My rabbit always sits in her litter box and gets nasty!

[Pixietherabbit]

My rabbit has a large litter box with a metal grate that separates her from the icky stuff. She has a big cage with a balcony type thing where she can sit and eat her food and plenty of space to lay out and stretch. But she always sits in her box and gets pee and poop on her feet and butt! I know cleaning rabbits is pretty much illegal, but she stinks and I don’t know what to do. She is a full grown independent and sassy girl named Pixie! if you have any advice on how to keep her from sitting in her box, or on how to keep her clean, I would appreciate it. Thank you!

[DanaNM]

You need to clean her box more. Most rabbits spend a ton of time in their box eating hay, so that’s normal.

If poop is getting stuck to her she might have excess Cecals , which prob means she’s getting too many pellets and/or treats and not enough hay.

. . . 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.  

[kurottabun]

Hmm I don’t understand – why would she get icky if the litter box has a grate and her waste is supppsedly beneath the grate…?

For keeping her clean, you could use some pure corn starch powder and a brush to brush out her fur.

[sarahthegemini]

Yeah, I’m confused too. The pee should go through the grate? I have a grate and the poops just sit on top. I recently had an issue where I hadn’t used enough wood pellets underneath the grate and so there was surplus urine that wasn’t being soaked up. That made my female’s feet pretty mucky. Is that what’s happening with Pixie? If so, use more substrate. How often do you clean/empty the litter trays?

[Wick & Fable]

It could be a matter that your litter isn’t very absorbent, so the urine is not seeping into the litter very quickly leading to the rabbit wading in it until it absorbs into the litter.

Similar to sarah, I’m curious how much litter you use, and how often is your cleaning schedule?

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.

[Bam]

You can give a bun a butt bath if she stinks and there’s poop and pee on her. I use a wash basin that I fill with a couple inches of lukewarm water. I put on the floor in case my bun tries to jump out. I place him so he can stars with his fore paws on the rim of the basin, then I scoop up water with my hand and try to get all the dirt out. If it’s bad you can use a drop or two of shampoo.

After the butt bath the bun should be dried thoroughly. A micro fiber towel is good.

[Pixietherabbit]

She usually always sits in the corner of the box and then her poop and pee piles up in that corner. I use kaytee brand bedding/litter and it has small lavender granules. It smells really good, and holds the smell in! I do need to clean her box more often, it’s just so tedious. Thanks, guys!

[kurottabun]

If there’s one particular corner she favourites, you could shake the box everyday so that the poop gets more evenly distributed in the box. That way you may be able to just clean it every 3 days or so.

My bun has a favourite corner to do his business too so that’s how I do it myself.

[Sirius&Luna]

How do you clean her box? I ask because it literally takes me under a minute to clean and refill my bunnies litter boxes – it really shouldn’t be a tedious process! I use paper based littler pellets (back2nature), and just empty the boxes into a bin liner (it falls straight out if you do it regularly), wipe it out with kitchen roll and a dab of vinegar to clean if needed, and top back up. Once a week, I scrub them with water and a sponge. If you find the process long and tedious, it might be worth changing something that you do – whether that’s the actual litter, or something else.

[Poppyhani]

My bun usually sits in his litter box when he wants it cleaned. The minute I clean it, he’s back to curling up in his hidey area. In fact, he’ll clean himself in the litter box just to make a point, like — mum, look! It’s so messy in here!

I agree with the others that it probably is just a matter of cleaning more! It may just be your rabbit telling you that it wants the job done. I’ve been looking into safe baby wipes myself, and as long as it’s fragrance-free, alcohol-free and hypo-allergenic, etc, then it should be safe for spot cleaning. Huggies supposedly has a Natural Care line that disabledrabbits recommend!

[CinnamonPearl]

I wanna mention that if you’re using scented Kaytee clean and cozy, you should switch to an unscented variety because the scented ones have been reported to be unsafe for small animals! I’m not exactly sure on how the scented variety affects rabbits, but it’s been known to cause problems in mice, rats, guinea pigs, and all the like. I use kaytee bedding for my mice, but never the scented ones.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

That’s a good one CinnamonPearl, was just thinking about that when I read the post. There are many items marketed towards rabbits which aren’t healthy for them at all. Many people here on the forum use unscented wooden kitty litter pellets. It’s very absorbent and great at hiding smells. Rabbits have sensitive airways and they can get problems with both natural and synthetic scents. Breintje often starts to sneeze when I’m cooking with certain spices or when one of my neighbours has his essential oil diffuser on. It gives off a lovely peppermint smell, but it also gives my bun asthma-like symptoms if I don’t keep doors and windows closed -_-

I top the box with a layer of hay because Breintje is a litter box lounger too. I clean out his box at least 3 times a week during the cold seasons and more often in summer. This is not only to keep the smells down but also to prevent illness. Flies love to lay eggs in dirty fur, and the maggots which hatch from these eggs cause an extremely painful and oft fatal condition called flystrike. (You may not want to google that if you still need to eat…)

Cleaning vinegar is a great way to get rid of the ammonia smell of rabbit pee, if the box still smells after a rinse you can use that. Pixie herself may smell stronger if she isn’t spayed yet. Hormones make buns smellier because their scent glands are more active. Has she been spayed?

[Author]

Messages