Nighttime Litter Box Habits

[Dobby]

Dobby has taken to not using his litter box when he is in his cage at night.  At first it started off as an occasional accident and now it seems like he doesn’t even go into his litter box at night, except maybe to eat some hay.  (His hay rack is above the litter so he has to go in their for it.)  As I’m asleep, it’s impossible to catch him in the act and I just have to wake up to a wet and smelly cage (and sometimes rabbit) in the morning.  It’s not a pleasant way to wake up.

During the day, while I’m at work, he gets access to the kitchen and his cage.  His litter habits are almost perfect during this time, with only the very rare pee accident and occasional stray poop.  In the evenings he has access to the kitchen, his cage, and the living room.  We are still working on only peeing in the litter box during his time in the living room but he is tons better than he was last month.

So I’m trying to figure out what’s going on at night.  Could he just be mad that he’s being confined at night?  Unfortunately, giving him access to the kitchen at night is a little tricky because of how my studio apt is set up.  Does he not have enough light?  I’ve read rabbits don’t need light, which makes sense given they live in burrows.  But I do have a night light on in the room and I can basically see where everything is in his cage, so I’d think he could.

A little background – He is three years old and I’ve had him for about 2 months. 

Has anyone experienced anything like this before?  Any advice?

Thanks!

[Baxter n Boos Mom]

Do you have bedding in the cage? Sometimes bedding confuses rabbits – and they think the entire cage is one big litter box.

And if not – I’m not sure what the answer is…because my buns don’t have the best litter box habits at night either. I’ve been told that you should just continue to clean up the poo, and put it in the litter box, and clean the urine with vinegar. I get excited when my boys are good at night – but it’s really the exception and not the norm for my boys.

[LittlePuffyTail]

My buns, especially my male, tend to be messy at night. Bindi leaves little “cannonball piles” right next to his door, which just happens to be next to his litterbox. I’m not sure why, but they seem to be more territorial at night.

I don’t usually leave a light on at night in the rabbit room, sometime there is light left on in the living room.

Does he just poop outside the box or pee as well? Bindi doesn’t pee on the floor so I’ve just learned to live with the poo. I have a mini dust pan and hand broom hooked on his condo to clean up in the morning. Some mornings are not bad at all, some mornings, I’m wondering who he’s planning on going into battle with.

[Dobby]

Unfortunately, it’s often mostly pee. I would happily live with poop. Sometimes it seems like he may have pooped in his litter boxed, given how little is outside it, and decided that all his pee belongs on the floor of his cage. And there is no bedding in the cage. I have a bunny abode condo, with a plastic (??) floor.

I may do a test over the weekend and let him spend the night in the kitchen. It isn’t the best setup, but if it does the trick, maybe I can figure out how to make it work. I really don’t want to wake up to what I’m now waking up to every morning.

On an unrelated note, he’s currently ignoring me completely and pouting because I had a friend over for dinner. He did not like it at all. I think I have a very temperamental bunny.

[Dobby]

I wanted to send out an update on Dobby’s nighttime litter box habits to see if anyone else has any suggestions.

I tried giving him access to the kitchen and his cage at night (without making a fire hazard for me) and it didn’t do much. He still peed outside his boxes at night, but was fairly perfect during the day when I was at work. I tried this for about 2 weeks, I’d say.

As it’s much harder to clean up outside his cage, I switched him back to nights in his cage and put an extra litter box in his cage. So basically two thirds of his cage, which is a Bunny Abode Condo, contained litter boxes. I woke up this morning to find him asleep in one of his litter boxes, which he rarely does, presumably because he had peed a few times on the one third of his cage that didn’t have a litter box and didn’t want to sleep on the wet spots. There was absolutely no poop anywhere but in his litter box.

As I mentioned above, I obviously can’t police him at night but would really like to find a setup that works so I don’t have to spend the first part of my day spraying down his cage. So any suggestions or tips or completely crazy ideas would be appreciated. Otherwise I guess I will be buying paper towels in bulk going forward…

[Author]

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