Odd litter box behavior

[~Bry~]

I’m very new to this community, so I’m not sure if this has been asked before.

I have two bunnies that are both six months old. We usually keep them in a covered outdoor cage which has two floors and plenty of running room. When it gets too cold for them, we move them to an indoor cage that also has plenty of room, just not as much as the outdoor one.

The buns use the litter box in the smaller cage just fine. No accidents at all, just the occasional mess when they hop out. But when they use the litter box outside in their bigger cage, they only pee in it. They poop around it but they hardly ever poop inside of it. I’m sure it’s both of them and not just one, I’ve seen them both poop right next to it. I’ve tired putting extra hay in the litter box, hay feeders, putting their fresh food AND pellets inside of their litter box and nothing seems to work. I know they get the concept of the litter box and they know how to use it, but it seems that they just choose not to when they’re outside. 

When I had my Dutch bunny before them, he used the litter box in both cages perfectly. I’m stumped.

Does anybody have any advice?

[Cinnabunn the bunny]

is it the same litterbox?

[ThorBunny]

I see in your profile that they are not spayed/neutered? At 6 months hormones will have kicked in. The droppings around the second litter box could be territorial battles. If they are not fixed, they should be separated NOW as they are likely to fight! Unfortunately rabbits who have lived together as babies do not stay bonded once puberty hits. If one is male and the other is female your doe may already be pregnant and they also need to be separated to avoid oops litters! Once you have had them both fixed they can be slowly re-introduced and properly bonded. There are some great guide pages in the bonding section of the BB forum

[Snowleopard]

ThorBunny made some excellent points already, so the only thing I can add is when my two were in a small space, the tended to use their litter box more consistently. Now they’re free range, they’re still pretty good, but they do tend to be lazier (it’s quite a big space they have, 20ft x10), and poop outside the box more, almost as if they can’t quite be bothered to make the journey to the tray if they’re comfortable bunny-loafing in one corner. How big is their litter box? When I switched to a bigger litter box for my two, that seemed to help as well.

[~Bry~]

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