litter training a stubborn bunny

Leah2296 · Apr 24, 2012

Hi all,

New to this forum and hoping for a bit of advice!

I adopted Buzz, a netherland dwarf 2 and half years ago. He is an older bunny, about 6 now, and he learned perfect litter habits quite quickly. Because he was so good, I let him be a free run rabbit and he always found his way back to his litter box with no problem.

A year and a half ago, I adopted a second rabbit, Olive to keep him company. (Yes they are both fixed). Olive is about 2 years old and they bonded quite quickly.

Olive's litter habits leave something to be desired. She was in a cage for the first while when I had her but once she and Buzz bonded I couldn't cage her anymore because that would mean caging Buzz too and I am really not comfortable leaving them locked up for any amount of time. In addition, Buzz throws a fit when he is caged now - he throws his ceramic bowls everywhere, chews the bars and thumps like a madman.

So they are both free run. Buzz loves to explore the whole apartment but Olive won't leave the carpet which is about 5 feet by 7 feet. Her cage is never far away. Despite this, her litter box habits seem to actually be deteriorating. They have a bunny blanket and now she pees in that; she poops all over the carpet, but only at night, and recently I have been finding multiple pee stains every few days on the carpet too.

When I got Olive she came down with e. cuniculi and has since recovered. In addition, I must admit that while she is the sweetest little thing, she is not the brightest bunny. (She once got her head stuck under a bookshelf)

I have tried putting multiple litter boxes out before but that hasn't really helped. That being said, I am going to try it again this week. However, it's not like she can forget where her litter box is as she is never more than 10 feet away and her food and water is in her cage.

Any advice would be appreciated be appreciated but caging them is really not an option.

Thanks so much!

Leah

ZRabbits · Apr 24, 2012

Understand the frustration.

The only thing that I can suggest is be with her when you let her out. And then constantly put her back into her litter box. I've been doing that with Neville, my worst offender. He was doing really good with litter box training until he came down with Wry Neck. Now it's back to square one. When he's out and about I'm constantly reminding him about his litter box.

Some are lazy and need to be constantly reminded. Also an x-pen works nicely to keep the area they roam a little smaller, then work up to full access once training is complete. The poop I don't mind, but the pee definitely needs to be in the litterbox.

K

Leah2296 · Apr 24, 2012

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately there isn't a time when I "let her out" - she is always out on her carpet, 24 hours a day. Good idea on always putting her in the litter box though. She hates being picked up but that might be good practice for her on that one too.

That's really interesting that Neville was back to square one after his bout with wry neck too. Maybe that really is the cause then.

Thanks!

Barley N. Hopps · Apr 24, 2012

Had to laugh at Olive getting her head stuck under the bookshelf! I don't know if this is any help, but are you cleaning the pee stains with vinegar and water? This helps with the scent, in case she's smelling where she piddled before and thinking that's the place to do it.

Leah2296 · Apr 24, 2012

Yeah, after we got over the initial shock of finding her tummy up, four legs sticking straight towards the sky and her whole head wedged under the bottom of the bookcase, we had a laugh about it too!

Yep - I'm using vinegar and water to clean the stains and I just order a mini steam cleaner today too. I don't want to have a home that smells like rabbit pee.

I am starting to think this might just be the way she is! Good thing I love her so much.