Ideas for a dog proof litter box?

Hello forum, nice to meet you.


So, I'm desperately trying to get a good situation for my bunny, with increasingly large enclosures, and different litter pan situations. So far, when she's out of her enclosure the house becomes her litter pan, and there are trillions of pellets per square foot of my infinitely stained carpet, and it becomes a constant cleanup effort until she goes back into the enclosure.

So, I'm trying to litter train her, especially so when she's out of the enclosure, but I have dogs that like eating her pellets. It's disgusting and unhealthy, so I usually have to either keep them closed in a separate room temporarily, which isn't a long term solution, or close the enclosure, so she has no access to the litter box. I had the same problem with our cat litter, so I basically made one of these out of a plastic container.

Is there something similar you can think of I could do for a bunny? I'm not very handy with woodworking or making stuff from scratch, but the first idea that comes to mind is a platform with a ramp too small for the dogs, but large enough for the bunny. The only problem with that is I'm having trouble thinking of a design that
A: I can build with my limited skills,
B: won't be easily knocked over by my dog trying to stand on her hind legs to get to it
C: won't end up with litter and hay spilled all over the place

and most importantly
D: that the bunny would actually climb up and use. She's generally skittish in general, and I'm having doubts she'd want to climb up a platform to use the litter pan.

Does anyone have any ideas, or even better, is there some magical invention that already exists for this purpose that I can just buy online?

Welcome to the forum. Is your bunny spayed? Does she pee everywhere too or just poop?

Is she spayed -- is also my first question. Spayed rabbits practically litter train themselves.

On the surface, it sounds like she needs to start over again. Her space should be severely limited. Keep her confined in an area with a litter box until she is consistently using her litter box.

Once she consistently uses the litter box, create a space around her enclosure. The idea is to only slowly and gradually increase the size of her wandering area. Too much space too soon often results in potty accidents.

An x-pen could create a space around her housing area. Once she consistently returns to the litter box when she has access to the somewhat expanded area, then that area can be increased again.

The first effort should be to get her litter trained. Once she's litter trained to a litter box that is in her enclosure, that is the litter box she should always return to while wandering about. She should always have access to the enclosure and her litter box. No need for any fancy litter boxes.

Thank you. She has an appointment to get spayed in 4 days. I'm glad to hear that will help. I would much rather she have the run of the house, especially since we only have one rabbit, and her and the dogs and cats seem to get along adorably.

She poops everywhere. I think she pees too, but it's hard to tell because it dries so fast, so I usually just shampoo the carpet after she has the run of it.

While I was at the store shopping for a deeper litter pan (she always knocks the grass out of her last one), I realized I could probably carve a doorway out of cardboard boxes, and use that to make the entrance smaller so she can fit through but my dog can't. Then I just have to find a secure way to fasten it to the pen, so that problem's solved as well.

What do you recommend for the flooring of her pen? It's on a tiled floor now, so I added a giant plastic litter pan, but since that probably isn't good for her paws I added woven grass mats, but I suspect that makes it difficult to discern between the flooring and the grass from the litter. Also, it's made everything even more messy, since it doesn't fit the pen perfectly, so she's taken to peeing outside the pan and onto the floor.

I know from experience she starts chewing carpet if it gets wet (her old bottle leaked before I switched to a ceramic water bowl, and moved her out of the carpeted room), so that's out of the question, and I don't think the tiles are good for her paws, nor do I want every accident slowly seeping into the grout between the tiles. Is there something easy to clean that she won't eat (or that can't harm her if she chews on it), that's good for her paws? I just bought a pen because you can make them much larger than the premade cages, and they're light and easy to move, but from browsing a few forums, that seems to be a popular solution, so I'm hoping there's a common flooring solution, too, that I just missed.

Having run of the house is fine (mine does) BUT that is something that she needs to work up to. If she's given all that space all at once then accidents happen and bad habits get established (as you have seen firsthand).

Her getting spayed in a few days gives you a great opportunity. That is the perfect time to start afresh with her.

You can prepare everything for her while she is at the vets. Then her "new home" will be ready the moment she returns from surgery.

She should remain relatively inactive after surgery so that's the perfect time for her to be confined to her "new" smaller space (temporarily).

I'd suggest using a piece of rolled linoleum (textured) for the floor of her pen. The edges of the lino need to be just beyond the pen edge so that she cannot get to the edges while in her pen. Depending on how you have the pen configured, you may want to cover the edges of the lino (which should be just outside the pen) somehow - perhaps with untreated 1 x 3 wood.

The large litter box is fine and is recommended. Keep fresh hay on top of the litter. The seagrass mats should not be a problem. Her lack of potty habits may be hormones related. Also, rabbits tend to urinate wherever they smell urine. So do not put any mats back in the "new" cage if they have been peed on.

[Same goes for carpeted areas. You may not smell urine spots, but she can. Use white vinegar to remove urine odor from carpets.]

In order to have a "do-over" with your bunny and her litter habits, you'll want to make everything at home as unfamiliar as possible when she returns from surgery. Wipe everything down with vinegar. If you can move her x-pen to a different spot, do so. Create a new arrangement for her pen area. Have the new litter box set up (with whatever top you are wanting to try). Everything should be set so that there isn't a need to change things later. You won't want to change things once she's adjusted to the new arrangement. Doing so could set her back.

You can even consider re-arranging furniture in the room that she is used to exploring. You want to have it as "new/different" as possible so that she doesn't slip back into her old habits.

Check here for that detail on starting small with her space and only gradually increasing the roaming area bit-by-bit and as she earns it (by returning consistently to her litter box). Going slowly is key.

Bear in mind that she may be "off" the first few days after surgery, so be patient with her. Don't miss the web link and remember that expanding her roaming space slowly is key. It isn't possible to go too slow, but by hurrying things, it will only make it that much more difficult in the long run.

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I'll make use of all the info.
One last question. Is the rolled linoleum fine to be her only floor, even without the seagrass mats (or anything else)?

While she's litter training, it is good to have just the lino. That will encourage her to use the litter box. Once she's trained well, then you can add-in some other things (always depending on what she will or won't chew on which varies per bunny).

Once trained there are numerous options (including those seagrass mats provided that they are ones she has not previously urinated on). Cat beds, fleece, bath mats, etc.

thanks again!

My solutions are cat related. not sure of your house layout, but in my current house, I cut an opening in a piece of plywood (a cat door if you will) which is tall enough the dogs can't (or won't) jump it. At a former house I bought those big giant rubber maid storage containers (like 55-65 gallon I think they are) and cut an opening in them for the cats to fit through. Also, not that you really want them to, but there are probably worse things your dogs could eat than bunny poop (such as cat poop, their own poop or road kill...just sayin lol!)

I took your advice, but found a guide saying to not use litter and hay after the surgery. More details here. I still have the litter there for now, because she can be pretty skittish when I move stuff out of her enclosure, and I don't think she should be running around the house 2 days after surgery while I swap stuff out, so I want to make sure it's a good idea.

aerisbueller said:

I took your advice, but found a guide saying to not use litter and hay after the surgery. More details here. I still have the litter there for now, because she can be pretty skittish when I move stuff out of her enclosure, and I don't think she should be running around the house 2 days after surgery while I swap stuff out, so I want to make sure it's a good idea.

Click to expand...

I've not heard that about avoiding litter or hay. We want them eating hay!! The following page is pretty thorough on post-op care:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html