Spell it out for me please :)

[Sam and Lady's Human]

 I have a 30in Superpet cage, and an exercise pen. I’m hoping to litter train someday, but know that it’s not going to happen for quite a few months. What should I put in bun’s cage/xpen? I don’t have a litter box, I have a grass mat and fleece though.  Do I leave the cage open all the time, or lock her in at nights?

 

[meow1]

Why won’t you be litter training sooner? It took my bunny less than a day to learn to use his hox, and as far as I know, I think a lot learn very fast. Where do you expect her to potty at?

[Monkeybun]

I trained Monkey at 8 weeks old when I got her. She had a few accidents now and then, but she basically got the idea. I think you should get a litter box, set it up in the pen, and let her have access tot he pen 24/7. a 30″ cage is too small for a bun

[Tate]

Like they said, you can begin litter training right away, in fact it’s always better to do so. It kind of helps cement their place in your home. Plus, it can be easy! You might as well also connect the xpen to the cage, that works as a really great set up. The only thing I would do is put a towel down over the cage door so your bunny can get in and out easily without getting paws and legs caught!

[mocha200]

If you can’t get a litter box right now, I just use a small bin that I wasn’t using.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Oh wow good to know! I’ve read somewhere (here?) that you can kinda litter box train them but when they hit their teens it goes out the window. Right now there is a towel and a couple blankets on the floor (tile) and then she has a grass mat that her food, hay, and little grass arch/hut thing is on, and the other half of the cage is the litter.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Tate, I did that with the towel but she peed on it. She tends to just jump over the gate anyway, should I keep replacing the towel?

 

[Monkeybun]

towels are easily washable, its better that than injured toes

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Ok. So what do I put in her cage if I don’t put bedding because they’ll pee or litter?

[Tate]

Haha, aw! Ok, that might be too confusing for her right now. Take out the towel for good (or until she gets litter trained). She will probably be fine, I’m not sure what else you can cover it with. I really think that they are quite careful and aware of their limbs, it was always just a worry for me Someone may have a suggestion or even if it’s a valid concern.
Do you plan to get her spayed? If you can really plan it out, you *may* be able to bypass those teenage years. They can “lose” those litter habits when they reach maturity, as they want to claim things. I have actually never had a female pet, so I’m not sure about spaying. With my two boy bunnies, the presence of their testicles did not necessarily mean bad behaviors. I think many people wait to get their animals (of all kinds!) spayed or neutered until those bad behaviors are seen. In reality, you can neuter a boy as soon as the testicles drop. Meet with a vet in the next few weeks and make sure he or she is experienced with rabbit spaying and ask when the earliest possible age to spay is. Try not to wait for any “bad” behaviors to present themselves.
They can still go through some teenage years even after being spayed or neutered although to a lesser extent. I used to be a dog trainer and saw this ALL the time! In this case, when your pet is already fixed and seems to revert to unwanted behaviors, it’s not as much of forgetting, say, potty training. They are really just trying to find their place in your home. They push boundaries just like human teens! It just goes back to being very strict with them. Rewards of some type when they go potty in the litter box will go far. You can do rewards of any type, just be aware of pet store treats as they are usually bad. My bunnies learned “come” with just affection, no treats!
I hope this helps/makes sense. I’ve learned a ton on this forum and I do almost every time I get on!

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Thanks so much! I do plan on getting her(or him!) spayed/neutered, she’s about 8-10 weeks now (I need to call tomorrow and find out for sure!) so I think I still have to wait about a month before I can get it done, I need to make some calls about that tomorrow as well. That’s good to know that I can start trying to litter train now

[Elrohwen]

Like others said, you can definitely litter train right away! Otto got the hang of it from the second he came home and he’d never seen a litter box before. It’s true that they can lose their good habits during puberty, but you still want to give them those goods habits to start with so that after being fixed they know what to do. The issue during puberty is that hormonal bunnies want to mark their territory – they don’t necessarily “forget” their good habits, they just also feel the drive to mark areas outside the litter box. Not all bunnies do this either – Otto never marked his territory before neutering. Hannah has marked territory when she is in a new place and she’s been spayed for years, but these aren’t “accidents” – she knows where to pee and chooses not to sometimes.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Thanks everyone!!!
How often do I change their litterboxs, and should I fill them or just put about an inch?

[Lintini]

I change my litter boxes every other day but they are in my bedroom.

[Beka27]

How often you change the litterbox will depend on the size of the box, how quickly it gets dirty, how picky you are, how picky the bun is. All you need is a thin layer of litter in the bottom, depending on what type of litter you use, possibly as little as a half-inch.

[peppypoo]

I change Peppy and Milo’s litterbox every day…we have things figured out so that we put just enough litter that they use all of it up, and we can dump the whole thing without wasting a bunch of clean litter.

My mom on the other hand…she goes around the litterboxes a few times a day using a plastic takeout spoon to scoop up poopies and removes soiled areas of litter without wasting any. A taaad too much work in my opinion, but my mom is very big on keeping a clean house and not being wasteful.

[Elrohwen]

I change my litter boxes about once a week – I could probably stand to do it every 5 days though. I just barely cover the bottom with wood stove pellets, then I put a little hay on top. Throughout the week more hay ends up in the boxes and I keep any mess covered with fresh hay. The litter boxes are pretty large though – when I used smaller boxes I cleaned twice a week.

[LoveChaCha]

I change the box after 3-4 days, depending on how many poopies that I see
I use wood stove pellets also, and put a bunch of hay in. WSP are really cheap, 5 dollars a bag for 40 lbs

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Thanks everyone!

So he walked over and pee’d on a paper towel, really super yellow, almost orangish maybe? Is that norm?

[peppypoo]

Bunny pee does tend to vary greatly in color, and can get almost reddish looking depending on their diet. As long as it’s not blood, I think you should be okay.

[Dee]

I use Kaytee Total Comfort bedding- it’s similar to Carefresh, but BunBun eats Carefresh so I switched to the Kaytee stuff. It’s nice and soft and I think it’s pretty absorbent. I used to change the litter box about every 3-5 days (I have 2 bunnies sharing the box) but when Bun got his GI stasis and then his UTI, looking for normal pee/poop became a fulltime job. Now, several months later, I still find myself constantly scanning the box for evidence that all is well. I just want to catch any problems as quickly as possible. So what I do is once a day (twice if Bun is acting weird about pottying) I take two plastic grocery bags, put one over my hand and grab all the wet litter/poops that I can find and stuff them into the other bag. Then I add some clean litter. I kinda feel like I use more litter this way, but it’s worth it for the peace of mind.
And I noticed that my rabbit’s pee changes color accordng to what they eat. Swiss Chard always gave them bright orange pee.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Posted By peppypoo on 04/27/2011 04:48 PM
Bunny pee does tend to vary greatly in color, and can get almost reddish looking depending on their diet. As long as it’s not blood, I think you should be okay.

Sweet thanks

[Author]

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