Please Help!!! Litter training super stubborn bunny?

[Steph]

Hi everyone!

So I have had my Holland Lop bunny Persephone (Percy for short) for about 3 months now. I got her when she was 4 months old; she is 7 months now. She has really been great, and has become much more outgoing, curious, and affectionate. It has been my hope since the beginning to be able to let her free-roam, but I have just not been able to litter box train her!!!

When she first came home, she was set up in a cage, and I placed the litterbox (it was one of those x-large corner boxes with a grid top) with Carefresh bedding) in the corner she liked to “go” in. She LOVED the box, but not for peeing! She hung out in there, slept, flopped, etc. but just switched her peeing  to another corner. We played corner tango for a bit, but everywhere I moved it, she would go elsewhere. I would wipe up pee with a paper towel and place it in there, but once there were enough paper towels in there she would go berserk, and dig/claw until she was able to drag out each pee-soaked towel.

She was pretty good at not peeing outside of the cage, as I would give her a few hours each day of supervised free play. She had maybe 3 accidents the first month, but after that never went until she was placed back inside the cage. It was weird – she would hop in and out of the cage constantly while playing, but would never stop to pee until I closed the door. It was like she forgot she had to, or didn’t want to give up playtime? But when the door is closed, she goes to her corner and pees IMMEDIATELY. If she had been playing for a while, I would sometimes close her in there just to have her pee, then let her out to play again. She is so neat and well-behaved in this way that I thought a litterbox transition would be way easier. 

The next thing I tried was another litterbox – I kept the corner one in there, but added a plastic cat litterbox in the corner she liked to pee in. I added hay/bedding. Again, she really seemed to like it, but only for digging! She made a huge mess in there, but never peed (she just switched corners).

So I decided to go in another direction, and just ditch the cage altogether. I bought an x-pen and confined her to a small area, and bought a new litterbox. This thing is like, luxurious – I ordered it off of Amazon and had no idea how big it would be! It has steps up to a covered area – I hoped the cover would make it a happy, safe hidey-space and also protect from a digging mess. THIS is it on Amazon.

Anyways, like the other litterboxes she took to it immediately. I used a different litter (Kaytee Small Animal Litter Critter), and put hay and celery (her favorite treat) on one side, with the litter and some poop on the other side so she would get the hint. But now it seems we are in battle again! It has been 2 days and she hangs out in there, then comes outside to poop/pee on the wooden floor. I place everything back in the litterbox, and she hasn’t dragged anything back outside, but she is as stubborn as ever! I know 2 days is a short time, and I’m going to continue to be persistent, but I am worried because this is a battle that I always seem to lose with her.  

Any suggestions would be amazing! I’m pretty desperate at this point (and I’ve gone through too many litterboxes/litters, lol). 

[Steph]

Has anyone else experienced a bun with an aversion to peeing on soft things? It seems like the total opposite of everything I’ve been reading, but I’m curious…as Percy seems to prefer the hardwood floor to bedding, and today chose to “go” in the one stone area in a room where everything else was carpeted. I’m wondering if maybe I could encourage her to go in a box by placing down towels everywhere and leaving a box with a harder bottom?

[Asriel and Bombur]

Is she spayed? If not, that’s the issue. You can’t litter train a bunny until they’ve been fixed. It’s almost next to impossible.

[Steph]

Update: The soft-things-everywhere idea worked!! I just have a weird bunny.  For the past day and a half she’s been 100% consistent, peeing exclusively in the igloo litterbox and pooping close-to-exclusively in the secondary litterbox. Otherwise, she hangs out/eats/flops on the towels I put surrounding them. I guess we will see if it lasts…

[Author]

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