Rabbit Won’t Use Litter Tray

[EMin]

My rabbit, Wilber, has not been using his litter tray. He had surgery more than a week ago to take care of an abscess. He has since been wearing a cone because he wants to lick off all his medicine. He tried to go in his litter box once, but the cone bumped into the cage. Now he won’t go in his litter box at all! His cage is two level but I don’t want him going on the top level with his cone so he is stuck on the bottom. It’s so small for him when he can’t go on the top. I gave him a new, bigger litter  box but he doesn’t even acknowledge it. I have him free roaming now but he still isn’t going in his litter box! I have towels and blankets set up everywhere in his room (and his old litter box is readily available) but he still goes wherever he wants. I would keep him in his cage more, but he gets so bored or maybe anxious that the last time he was in there he tugged his cone to his muzzle (near where his surgery was!) so I don’t want to leave him in there for a long period of time. I was thinking of getting a new, bigger cage that also had an xpen attachment, but he has had this cage for eleven years. I don’t know how well he would do with the change. I don’t want to ruin the carpet and I don’t know what else to do! Has anyone else even dealt with something like this?

[Muchelle]

Hello, welcome!

How tall is the litter box? It may be that he’s having trouble hopping in? You could try to temporarily substitute the litter box with the lid of a box, so that there is virtually nothing to hop over and he might find himself more comfortable. I did something similar when my bun had surgery and couldn’t walk well for several weeks.

[EMin]

That’s a great idea! I did get him a second litter tray- the new one is much larger but maybe 2-3 inches off the ground. I will try an old box lid and see if he will use that. Thanks!

[Author]

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