bun has been 100% since his neuter surgery.  If your bunny was just spayed 4 weeks ago, it might be a couple of weeks yet before her habits improve.  It takes a bit of time for the hormones to work out of their systems.

There is still time for improvement!

thats great! so there was no adjustment time? i’m REALLY hoping she can clean up her act (so to speak) because i’m becoming increasingly paranoid that this is a habit….she has a huge pen living space so i don’t know why she feel’s she has to mark her territory…there are no other pets other than a hamster if she can smell him…

Some bunnies do have an adjustment time.   You may need to start from square one if his bad habits are ingrained and he still marks after surgery.   Note:  It can take weeks for the hormones that drive marking to die down. 

So though Anistark ‘s "Sable"  has cleaned up his act, if I remember right, she had him doing pretty well even in his earlier days.  She was training him from early on, so it was probably easy for him to fall back to good habits, even though he fell out of him during his hormone rage time.

So, i think you need to be sure not to just rely on the surgery to solve the problem completely.  Still follow litter training techniques – start small, don’t allow too much freedom too fast,(slowly allow more freedom as your bunny "gets it"      You may need to add a few litterboxes, and remove them one by one as he gets better.

Keep us updated!  And check out the litter training tips on the this site in the "Bunny Info" section.

Thanks for the info! What is meant by gradually increasing her freedom? I have attached a picture of her pen…let me know if you think its too big. I’ve also put 2 litter boxes in (the picture only has one). The box that I added is alot bigger than the one in the picture. During play time, she doesn’t venture far from her pen yet as she is unsure about the unknown. I’ve read all the litterbox articles on the various house rabbit websites and haven’t really picked up anything new to try. Also, what does it mean to start from square one? Thanks.

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