Litter box issues

[whitelop]

So my bun is 3 years old, shes never been litter trained. When she was out playing, she would go back into her cage to pee, but poop all over the floor. Which is okay, because I know they poop, and its easy to sweep up.

I just redid her cage and put a blanket in with a litter box. The first day of it,(Sunday) I had the litter box with a little hay in it, with newspaper underneath. Then I put her hay next to the box on the floor of the cage. She moved the box over and spread the hay out and peed in the hay. I cleaned all that out last night. Put the soiled hay in the box, and all the poop I swept off the floor into the box. I also got her hay manager out of the cabinet and put it up.
It looks like she was in her box last night after I put her up, the hay is smashed down and it looks like there is new poop. But upon closer inspection, she peed NEXT to the box, not IN the box.

She fits in the box pretty snuggly, so could it be that her big furry butt just goes over the side of it? HAHAHA. Shes got a pretty big butt.
Its a kitten sized litter box. Do they make bigger ones that aren't the size of a full sized cat litter box? I don't want the box to take up the whole side of her cage. I think I need like an in-between sized box, for my big butt rabbit!
Thanks y'all!

 

[ldoerr]

What about a plastic storage bin? Those come in all sorts of sizes. I am sure that you could find one that was the right size. As for actual litter boxes I just did a quick search on walmarts website and found this one. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Van-Ness-Large-Cat-Litter-Pan-1ct-Cats/10315195#Specifications. It is the next4 size up from the kitten one.

 

[Imbrium]

I've got one of those big ones from walmart, two of the kitten ones and one plastic dishpan that I got at the 99c store. the plastic dishpan has higher sides - if you have a thin layer of litter (or in my case, carefresh) and a grid, it's deep enough that bunns still won't be able to accidentally pee over the side, which is nice. it's in between the kitten and cat sized cheapie boxes from walmart.

 

[whitelop]

ldoerr wrote:

What about a plastic storage bin? Those come in all sorts of sizes. I am sure that you could find one that was the right size. As for actual litter boxes I just did a quick search on walmarts website and found this one. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Van-Ness-Large-Cat-Litter-Pan-1ct-Cats/10315195#Specifications. It is the next4 size up from the kitten one.

I think that may actually be the one she has. hahah. Hers is purple, but it looks the same. I'll check out the storage bins the next time I go to walmart. I didn't even think about storage bins until you said something. Thanks, that seems like a great idea!

 

[Imbrium]

I took the pic inside the cage because the biggest litter box is zip-tied to the inside of the cage (so that they can't drag it away from the manger) and I was too lazy to take it out 'cause the zipties are a pain in the butt to reattach.

if your bunny is having trouble fitting her rear in the current box and you think it's the walmart one, you've either got a mini lop on steroids or you have the small version of the box (which looks identical to the big one - there's no way to tell yours from the one in the link that was given in an above post since there's no way to "size" the one in the link at a glance) . the bigger one is nearly twice the size of the little one.

from left to right - the bigger of the two walmart boxes (with 2 lb holland lop inside), the dollar store dish tub and the kitten version of the walmart litter boxes. (there's a food bowl in the middle box because I was trying in vain to get Gaz to sit in that one for the pic). two 2-lbish bunnies and a pile of hay can fit comfortably in the white box and they've yet to pee over the side of it. it's hard to tell in the pic, but it is slightly larger than the kitten box and about twice as deep. I would think a mini lop would fit comfortably in the dish pan box (which, conveniently, is also the cheapest if you go to a dollar store):

 

[whitelop]

I have the kitten sized one then. I managed to get a picture of her in the box. hahahaha.

You see my issue. Shes a little large for the box. Please excuse to condition of her cage, I was feeling a little lazy today and didn't get all the loose hay up.

 

[Imbrium]

if it makes you feel any better, you can't see it but there's poop all over the fleece in our cage 'cause the little buttheads are messy and it's a pain to clean (I really need a little hand-broom but don't know where to get one >< )

she's pretty big, I can see why you're having trouble. I forget just how much of a difference there is between hollands and minis sometimes! you may want to go with the larger walmart one after all. I guess it depends on how much hay you want to stuff in the box/how much cage space you're willing to sacrifice since a smaller box with very high sides would keep her butt contained

 

[whitelop]

I think I will get her a bigger one. She spends a lot of time out of the cage, so I guess its not a big deal to lose some cage space. Hopefully we'll be building her a NIC cage soon and I won't have to worry so much about space. Thanks so much! I don't know the difference in size between a Holland and mini, I'm not super familiar with different rabbit breed sizes. How big do Hollands get?

 

[Imbrium]

hollands are 2-3 lbs, minis are 4-5 lbs, I believe... I'm just not good yet at translating lbs into actual bunny size.

 

[ldoerr]

On the link that I provided there is a thing that says specifications (or something like that). Click on that and it will give you the dementions of the product.

Jennifer, here is what I use http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074NJN8Q/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20. (I could not find the one I have right now, but same thing basically). These are great. It can get in small areas. I have nothing negative to say about them.

 

[Blue eyes]

Here is the type of litterbox I use. It's just a walmart storage box. It's all one photo so it happens to show step by step, but I was just wanting to show you the box and how my bun fit in there.
With a NIC cage, you'll have plenty of room for it. I've always put the box under a cage shelf. They seem to like it. So even though my cage isn't a NIC (I've had them in past) you could do the same with a NIC.

 

[Imbrium]

ldoerr wrote:

Jennifer, here is what I use http://www.amazon.com/Detailers-Choice-4B320-Whisk-Broom/dp/B0074NJN8Q/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1347487262&sr=8-10&keywords=whisk+broom+and+dustpan. (I could not find the one I have right now, but same thing basically). These are great. It can get in small areas. I have nothing negative to say about them.

excellent, thanks! that was exactly what I was thinking of! I de-pooped the third floor and the landing by hand today, glared at the first floor, rolled my eyes, shut the cage and decided to deal with it later. when I clean out that litter box again in the next day or two (since it's zip-tied to the cage and will need to be removed so I can clean), I'll probably just take out the fleece entirely, shake it off outside and then wash it (they've peed in one part of it, the brats).

 

[lauratunes12]

Bunny poop is a pain to clean. We try to use a little candy scooper, but the darn poop just rolls right on out of the scoop and all I get is bedding. So every couple days we just dump all the bedding and add new. We really need to get rid of the bedding for the whole cage and get Faith a litter box, because she seems to like to bury all her poop in the bottom of the corners. That will probably happen the same time as the NIC cage though.

Right now, Faith just poos and pees wherever she pleases, even if it's on us. She'll just be walking along and then you'll see a couple pellets behind her. Now if we have her out, we just have towels down and shake them out and wash them afterwards.

 

[Imbrium]

I would get her a litter box sooner rather than later, even if you don't eliminate the bedding from her cage completely. until hormones started sneaking up on us, my babies ONLY peed in their cage. it wasn't always in the litter box, mind you, but it was always somewhere in the cage.

I got mine at 7-8 weeks old and have never in my life had a bunny pee on me. they're pretty horrible about the poops these days (I think they're marking, to an extent - we've gone from 90% in the litter boxes to more like 70-80%), but hopefully spaying will fix that. I've just gotta suffer through 5 more weeks to find out, lol - I made their appointment for october 16th.

 

[ldoerr]

I have found that rabbits are very polite. Every rabbit that I have ever had has held their pee while I hold them. When I put them back in their cages they will imediately go pee. The poop does not bother me.