When litter training

[ADEE]

Do you limit the size of space until they get litter habits down pat? Abbie is obviously very young and while *some* of her poos and urine is making it in the litter box obviously not all of them are… I know it could be MUCH worse but it would be most convienent if she was as close to 100% as possible before giving her full run of the house, as you saw in the video last night she left lots of little poo presents around the house. The litter box of course is nice and clean and Rain uses hers as close to 100% as you can get.. she rarely ever (knocks on wood) even uses the bathroom except when shes in her litter box, that goes for full time too. I know Rain has a couple months of age on Abbie too so what are your practices for litter training? what have you found (Except putting hay in litter box, were already doing that) works best? Do you still give them lots of free range time even though they have accidents or do you limit their free space area until they get better at using the box?

[BinkyBunny]

Limiting space and freedom is recommended during training. The challenge you have with Abbie (cute name btw) though, is that she has yet to be spayed, yes? So you won’t have 100% for now.

However, you don’t want to have her confined with no exercise, she does need that. But you may need to use an xpen to keep things smaller.
The poos in the video are territorial poos and so while she’s making herself at home, she will do this to make herself feel more comfortable as she claims every place she is allowed.

You will need to establish “her” areas, and the general areas. Let her “claim” her area so she can feel safe. But you can still encourage her to focus her claiming by putting her poos in the box. Also add some healthy treats in her box to keep her going there.  But allow “her” area to have a few poos, so she can  feel safe that some place is hers.     And it’s also important to make “her” place a safe wonderful place to be. Add toys, a small running space, shelter – like a hidey box, compfy place to lie – just stuff you discover she likes.

You also claim the general area by shooing her back to her area when she poos in the general area, and quickly wipe where she pooed  Even the dry ones may have a scent she added from her glands.  

Our bunnies never poo out in the rest of the house.   They may leave a few stragglers in their bunny room, but not in the rest of house. They understand that is a general shared area, and at the same time, they have a great place they can call their own, so they don’t feel the need to claim the rest of the house.  I know not all bunnies are like that, but their personalities seem to be satisfied with this kind of arrangement.

My bunny Jack is 100%, but Rucy, she leaves poos near the box, but that’s because sometimes Jack shoos her out and she just gets into the habit of not going in the box. We are working on that problem though. We will be making it easier for her to get the second box nearby.

There have been times where all hell breaks loose, and I walk in and say…”What the heck?!” It doesn’t happen very often, but if it becomes a habit, then yes, I limit their freedom, and supervise closely their “out” time. It usually takes a few days for them to get back on track. But that’s because they pretty much have it down already. Some bunnies will take longer.

And again, you really are dealing with a challenge, especially as your bunny reaches sexual maturity – it could get worse before it gets better.

[ADEE]

Shes actually done a bit better today.. im finding fewer and fewer beebees on the floor… she did pee on the floor once also but really i know shes only 9wks old and is going to have to learn, thankfully they are housed on tile and its a quick and easy pick up. Her spay has already been scheduled for September 30th which gives her enough time to mature a bit more so we can safely have her spayed. Is it true larger breed rabbits mature more slowly then smaller breeds? I have been told it was fine to spay Rain at approx 4mos (She could be older or younger there is no way to know) and that because Abbie is a large breed bun’ it would not be safe to have her spayed in late september. that would make her two days shy of 4 months old.

[Sarita]

If you can wait 6 months to spay it is better. Their bones are still forming it could help circumvent any skeletal bone problems they could have from lack of estrogen. Also overall they are more fully developed.

Many shelters and rescues do spay earlier (4 months) but more for reasons of potential adoption as they do not like to adopt out rabbits who are not altered. Also the reason is to avoid possible pregnancy (especially in already bonded male/female pairs).

I think if most rescues and shelters really had their choice they truly would wait 6 months for females but that cannot always be an option for them.

[ADEE]

if thats the case, i will wait to have her spayed.. when they call me on sept 29th for a reminder of her spay i will reschedule at that time… they are not currently booking apts for later then sept. thanks for the info!! its very important to wait by the sounds of it.

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