PLEASE HELP!!!! have NO idea how to litter train stella!

[stella'smom]

ok, so i’ve tried everything and i’m sure i’m doing something wrong. please help!!! (btw, stella is about 8wks old. not sure if that makes a difference.)

 

when i got stella, i looked at which corner she liked to go pee in, and i put the litter pan there. then i noticed that she also went where she ate.

so i put her food in the litter pan. but she went pee in the other corner, also.

so, i moved the litter pan to THAT corner.

but she continued to go in the cage. someone told me that it’s probably because i lined the cage with towels, and they’re soft.

so i got rid of the towels, and left nothing in the cage (just to see where she would go)

so she went pee in her litter pan, but is now laying in it! so her fur by her peepee is getting yucky and matted and there’s always poops stuck to her now. AND she’s peeing right on the plastic too!

what am i doing wrong?! what can i try! HELP!!!!!!!

(btw, when stella lived in the kitchen, it only took her several days before she didn’t pee in the kitchen, only in her cage (which is GREAT!). so i’m assuming, she thinks that the cage is her litter box. i have sinced moved her to the downstairs family room, with her cage attached to an xpen. again, she doesn’t pee outside of the cage, so that’s good. i just want her to pee IN the litter box, in her cage.)

[Monkeybun]

You won’t really be able to litter train 100% until she is spayed. But another litter box may help. I had to litter train Smudge when she came home with me, and what I did was make everything she could hop on a litter box. Her entire area was a litter box, so she got used to peeing on the litter. Slowly, I removed litter boxes one at a time until she was just going in the box I had left. She doesn’t go anywhere else now Granted, though, she was spayed when I brought her home too.

[mocha200]

Is your cage one of those store bought cages with plastic edges? if so you could just make the whole cage a litter box by putting litter down every were but till having her food and water in there and then have the pen so she could have some time out of the cage. I know a lot of people on her have turned there store bought cages into giant litter boxes.

[stella'smom]

ooooooohhhh…. good idea!!! i would make her whole little cage a litter box, but i hesitate to do that, as i want to be able to put her in the cage at night, and don’t want her to just go pee anywhere in her “living quarters”, yk?

[mocha200]

bow come she can’t be in the pen at night?

[stella'smom]

idk. i worry about leaving her all alone. maybe i feel as if it’s not secure enough. i’ll have to think about that!

also, what if someone has to babysit her in their house and i have to lock her in her cage while i’m gone. would she be freaked out by being locked in her litter box?

in my dream world, i would have a towel down in the cage, with a litter box in the corner that she toileted in. (b/c the cost of litter is so expensive! i use carefresh. so i wanted to just line her cage with a towel, or chux pad-like thing, like they use in the hospital, that i wash every so often.) ugh… frustrating!

[stella'smom]

and yes, it’s one of those store-bought plastic cages. medium-sized, because she’s rarely in it, and is only going to get about 3lbs.

i think i need to think about your suggestion… leaving her cage door open at all times, and letting her come and go as she please in the xpen, with the cage being her litter-box. she NEVER pees outside of her cage, which is GREAT!

is there no hope for my fantasy though?!!!

[mocha200]

oh I see. Well Store bought cages aren’t big enough for rabbits to stay in, so I wouldn’t suggest locking her in there at all. do you think you could make a small pen like a 4×4 and then have her cage in the corner of the pen? that way she could have a lot of space to run around but also have a cage.

about the litter, I can see why you wouldn’t want to cover the whole cage because carefresh can get expensive. But sense she is only 8 weeks. she isn’t going to be perfect because she still has hormones which make her want to mark. So you are probably going to have to deal with some accidents until she is spayed.

[mocha200]

Just saw your second post.
once she is spayed things might get better but for right now i think just keep on trying all the training methods until she is spayed ( spraying the spots were she peed with 50/50 vinegar and water, putting stray poos back into the box ect.)

[stella'smom]

thanks!

[jerseygirl]

She seems to have some concept of litter training if she doesn’t pee while out of the cage. What size box do you have and what type of litter? Maybe it’s one of those things that makes her avoid using the box.

I’m looking after one under 8wks of age and he’s peeing 100% in the box – touch wood!  Training is really about taking advantage of their natural tendencies and setting things up to cater to that. It can take some adjusting to get it right to suit their preferances.

[stella'smom]

her cage is 16 1/2 x 28 1/2. i didn’t mind buying it small, as she’s never in it, other then to sleep at night, and she’s suppose to only get 3lbs. the litter pan is one of those baking dishes that you would fit two in a chafing dish. i was thinking about buying the next size up, so it fits in one whole side of the cage, with her food and water it it. i’m using carefresh litter, and it’s expensive, so i really didn’t want to fill the whole cage with it. (and it’s more difficult to clean out then if i just had a corner litter pan, yk?)

[Beka27]

That cage is really too small for her to be confined in for any length of time. The smallest space recommended for a rabbit (regardless of weight/size) is 24×48 inches. I think it’s a great idea to make that cage bottom her litterbox and provide 24 hour access to the pen, or you can get rid of the cage all together and just use the pen with a medium size, rectangular cat box. You want to have a large litterbox so she has space to move around, they can still sit and munch their hay in there. This goes against conventional wisdom, but some bunnies actually littertrain better when given a larger space. That may be why you notice she has great habits in the pen and the kitchen, but in her cage, everything is just too cramped for her.

I have reservations about using a foil pan (I assume that’s what you were describing?) First, is it possible it’s making some type of “crinkling” sound that might be preventing her from going in there? And second, has she shown any signs of nibbling at it? Even if she hasn’t tried YET, I’m not sure what would happen if she managed to chew off a large chunk of it while you were not around. You could possibly be facing an emergency situation if she could not pass the pieces.

[stella'smom]

oooh… didn’t think of the foil thing, thanks! i’ll throw that away.

i guess it’s a good idea then to just make the whole cage her litter box and give her 24/7 access to the xpen. i would love to give her a comfortable place to sleep in the xpen (even just a towel thrown in the corner), but i’m afraid she’ll pee on it. maybe i should just do what i’m doing for now, until she gets use to peeing only in the cage for about a week, and then put a towel out on the floor for her, in the xpen. what do you think?

i really appreciate everyone helping me on this. i really don’t know what to do and want this to work out! thanks!!!

[mocha200]

Maybe waiting about a week before putting bedding down would be a good idea, but you can try it.

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