should I wait to litter box train/buy bunny castle till after she’s spayed?

[Juliet Madeline]

Hello! This is my first post. I’m so glad I discovered this forum.

My mini lop Is around 12weeks old. We got her about a month ago. We have a very large cage for her while we are working on making an xpen for her, But we give her time to hop around the house When we can supervise. Ive read litter box training can be hard before she gets spayed. Should I be bothering to try at this point or just wait till after she’s spayed? She definitely uses her litter box in her cage, but also goes everywhere else in there like her grass mat, cardboard box etc. She has pooped & peed on me on the couch, and when she was hopping around the house she pooped next to her litter box and all over the place but not in the litterbox. I’m also wondering if I should bother investing in one of those bunny castle now or waiting till after shes spayed/hopefully litter box trained. I’m afraid if I get it now she’ll just use it as a toilet like she has with cardboard boxes, the couch, my lap etc! She’s still just a baby so I don’t expect her to be trained yet, I’m just wondering if I should hold off till after she’s been spayed. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance! 🙂

[BB & Tiny]

Considering the result of other boxes it may be wise to wait. As for the litter habits, I’ve not had an unspayed female, but there are members on here with babies that are litter box trained.

Have you blotted up the pee with paper and put it in the litterbox as well as some poops ?

[Koton]

I wouldn’t wait. Ours isn’t neutered yet either and he’s almost potty trained. At least for the most part. Definitely don’t wait in my opinion. The earlier the better.

[skysblue]

It took about a week or two to have my 12 months litter trained, but i didn’t let her around the house until she won’t pee outside the litterbox. The earlier the better, they seem to get habituated when they are young.

[sorathebunny]

Mine stopped having accidents after I fixed the litter box into one space. You may be giving yours too much space to expect litter training. For us the first couple days we had very little space outside the condo that was held in by a baby gate. The first couple times he had accidents. When he came out with no accidents, we opened the gate a bit..,maybe 4 more feet. Then when he came out with no more accidents we did a few more feet. When he was up to half a room, he was still having accidents in the cage because he was moving the litter box. Once we attached it to the condo wall, he hasn’t had anymore accidents inside or outside the cage. He us up to the whole room space now and is able to be out without being watched like a hawk. Once he jumped into the empty litter box as I was cleaning it to pee which made my son laugh. He is 10-12 weeks right now and has been home for 2 weeks. I am hoping to have him fixed before he hits teen bunny phase to keep his habits consistent.

[Rhian]

I wouldn’t be expecting perfect litter habits before a spay, but I would definitely (and currently am with two babies) start litter training as soon as possible. My 16 week old rabbit is pretty much perfect right now, though he does have the odd poop outside of the box. My 11 week old is pretty much hopeless at this point, he’s finally starting to get the idea and pees in his box about 80% of the time but the poop will be an ongoing issue until he’s fixed I think. So you can have some success even early on, but it can be a struggle! Just make sure to have some vinegar handy and wipe up as much pee as possible so that she doesn’t associate the areas she’s gone already as prime bathroom areas.

As for the bunny castle, I would wait on that one. You can get boxes pretty cheaply (or free) pretty much anywhere. I often go to Costco and grab a few boxes (I usually avoid the ones that carried non-packaged produce or with any mystery stains). I honestly don’t think I’d ever buy a castle/maze for them just because of how easy it is to find thick sturdy boxes for free (although they certainly don’t look as nice!).

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