new to bunnies and litter training

[lesleyc]

I’m new to the bunny world, chubb was born April 21st and we’ve totally fallen for him.

Super cute, cuddley loveable little bunny!! He does lots of binkies (which is SO SUPER CUTE) and flops, so he seems happy.

I have a question regarding litter. In his cage we have a corner litter box and we had changed it from one side to the other (since he seemed to prefer that corner). Since then I’ve been trying to find a hay solution to prevent so much of it from falling through the bottom of the cage or being peed and pooped in.

I put a long narrow box (cut down for easy access) to eat his hay our of. He poops in it and has started peeing at the end of it which the opposite side of the litter box.

Is is trying to tell me something I’m just not cluing in too?

When he’s out in his pen he uses is litter in there just fine. Though when I put his phonebook in a box to cut the amount of shredded paper being flung about he mistook it for litter.

And he did pee on the loveseat when he had total freedom a few nights ago. But other than that he hasn’t had any issues.

He’s not fixed yet, but of course we are going to that, and we are working on making him a bigger bunny house in the next couple weeks so he has more room when he is in his house.

Any advice would be great, we’re newbies and just want to do the right things!! 

Thanks,

Lesley

[tabalab]

After he gets altered it will be better. Maybe he needs a bigger litter pan and your suppose to put hay in his litter pan anyway. They love to eat and poop at the same time ( sick o’s ) anyway another thing i can suggest is buying or making a hay rack. That way he can not pee in his hay. The dig box thing ya that didnt work for my boys either they just used it as a litter box. Mine love to dig in the dirt when they are outside.

[Barbie]

Welcome to the forum!

As far as the hay goes… I know it sounds gross, but putting a handful or two in a corner or the litter box works really well. It encourages the rabbit to use the litter box, since they all seem to enjoy the sport of simultaneous munching and pooping. Also, it’s the “neatest” solution I’ve found so far. I’ve tried stuffing hay in a woven willow ball (it was made so that it had large gaps, not like the ones on this site) and hanging it above the box and I’ve also tried a hay rack on the side of the cage by the litter box. The hanging ball was too small to put much hay in at once, and since Leroy is a voracious hay eater, that didn’t work. And the hay rack was MESSY! Hay fell out of the bottom or the rack onto my floor, and Leroy got into the habit of pulling all the hay out of it at once to pick out the good bits. He’d leave the rest strewn around his cage or he’d kick the bits that he deemed unfit for his consumption out of his cage. Not to mention that neither of those options solved my hay dilemma for Leroy’s litter boxes outside his cage. So I’ve gone back to putting hay in the corner of his potty. Yes, some gets wasted, but the soiled hay does help soak up some of the urine. And rabbits can differentiate between clean hay and dirty hay, so don’t worry, he won’t be eating the yucky stuff!

As for the peeing on the couch… some buns just like peeing on places that smell strongly of their human slaves. ie couches, beds (Leroy is one of them!)… and if that’s your bun, you’ll just have to limit or prohibit access to those areas. Unless you don’t mind constantly soaking up urine from your couch’s throw pillows or your bed’s comforter. If you get to a pee spot fast and soak up the excess with an old towel or some paper towels and then spritz the spot with a 50/50 mixture of water/white vinegar and blot with a towel again, you should be able to prevent a stain. Actually the water vinegar mixture works wonders on pretty much anything. And vinegar is also a GREAT non-toxic cleaner for litter boxes.

I’m not surprised though that he peed on your couch. He’s about 4 months old and has hit puberty (if not, it’ll happen soon!) so you’ll see behaviors like territorial marking/spraying increase. He may lose his litter box habits completely. And his personality could change. Neutering will fix this; vets usually neuter around 5 or 6 months, so you can probably get that done soon.

Some rabbits see any box with some sort of soft absorbent material in it as a litter box… you’ll just have to try out different toys and see what he likes. Check out the toy test section of this forum for ideas or the binky bunny store. Leroy loves those woven willow balls, and he loves when I make him tunnels and houses out of cardboard boxes (I really REALLY want to get the Mazehaven but I think that might have to wait until I can put it on my Christmas list…).

Good luck with everything and keep asking questions!

[lesleyc]

So basically, if I stop having independent thoughts and do as he tells me it’ll be fine. LOL

i’ll try the hay in the litter box and see if he likes that better. Other than the couch he hasn’t had any real accidents (YET)  He did steal a book and chewed off two buttons on the remote (man, they are quick!)

Luckily I already had a spray bottle of vinegar & water mixed up. So it ended up not being a huge deal. And it’s still new to him to get as much space as he had that evening. I have 3 cats and 2 dogs so we’re moving slowly to ensure everyone is happy and safe.

Thanks so much for your help! and this site is awesome.

I’ve never had a bunny before and am so afraid of doing something wrong. We’re already very attached to the litle bugger. I had no idea bunnies were such awesome animals or so entertaining!

i did make the jellyfish toy. And he loves it. When he hops by it, we use the part sticking out the top like a joystick and kinda whack him with the newspaper strips and he goes crazy for it!!

I’m sure I’ll be back with a ton of questions!

Lesley

[jerseygirl]

Posted By lesleyc on 08/25/2009 01:09 PM

So basically, if I stop having independent thoughts and do as he tells me it’ll be fine. LOL

Yes! lol.  It’s called Bunny Slavedom, they take control of our lives and our minds.  And we still love the little buggers.  Welcome to the boards
 

If the box you got for the hay is like a litter box, I would just use that instead of the corner one.  That way, most of the hay will stay clean up one end and he can do his business at the other (as he demonstrated!)  Putting hay in one end of the litter box is a training technique but it works out well to help keep some of the hay contained.  

[Elrohwen]

My bun started with a litter box and a hay rack (the willow one sold by Binky Bunny) in the corner of his cage right in front of his litter (sitting on the floor, not hanging). He was very good with using his litter box in most situations, but developed this annoying habit of moving the hay rack out of the way and peeing on any loose hay in that corner (which was right next to the litter box). I took out the hay rack and cleaned up that corner, and he hasn’t peed there since. I think he just associated hay with going to the bathroom, so he considered any space that I put hay in to be an extension of his litter box. Now I just put a handful of clean hay into his litter box every day and he has no problems. I’d like to find another hay rack solution, but really just putting it in the litter box is pretty easy. I would try taking away his hay box and just making him eat it out of his litter box to see if he starts peeing in it more.

Otherwise it sounds like you’re doing a good job! The neutering should probably help his peeing on your furniture too because he’ll feel less need to mark his territory.

[lesleyc]

I think you are all right about the hay. So I’m going to only have to hay in and anove the litter box and see how that goes.

Last night he has his hop around, (he gets about half the living room right now) and we just didn’t let him be on the furniture unless he’s sitting with us and he was fine.

He does hop on back and use the litter that’s in his pen, so I think he’s going to have no problem with the litter in general. And of course after he’s fixed.

Thank you ALL!

Lesley (&Chubb!)

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Welcome!
Ok-I haven’t read your post yet-but I had to say I’m Lesley C too!!! AND there is another Lesley on here who used to live in Edmonton (where I am) SMALL WORLD!!!

*reading*

So basically, if I stop having independent thoughts and do as he tells me it’ll be fine. LOL

Hahaha pretty much-EXACTLY LOL

You sound like your doing great-and as others have said, neuterign totally helps with litter training. Until then, beds and couches should be off limits-as it goes something like this “Wheeee I can’t believe I can jump so high!!! ….hmmmm this is really SOFT….I’m gonna piddle here so mum knows this couch (bed/soft thing etc) is MINE”

[Deleted User]

Dylan’s got an underbed storage box as a litter tray cos it’s the only thing I could find to fit his big bunny butt in! I used to just dump a pile of hay in the corner but found he was trampling it and I couldn’t see if he was eating much, or if what was left was clean, so was having to dump the lot every other day.
I found some little plastic stacking boxes with an open side, one of these fits in the corner, and I can put clean hay in there everyday so I know he’s eating it. Any that gets kicked out gets scooped out daily with his ‘poo corner’, and the clean litter from under the hay box gets redistributed, that way I don’t end up replacing the whole tray every 2 days which was costing me a fortune! He tends to start pooing outside his tray if it gets dirty too, which is obviously not ideal! and as he’s just hitting puberty I want to give him all the help I can!
Good luck!
C x

[Monkeybun]

Posted By Kokaneeandkahlua on 08/26/2009 01:15 PM
Welcome!
Ok-I haven’t read your post yet-but I had to say I’m Lesley C too!!! AND there is another Lesley on here who used to live in Edmonton (where I am) SMALL WORLD!!!

*reading*

So basically, if I stop having independent thoughts and do as he tells me it’ll be fine. LOL

Hahaha pretty much-EXACTLY LOL

You sound like your doing great-and as others have said, neuterign totally helps with litter training. Until then, beds and couches should be off limits-as it goes something like this “Wheeee I can’t believe I can jump so high!!! ….hmmmm this is really SOFT….I’m gonna piddle here so mum knows this couch (bed/soft thing etc) is MINE”

 

That’s just weird.

before I got married, my last name was a C name too! lol.

Three cheers for the Lesley C’s! lol

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

WOOT WOOT WOOT (my three cheers) Hahah too funny!

[lesleyc]

yay lesleyc’s lol

so i went out and bought a new litter box for his pen and moved the larger corner one into his cage. Um, he must of have had a huge growth spurt, no way was the other one near large enough.

and i found something to hang his hay in, so now he has hay in his litter and hanging above/beside it.

this should work so much better, but i have to really get moving on building him a new home he’s gotten big, fast.

oh, and i also found a good bunny vet and found out how much it will be to get him fixed. I have to bring one of the dogs there on sunday so i’m going to ask them a few more questions.

thanks everyone!!

lesley

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

oh, and i also found a good bunny vet and found out how much it will be to get him fixed. I have to bring one of the dogs there on sunday so i’m going to ask them a few more questions.

Awesome!! That’s the biggest challenge with bunnies I think -finding a good vet! Good job

[Author]

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