Poor Litter Habits

[Lopelai]

Hello!
We have 2 bonded rabbits. A male/female pair both around 7 years. Both spayed/nurtured at least 4 years ago. They have been bonded and living together full time going on 3 years now without any relationship issues. At the start our male rabbit, previously having really good litter habits, ramped up the territorial pooping and even now after bonding hasn’t stopped (except instead of marking between him and our female, he’s marking around their entire space). They happily groom each other, lay together, and she continues to use the box just fine.

More troublesome we’ve had struggles with him peeing just outside of the litterbox (always in the same spot) and I’m looking for any suggestions of things we could try to help re-associate the litter box as his place to go. This wasn’t a behavior we saw during the bonding process but started not too long after they began living together full time. We have had a vet look him over (multiple times/different vets) for urinary issues, arthritis, or other foot problems and always he has come up with no medical concerns. Day to day we do not signs of a health concern, his urine is a healthy color without sludge, blood, or crystals and he’s not appearing in pain while going or doing really anything else during the day. Given their age, we did go ahead and adapt their litter set up to have low sides and easy entrance even though there wasn’t any signs of arthritis in either yet. We’ve expanded the size of the box to make sure there was space for both of them and so that it covered where he was peeing (he moved to a new spot just outside the now bigger litter box), we’ve added a second box so they don’t have to sit together at all (it doesn’t get used), they have access to their hay in the box (which he will happily sit in to eat), and no matter what he always seems to want to go just outside of the litter pan. (I want to add that we didn’t do all of these changes rapid fire or all at once, they’ve been gradual with time for both of them to adapt to them.)

We have not changed bedding (we’re using a combo of paper/kiln dried pine pellets from tractor supply) recently but has anyone had their rabbit just decide they don’t like the bedding? That’s the only thing I can think of at this point he might be having problems with since he’s continually going really close to the box but is avoiding standing in it.

[DanaNM]

Ooh that’s so frustrating! This is not an uncommon problem… I think I even saw a comic about it the ever expanding litter box.

Is he able to reach his hay while standing outside the box? One of my rabbits would pee where-ever she could reach the hay, so I had to be sure the hay rack was only accessible when she was sitting fully inside the box. Another of my buns was doing this but the problem was solved by adding a smaller box to cover the area he was peeing on. He still does always leave some poops right out side the box though!

Experimenting with litters is a good idea too. Carefresh tends to be really good for litter training. The soft texture encourages the bun to stand on it and pee on it.

I do think there is probably something there with maybe some mild arthritis setting in given his age (even though you don’t notice any other signs), so switching to a low sided box was a good idea.

Although litter box habits usually return when a pair is bonded, in some cases they never fully go back to perfect. Bonded buns will sometimes mark more as a way to defend their home as a couple.

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Lopelai]

Dana you are a life saver.

We did a good deep clean of the carpet, left the boxes themselves pretty messy so they smelled like the latrine, and started a switch of litter to Carefresh. Fingers crossed and knock on wood but we’ve been 4 days without a single bit of pee outside of the box. In hindsight I’m not surprised he’d start getting picky about litter. He’s already pretty particular about almost everything else in his life.

I’ll happily deal with the outside the box poops, I don’t think he’s stopping those lol.

[DanaNM]

That’s excellent! Fingers crossed this change sticks! 😀

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[LBJ10]

Something soft like Carefresh can also make a litter box more inviting if rough textured litter hurts their feet or feels unstable. Sometimes you see this with bunnies that are starting to get arthritis.

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