New bunny parent, i have a few questions

[Leetang89]

Hi Everyone,

I’m new here and a new bunny parent and have a few questions i was wondering if anyone would be so kind to answer and help.

We have a 12 week Mini lop boy called Prince, we’ve had him just under 3 weeks and he’s a bundle of joy and already feel the bonding process is going very well. I’ll give a little background on his life with us so far.

He has a C&C cage which is around 150cm by 70cm, current food is Pellets and timothy hay as that’s what he was on when we got him at 8 weeks, we did get given muesli and fed him this for a while but found it gave him wet poo’s and everything i seem to read about muesli was bad so we’re sticking to the basics for now and haven’t introduced any treats other than dandelion mix. For most parts of the day he is out of his cage with the door left open as we want him soon to be a free roaming bunny with access to only some parts of the house however our biggest issue at the moment is he is not toilet trained completely (i’ll explain more soon). He isn’t neutured yet as we’d like to wait till hes mature around 4-6 months but he doesn’t spray so this leads to my few questions…

• He seems to be using his litter tray (an open style large enough tray) to wee and poo but also just poo’s wherever he wants in his cage, as well as under the sofa and in his DIY digging box i made which seems to be the place he goes the most for number 1’s and 2’s. We are going to replace the carboard digging box for a cat style litter box to leave out as a digging box and toilet but my question is how do i get him to just do it in the 1 place? it feels like he’s sort of there as he’s going in the few places he knows but we don’t see him do it enough to pick him up and put him in his litter tray in the act as some people suggest which sort of leads to my next question
• When would you recommend introducing him into a complete free roam bunny? i don’t want to keep him in a cage so he’s always out if we are home which is often but only in the cage for night time and if we’re at work however i come back at lunch to let him out for an hour and my partner is home most days minus a few. We have recently allowed him to explore the stairs, landing and bedroom and he absolutely loves it and is always looking to be let out the living room to explore but unfortunately we cannot do this until he is a bit more toilet trained and doesn’t need to be supervised so regularly. He’s still a tiny boy and we get worried he will hurt himself with the stairs but we also don’t want him to be kept in the cage all night, we have created some in the bedroom which is tidy for him to come stay in.
• As i mentioned before we took him off muesli as it was giving him to many wet poo’s and seemed to stop once we stopped giving him it, he loves his pellets but we limit them so that he eats mostly hay but occasionally we will come down in the morning and see cecotrope type poo’s squished into his bedding on rugs, is it a issue if he is not eating these? and is it normal for them to do them.

that’s all the questions for now, sorry for the lengthy post however we just want to make sure we’re doing things at the right time and not to soon, he’s a lovey little boy full of personality already and feel lucky we’ve bonded so well in such a short space of time, he’s still not a fan of being picked up but appreciate they don’t tend to like to be picked up. He has being a bit more chewy at the moment despite having plenty of things to chew on in his cage and left around the house for him but at the moment he’s been pretty good.

 

appreciate any help and answers. thank you

[DanaNM]

Congrats on the new bun and welcome!

So, for litter training, you will likely continue to see that type of marking until he’s neutered (and his hormones have time to settle, usually about 2-3 weeks). Many buns will also choose to use a digging box as a litter box, so it may be best to remove it until he’s neutered and then try again, or convert it to something that is kind of a hybrid digging and litter box. Usually it’s recommend to keep the space somewhat restricted until he’s neutered for that reason as well. If the room he is exploring is very large and there is a spot he always toilets, you should add another litter box to that location.

As far as completely free-roaming, that depends a lot on your home and the bunny. Some bunnies are never suitable for 100% free-roam (by that I mean they are in a large area of the home 24/7) because they are too prone to getting into trouble, no matter how good the bunny-proofing is. I would probably wait at least until he’s neutered for the reasons I mentioned above. Once his litter box habits are good in a smaller area, you can start slowly increase the amount of space he gets while supervised. Then you can gradually allow him unsupervised time in some areas. There may be a situation where there is 1 room he is allowed 24/7 access to, and other rooms that he only gets to explore while you are with him. You may find that he was fine for a while in a room unsupervised and then one day decides to burrow into the couch (this happened to me with one of my buns LOL).  Having some areas only available to the bun while supervised can actually be a benefit though because it makes the other rooms more exciting and he will continue to explore them. 🙂 There are cases where a bun gets 100% free roam and they no longer feel the need to go an explore (this happened with my buns). I have found a good balance to be free-roam while I’m home and awake, and the buns get penned when I’m not home or asleep. I also bring this up because I have seen many buns surrendered to shelters because the owner wanted to do 100% free roam, and then the bun was destructive, and rather that re-assess the housing they surrendered the bun to the shelter.

As far as the poops, young buns sometimes produce excess cecotropes because they get more pellets, so it’s pretty normal that you see that occasionally. Once he hits 6 months you can start reducing his pellets a little (he should be getting unlimited or near unlimited alfalfa-based pellets at this age) and then there should be less cecals.

One last comment, that you didn’t ask but thought I would share. Don’t be alarmed if he goes a bit nuts at around 4-6 months. It sounds like he’s already starting to hit puberty so you may already be noticing some extra hormonal behaviors. If my math is correct he’s almost 4 months now. You can check to see if his testicles have descended, once they do he can be neutered.

. . . 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.  

[LBJ10]

I agree. He’s pooping everywhere because he is marking. Once he is neutered, this should improve his litter habits because he won’t feel as strong of an urge to mark. Keeping him in a smaller area until he is neutered is probably for the best.

And yes, bunnies are notorious for “never doing that one thing” until they do! It always happens when you least expect it too!

[Leetang89]

Thank you very much for both of your replies, i appreciate the advice and knowledge. He is indeed 4 months now and starting to notice him being a lot more chewy with things around the house and including our clothes that we’re wearing! What is the best way to discipline a bunny?

We had thought about taking away the digging box we made him but he loves it and does use it as his toilet a lot but have looked into getting almost a cat litter box with an opening that he can use as a digging box and litter. We don’t have a very big house. just a 2 bedroom house but we have limited him to every room and just allowed him the living room, hallway leading up to our bedroom, his cage is in the living room and is where he is limited to when we’re not at home, the last few nights we’ve moved a few bits into the bedroom and allowed him to have under the bed as that’s an open space, i’m not sure if we’ve done that to soon or if theres a right or wrong way but he seemed to like it and still goes downstairs to use his cage and litter but has still been letting out some droppings upstairs. He does seem to like his cage which we’re happy about as even when his door is left out he’ll still decide to go have a nap in there or play. By the sounds of it our best option is to keep him free roaming when we’re home but when we’re out limited him to just the living room or his cage but ideally we wanted to remove the C&C cage and just keep the same area for him without the grid cage, but maybe that’s something for when he’s older. We are looking to get him neutered within the next few months so hopefully his toilet training becomes better.

 

As he’s now 4 months i appreciate we can start introducing him to more treats? do you think this is to soon? we fed him a tiny bit of strawberry a few days ago which he loved and he’s had parsley but other than that we haven’t wanted to try to much in case it upsets his digestive system.

[DanaNM]

I would avoid fruits for now. It’s really important to get good hay-eating habits established, which will lead to healthy teeth and healthy gut flora. You can start introducing greens though, very slowly. Usually no more than 1 new green per week, starting with a small amount and gradually increasing. Most people start with romaine or other types of leaf lettuce. I consider fruits to be like ice cream for bunnies, but with more potential to cause problems. A tiny bit won’t usually hurt, but it could also make them less hungry for their hay, which should be 80% of their diet.

In terms of disciplining, there really isn’t a way. The best method is to block access to things that are a problem and redirect to an appropriate things to chew. It can take some experimenting to find the toys that they enjoy chewing more than the furniture, and bunny proofing is def an ongoing process. If he nips you and hurts you (young buns can be a bit nippy as that’s how buns communicate with each other, you can make a loud squeal noise (“EEEEEEEE!”) to let him know he hurt you. Usually doing this a few times gets the message across.

Neutering will def help with litter training. And a good rule of thumb is the bun should have at least 1 litter box in every room they are allowed in, otherwise they will likely pick a new area to toilet in on their own.

As far as the cage, sounds like a good plan, but it is usually nice to keep at least some way to enclose bun if needed, even if the pen is left open all the time. Bun usually do appreciate having their own space and feel safer when it’s somewhat enclosed. Plus there could be a situation where he just needs to be locked in there (perhaps a friend with a dog is visiting, a worker is coming in and out and you need him out of the way, he’s recovering from the vet and needs to be restricted a bit, etc.).

 

. . . 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.  

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