Litter Training Advice for First Time Bunny Owner

[BunnyMama21]

Hi there!
I have an 8 week old bunny who has been with us for a week now. Ever since we got her I have placed a litter box in her cage ans have been consistently picking up any loose droppings she leaves around the cage and placing them in her litter box (I also do the same with her urine). I follow by desanitising and deodorizing the cage floor so there is no longer the scent of her droppings.
However, it's been a week and she still leaves poops around the whole cage. I tried figuring out if she has a preferred spot, but she seems to go everywhere inside her cage. She does urinate in her litter box on occasion but I still find puddles of pee around her cage pretty often.
I ensured that her litter box is big enough for her to do a 360 degree turn, and her litter box contains an unlimited supply of hay.
Am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I would really love for her to be litter trained so I can start free roaming her in my room.
Thank you so much!

 

[Hermelin]

Litter training takes time, just keep on cleaning up where she’s not supposed to go. And make sure to clean with vinegar where she’s not supposed to urine. If she smell her urine somewhere else she will keep on going there.

How is your cage set up and litter box.

 

[BunnyMama21]

Hi Hermelin, thanks for replying to my thread.
What type of vinegar should I use to clean the area where she urinated? At the moment I'm simply using a spray I bought from the pet store that is meant to help clean cages, but thinking about it now, that might not be enough.
My cage is set up with the litter box in the left corner with her pellet bowl and water bottle right in front of it. At the right side of her cage she has her little shelter area.

 

[Hermelin]

Do you have bedding in the cage and do it have different bedding from the litter box.

Have you filled the litter box with hay, will help her droppings to stay in the litter box. But most important it’s that she pee in the litter box.

I use normal vinegar which I have in food, when I spot clean. But I had bedding the first month with my buns. So I just cleaned everything up and dropped the bedding in my buns litter box.

Most important when it come to litter training it’s that nothing else smells like a litter box to her.

When she’s come up to teenage period/ around 4-6 months she will get hormonal and the litter training will go backwards. So spaying her will help you a lot.

But around 1 year it will calm down again, but doe will have hormonal kick so during those periods. She might go backwards again. If not spayed.

 

[BunnyMama21]

I only have bedding in her litter box. The rest of her cage does not have bedding.

I have filled the litter box with hay. She does pee in her litter box, but I still find puddles of pee around pretty often. Maybe they're just happy accidents

Oh so just regular vinegar? That seems like a rather convenient solution to deodorizing her cage. Thanks!

Yup definitely planning to get her spayed when she's about 6 months old.

Thanks so much for your replies, they have been really helpful!

 

[Hermelin]

I only have bedding in her litter box. The rest of her cage does not have bedding.

I have filled the litter box with hay. She does pee in her litter box, but I still find puddles of pee around pretty often. Maybe they're just happy accidents

Oh so just regular vinegar? That seems like a rather convenient solution to deodorizing her cage. Thanks!

Yup definitely planning to get her spayed when she's about 6 months old.

Thanks so much for your replies, they have been really helpful!

Then you only need to keep on cleaning the cage after her accidents. I remember when my indoor bun, jumped up on the couch only to pee on my brother during his teenage time.

But in the cage he always went to the litter box.

Can just say don’t make her space too big when litter trained, slowly expand her living space to free roaming. So she won’t get confused or find another place to go.

Often you expand your bunny space too fast which makes the litter training to regress.

 

[Blue eyes]

Hermelin is spot on. Just remember that younger rabbits can be harder to train than fixed rabbits. Once rabbits are fixed, they practically train themselves. Even when young rabbits do happen to train, they can forget that with the onset of hormones.

The vinegar counters the urine odor. I would focus more on the urine rather than the poos. The poos are commonly used to mark territory -- especially when a rabbit is in a new home. I'd allow some poos to remain a bit before cleaning them up. Urine I would clean up right away.