Bunny peeing outside of litterbox

[Bella's mom]

Hello my fellow bunny friends!

Hope you are all well and same with your cute bunnies. My beautiful Bella is now 5 months old. She sometimes misses the litterbox and pees all over the bottom of her cage. Her cage is plastic so I try to keep it as clean as I can but I was wondering what you lovely friends do to keep the cage clean? Can you use water and vinegar to clean the urine stains? Or do you use something special? Water alone doesn't seem to fully help! Thanks my fellow friends

 

[Popsicles]

Hi there is it that her bottom is hanging over the edge, or is it that she is just not going in the litter tray? Is she spayed? Entire bunnies can be worse to litter train and mark their territory. Or if she’s is hanging over the edge you might need to get a slightly deeper one. As for cleaning, I just used some pet odour destroying cleaner that I found in a shop, but that was years ago so I can’t remember a name sorry.

 

[Blue eyes]

The vinegar is what breaks down that urine build up.

 

[samoth]

Ditto what the others above said.

Also, perhaps you could try some training/positive reinforcement. My doe wasn't the best when I got her, and she was pretty good with basic commands. When she hopped in the litterbox, I would say "good girl litter box" and give her a treat. Over time, she came to associate jumping in the litter box with receiving a treat (and as long as she was in there, well...). After a while, if it looked like she was going to go on the floor, I would say "good girl litter box" to remind her; she'd often be prompt to run over to the litter box for bathroom and a treat.

 

[Bella's mom]

Hi everyone thanks so much for your responses. Bella isn't spayed YET.... she will be this summer as she's 5 months now. I am planning to have her spayed around end of July or so. I changed her litterbox and put a bigger one in for her.
@samoth , thanks so much. I will try that as I work with students who have special needs. I don't think Bella would love stickers or candies...but I will try with other edibles. @Popsicles I bought a bigger litterbox tray so hope that helps. @Blue eyes how much vinegar to water ratio do you use? Thanks so much everyone!

 

[Bonnie&Clyde]

Hi everyone thanks so much for your responses. Bella isn't spayed YET.... she will be this summer as she's 5 months now. I am planning to have her spayed around end of July or so. I changed her litterbox and put a bigger one in for her.
@samoth , thanks so much. I will try that as I work with students who have special needs. I don't think Bella would love stickers or candies...but I will try with other edibles. @Popsicles I bought a bigger litterbox tray so hope that helps. @Blue eyes how much vinegar to water ratio do you use? Thanks so much everyone!

I don't think I'd give my rabbits edibles but as long as u eat them with the rabbit and are there for anxiety attacks to cheech their own I guess

Also not good for them but have to say.. Never know with the stickers. Mine are oddly attracted to packing tape(I'm super careful if u open a box)

As for good edible for treat .. Have u tried crazing? My Dutch who hated to be held or the couch at the time (first year I had him) was on my lap on couch.. Paws on my shoulder trying to get more crazins after I let him have one that day... I was holding bag over my head while my girlfriend was in tears at Clyde's behavior.

Bannana is a big hit here to. Either dehydrated chips or real thing. Chips make an easy treat

 

[Bella's mom]

I don't think I'd give my rabbits edibles but as long as u eat them with the rabbit and are there for anxiety attacks to cheech their own I guess

Also not good for them but have to say.. Never know with the stickers. Mine are oddly attracted to packing tape(I'm super careful if u open a box)

As for good edible for treat .. Have u tried crazing? My Dutch who hated to be held or the couch at the time (first year I had him) was on my lap on couch.. Paws on my shoulder trying to get more crazins after I let him have one that day... I was holding bag over my head while my girlfriend was in tears at Clyde's behavior.

Bannana is a big hit here to. Either dehydrated chips or real thing. Chips make an easy treat

Thanks so much for your reply. @Bonnie&Clyde OMG how cute for the tape! I don't give Bella anything other than Alfalfa Hay and Oxford baby pellets. I try to bribe her with a piece of hay or pellets. As for the stickers that was my sarcastic humour. I would never give her stickers. Those are for my students. I can't wait to try Bella on fruits and veggies. She's still only 5 months so I will start that next month. Thanks for the banana chip suggestions! I will only give her a small amount as I know there is a lot of sugar in banana chips!!

 

[lavendertealatte]

I had trouble with Bunster "missing" when my box had a low side. But I got a x-large cat litter pan from Walmart and it's been perfect, no more pee over any sides. Also I put Bunster's hay directly in there, not sure if you do that.

Vinegar/water, 50/50 solution is what I use to clean up accidents as it's supposed to remove the smell so they don't re-mark that spot...

Good luck!

 

[Jacaroe]

I was going to make a post exactly like this not too long ago. Cinnabun will literally hang his bunny butt over the litterbox to pee. I'm SURE he does it on purpose, but it was so annoying, because it would get past the urine guard in his cage and right onto the carpet. Even after a neuter, he still does it if he's using his kitchen box (I give him another litterbox when we do dishes in the kitchen together so he can have some roaming space). I did fix the issue in his cage box by changing from a traditional litter box to a 8" tall washtub with the side cut out of it so he can't get his fuzzy butt over the edge.

I feel kind of deprived though, because I can't trust him not to pee everywhere if I let him free roam, and I would LOVE to let him free-roam. I wish we could have a conversation so I could tell him he'd get out of his cage way more often if he'd just keep his butt in the box when he had to pee.

 

[lavendertealatte]

I wish I could have the same convo with Bunster lolol who is also not free roam. I’m a little strict though in that I also don’t like poops everywhere and that apparently can’t be helped much?

 

[Popsicles]

I wish I could have the same convo with Bunster lolol who is also not free roam. I’m a little strict though in that I also don’t like poops everywhere and that apparently can’t be helped much?

If you are planning to castrate bunster the leaving poops around should decrease, it is just another way of marking territory for an entire bun.
And as for litter trays, @Jacaroe don’t underestimate how high they can jump to get in, if you do get another high top box for your kitchen. I use a deep storage box for Poppy and I was a but worried it might be too tall but it fixed her problem of going over the edge too!

 

[lavendertealatte]

Yes my litter box is 5 inches tall, at first I was worried Bunster would have trouble but he's totally fine.

 

[Jacaroe]

@Jacaroe don’t underestimate how high they can jump to get in, if you do get another high top box for your kitchen.

Thanks for the tip! I'm not as worried about the kitchen because there's no carpet in there. In fact, I wouldn't mind tearing up all my house carpet and going laminate, but different story, different forum LOL

That said, when he's running in the kitchen, he's got just got one of those short jiffy seed trays that I wish I could use everywhere. The Yesterday's News just sits in the grooves along the bottom, so it doesn't even phase him while he sits on his haypile pooping. lol

 

[Scarly]

Our bun, Thumper is the same age. She doesn't use her litter box as a means of communication. For example, if my boyfriend and I cuddle she'll come pee on me lol, or if she can't get into a room she wants to go into she'll pee (or poo) in front of the door, usually when someone is in the bathroom. She's a house rabbit so generally, she has access to everywhere and then it isn't an issue. We also recently converted her entire cage (that we got when we adopted her) into a litter box so she has lots of space (38"X25") to do her business which has also hugely improved her litter habits. Perhaps your bun just needs a larger litter box?

 

[Bella's mom]

OMG @Scarly , your bunny is too hilarious. They are so funny and so intelligent, too! Thanks for your input everyone.... you are all amazing and I appreciate all your advice and words. I changed Bella's litterbox and she seems to have gotten better.... she digs like crazy and makes a mess but that's what bunnies do You are all AWESOME