Posted By brookintoledo on 09/17/2007 6:21 AM
…. I’m pretty sure that the only thing I care about him learning at this time is to use the litter box, but we would still like to know! Thanks
My bunnies, except for Bailey now, are pretty good with their litterbox habits, but at one point, I could get them to go to the litterbox by saying the word a few times.
I learned this somewhere on the internet and I can’t for the life of me find the link, but this is what I did.
Each time a bunny would lift up their tail to go in the wrong place, I would stop them and then walk behind them following them/herding them to their litterbox, all the while saying the word "litterbox" over and over. Of course they just thought I was a big annoying dufus and eventually they jumped in the litterbox just in hopes of escaping this annoyance. (caution: other humans in the household may find this annoying too!
) As soon as they jumped in the box, I would back away, and leave them alone. I also offered a treat, but for Bailey, she took that as me approaching her again, and with her it ended up making her jump out.
If where you are is too big and you’d be following your bunny around for too long then place your bunny near the litterbox and block her/his way so that she can only go into the litterbox (STILL SAY "litterbox" over and over.
I did this for about a week and they started to get that the word litterbox meant for them to go into the box. They could also have thought that the word litterbox meant you’d be annoying them again, and the only place to go to escape that was in the litterbox. Either way, the end result is them in the litterbox.
You can also do this when they are not peeing/pooping just to get them to learn the word.