Maintaining Litter Training

[Scarlett Dellow]

Our rabbit is about 16 months old and we got her at 8 months. Since being with us she has been litter trained and then untrained herself 3 times. The 1st time was after about a week with us, perfectly litter trained and then all of a sudden pooping everywhere – we assumed she was getting used to her surroundings and ignored it. We then got her hutch and retrained her using the small spaces technique etc and she caught on quickly, and seemed to be fine for a few months. Then all of a sudden she started pooping all over the room, this was just before we were going on holiday so she was staying with my partners parents (where she has a cage and free roam of the kitchen) and happened to break her toes while we were away so was in a cast for 6 weeks meaning that when we got back we had to confine her to a cage while she healed and again we retrained her and all fine. About 3/4 weeks after getting the cast off and going back to being free roam she seems to have untrained herself again, she doesn’t pee outside her litter box (except on our bed but there seems to be no stopping that) but will leave piles of poop around the room. My question is, why isn’t her litter training sticking? Is she just getting lazy, do we need more litter trays around the room? What can we do? I’m tired of getting out of bed and stepping on poop.

[Wick & Fable]

It can be difficult at times, but persistence is important and also thinking about it from a rabbit’s perspective is essential.

Litter boxes are human-created objects, and the idea of being “litter box trained” is also something we made. While rabbits do tend to do their business in the same places which lends itself to litter box training, it does not mean they naturally want to go in the places we define via plastic boxes. One of the common techniques for litter box training is immediately picking up poos and cleaning up accidents, but they can’t be the only intervention as remember, we clean litter boxes frequently, so if they stop going where its been clean, they’d have nowhere to go!

Through my experience with Wick, litter box training isn’t something you run a course of and stop. It’s constant. Since I got him Jan. 2017 until now, I still shout “good boy!” when he actively gets up and darts to a box to pee/poop. I still bring him to a litter box immediately when he has an accident or when I know he’s about to pee and is not thinking about going to the litter box.

Some rabbits are just more resistant to it, so in those cases, the more you consistently and persistently you link litter box and pee/poop together, the less accidents will occur. In a past post, I mentioned associating a sound with accidents. Have you tried that? It helps the learning process.

I know you’ve posted about this before, but is your rabbit spayed yet? This will help with litter box adherence as well.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Deleted User]

Along with being whether or not she’s spayed, it sounds like she’s still reclaiming her territory. Scattered poops indicate territory marking. And the fact that she doesn’t in new spaces of new-ish spaces sounds like she’s just reclaiming her territory.

[Scarlett Dellow]

Yes we got her spayed a couple of weeks after we got her, so she’s been spayed for at least 7 months. We did try associating a sound with accidents but she didn’t take any notice of a clap or hiss, noises don’t seem to bother her at all. When we see her lift her tail up and get ready to pee or leave a pile of poop we do take her to the litter box and give her praise when she stays there and does her business, but obviously when we’re asleep we can’t be doing this and that is where the main problem lies when we wake up to 50 or so poops all around the room.

I understand what you’re saying about her possibly reclaiming her territory, but why would she be doing that after several months of perfect litter box use and only her being in the room? Also, it’s not scattered as in a few poops here and there, it’s more piles of 8-12 poops everywhere. I just realised I didn’t mention, but she doesn’t go anywhere else in her hutch but the litter box, and she still uses it as there is always a fair bit of poop in there so I feel she does understand but when she is running around the room she can’t be bothered to go back to it so just goes wherever she is?

[Scarlett Dellow]

Yes we got her spayed a couple of weeks after we got her, so she’s been spayed for at least 7 months. We did try associating a sound with accidents but she didn’t take any notice of a clap or hiss, noises don’t seem to bother her at all. When we see her lift her tail up and get ready to pee or leave a pile of poop we do take her to the litter box and give her praise when she stays there and does her business, but obviously when we’re asleep we can’t be doing this and that is where the main problem lies when we wake up to 50 or so poops all around the room.

I understand what you’re saying about her possibly reclaiming her territory, but why would she be doing that after several months of perfect litter box use and only her being in the room? Also, it’s not scattered as in a few poops here and there, it’s more piles of 8-12 poops everywhere. I just realised I didn’t mention, but she doesn’t go anywhere else in her hutch but the litter box, and she still uses it as there is always a fair bit of poop in there so I feel she does understand but when she is running around the room she can’t be bothered to go back to it so just goes wherever she is?

[Scarlett Dellow]

Yes we got her spayed a couple of weeks after we got her, so she’s been spayed for at least 7 months. We did try associating a sound with accidents but she didn’t take any notice of a clap or hiss, noises don’t seem to bother her at all. When we see her lift her tail up and get ready to pee or leave a pile of poop we do take her to the litter box and give her praise when she stays there and does her business, but obviously when we’re asleep we can’t be doing this and that is where the main problem lies when we wake up to 50 or so poops all around the room.

I understand what you’re saying about her possibly reclaiming her territory, but why would she be doing that after several months of perfect litter box use and only her being in the room? Also, it’s not scattered as in a few poops here and there, it’s more piles of 8-12 poops everywhere. I just realised I didn’t mention, but she doesn’t go anywhere else in her hutch but the litter box, and she still uses it as there is always a fair bit of poop in there so I feel she does understand but when she is running around the room she can’t be bothered to go back to it so just goes wherever she is?

[Wick & Fable]

You may need more than one litter box. Wick is free roam and he has 3. Rabbits aren’t good GPSs, so if the litter box is out of sight or not close by, she may be settling with just doing it somewhere else. Rabbits poop and pee very often, so for a rabbit, it wouldn’t make sense to go back to one place if it’s not convenient.

Have you tried more litter boxes before?

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Scarlett Dellow]

Yes, that’s my thought too. We haven’t tried having more than one yet but I’ll pick up another one this weekend and try to be more consistent again with praising her when she goes to the litter boxes of her own accord. Thank you for the advice, fingers crossed this will help!

[Sirius&Luna]

The thing that helped with litter training my buns most was just giving in and putting a litter tray in the other spot they consistently used. Obviously they wanted a tray there, and weren’t going to stop until I gave them what they wanted! But, to be fair, since they’ve had an extra one, they’ve been much better about not pooping around the room.

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