Retraining bunny?

[MerryGlas]

Hi, this is the first time I’ve posted here. Sorry for the long story but it is relevant and I need advice!

My bunny Nettle has been living at my parents’ house for 3 months, we took her to stay there at Easter as we were dog-sitting for someone, but then she was ill and had to stay longer. She was at the vet’s for a week and seriously ill, she was paralysed for 3 days because of a parasite in her brain. Fortunately the vets were amazing and looked after her so well, they weren’t sure if she’d recover – but she’s a little fighter and now she’s as good as new, the vets call her their miracle bunny…

So after that trauma we’ve finally got her back, she seems as happy to see us as we are to see her, and she’s settled back in like she never left. Apart from one thing…she was perfectly littertrained when she left, never went to the toilet in her cage and always ran straight to her litter tray when she came out; she did leave pellets outside the box but only in the area around the tray. Now, her cage is a mess, there are pellets all over the floor and she urinates on the carpet near the door, next to the desk, and only occasionally in a litter tray.

We’ve put extra boxes out for her, and we’re rewarding her for going in, clearing up regularly etc, but if anyone has any ideas about how to get things back on track I’d be grateful! I can’t blame her for forgetting what with everything that’s happened, but it’s incredibly frustrating!

Hoping someone can help…

[Sarita]

Welcome!

Did her illness affect any of her mobility?

How old is Nettle? Is she spayed yet? It is possible that she has reached puberty and she needs to be spayed which could cause some of the problems with the litter box. It could be hormonal.

[Beka27]

I’m so happy she recovered! What a relief! Along with Sarita’s question (is she spayed?) I am wondering if you have tried different caging? Sometimes reducing the amount of space, or changing it up can help to retrain a bunny. She was paralyzed for a short time, does she seem to have trouble jumping in and out of the litterbox now?

[Furface]

How long has she been back? She nay be just reclaiming her territory – trying to cover up that “doggie smell”

[RabbitPam]

She may need a change of litter. What are you using? Can you get a softer brand that might be more gentle on her hindquarters?

[MerryGlas]

Hi, thanks for all the replies.
Sarika, Beka27 – No, she hasn’t been spayed, because I’d just arranged for her op when she was ill, so she missed out on that…she’s 2, so well into puberty, but that didn’t cause any problems before so I can’t see that that’s a major problem now! And she has no problems at all with movement since her paralysis, she jumps up on the settee and climbs into the kitchen cupboards with no trouble.

Furface – I assume that at least part of the problem is territorial, although we don’t have any other pets so her smells should still have been around…the only thing I can think is that we have rearranged the furniture while she was away, and maybe that confused her…

Rabbitpam – we use wood pellets in the littertray, the reason being that with every softer litter we’ve tried she just sits there and eats it all which can’t be healthy!

Anyway, in the past couple of days Nettle has been improving…she has progressed to weeing in the tray not on the floor most of the time, although there is no improvement with the poo all over the floor…hopefully she’ll keep improving!

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