Pooping outside her litter box, but not outside her cage

[ILoveLucy]

Hi All!

First time rabbit owner here. Wondering if anyone else has every had this problem or has any advice?

Lucille Ball (my bunny) lives in a 12X12 area of my living room / breakfast nook. It’s fenced off and bunny proofed. We also have a cage (pretty big, about 3ftX4ft, a medium dog crate) that we put her in at night or when I’m not home.

Her litter box is inside the cage, which she does poop in…but she also poops ALL over the cage. Everywhere!

What I don’t understand is that she never poops outside of her cage, her “play area” is totally clean. She must think that the whole cage is the litter box?

While I am happy that she doesn’t poop on my floor, I hate thinking about her sleeping in her own waste  

Some details:

We got her about one week ago from a rescue.

We think she is somewhere between 1 and 2 years old.

She is not spayed yet, though I think we are going to take her next week.

Her cage is lined with newspaper and then some timothy hay scattered around.

Her litter box is lined with newspaper and then paper litter pellets.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice! I’ve tried moving the box, I’ve tried different litter, different bedding. I’m not sure where Lucille and I’s miscommunication is happening!

[usagi]

My bun is 4 and a half months old… He is also not neutered yet, but will be soon.  We also have a play pen for him around his cage, although it is secure enough that we don’t have to lock him up when we are gone, as he has really outgrown his cage.  He also just poops in the cage – he pees in the litterbox (inside the cage), most of the time, but poops anywhere inside the cage.  He also did this when we did not have the xpen for him – he would poop only in the cage, rarely outside of the cage, but often outside of the litterbox inside of the cage.  Now, he rarely poops anywhere outside of the xpen, but definitely does not distinguish the litterbox as a place to poop, only as a place to pee.  Apparently the whole cage is for pooping.  We haven’t let this bother us too much – at least he is keeping it in his cage, and are thrilled that he is using the litterbox to pee.  Lemony would even sleep in his litterbox when we first brought him home.  It’s gross to us, but I mean, they eat their own poop, so…    He’s a good boy.  We usually just pick the poos out of the bedding each morning when we change the littler.  It’s like a treasure hunt!  

[Monkeybun]

Spaying should definitely help. And I suggest taking out the newspaper from the cage. She may associate the newspaper with her potty.

If you only got her a week ago, some of it may be her marking her territory as well

[Elrohwen]

It could definitely be some territorial marking that will diminish naturally with time. Spaying should also help a lot.

Basically, I should’ve just dittoed MB’s post 😛

[Lindsay]

One more thing to add, as I had the same problem with Monty early on.. Is the stuff (hay, litter, whatever) in the litter tray markedly different to the bedding in the bottom of the cage? we found Monty would poop and pee all over his cage because initially we had straw in the bottom of the cage and a mix of litter and straw in the litter tray, so his association was straw = OK to toilet on.
We got rid of the straw on the bottom of the cage and now he has it sort of “carpeted” with a big fleece blanket which we remove and wash once a week. He never pees on it, and only one or two poops (which is no biggie and just a bit of territory-marking. Worked a dream for us even before neutering.

[jerseygirl]

Ditto Monkeybun also. Take out the newspaper on the cage floor. You can give a towel or small blanket if you want. Most prefer the bare cage floor anyway. Also, keep the hay confined to the litter box or suspended over it. Many rabbits will poop where they munch on hay. Other reasons could be she can smell another animal/ either another pet or if the crate was used for another pet. So she may do some territorial marking for a bit. It’s great she’s got good habits elsewhere!!

[ILoveLucy]

I removed the newspaper from the bottom of the cage and it worked!
Thank you so much! It’s been like 48 hours of no pee or poop outside the litter box!

Her cage is now very minimalistic though. Bare floor with a litterbox in the corner. Water bottle and hay trough both hanging from the side of the cage. She seems to like it though.

I keep reading about how bunnies like to “nest” but Lucille really likes flopping out on flat surfaces. Everytime I try to give her a soft bed, or a houses or a tunnel she ignores it. Anyone else find that to be true with their rabbits?

[Lindsay]

Yep, same with my Monty. If he’s sleeping in his cage he pushes the blankets out of one corner and sleeps on the plastic. When he’s in our bedroom he likes to sleep on the floor under the bed. Sometimes he likes to sit on sofas or hang out on the bed, but if he’s sleeping he seems to like hard floors (the only exception being when he was recovering from surgery, then he slept on his blanket). And he likes cardboard boxes to shred, chew up and jump on, but not to sleep in.

As long as she’s happy, no need to worry! All bunnies are different and I guess some of them just don’t have the instinct to “nest” that other bunnies do.

[Author]

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