litter training an escape artist - pulling hair out!

[bonelady29]

Ok, so Finn is 2 months old today and I've been trying to do everything right with litter training him but nothing is working. He is an escape artist to the max and I don't know what to do anymore. I've litter trained adults and had no issues but he is testing all my patience. I was told to get an x pen and keep him in a small area til he uses the box consistently. I decided to make a pen out of some big boxes that have high sides because he climbs anything and everything and could easily climb out of an x pen (he climbs his crate all the time and is quite the spiderman). The boxes are really tall but he has this crazy ability to levitate several feet in the air at a whim and appear on the other side. When I tried blocking him in to strictly the living room and gave him a bunch of litter boxes to use he still pooped everywhere constantly . I put the boxes where he went but he still poops all over the place. He uses the litter boxes AND the floor. He has hay in the boxes so he can eat and potty and I've collected all the poops and put them in the litter boxes repeatedly. So what do I do now? I'm at my wits end! He's a sweet booger and he has a ton of energy and loves to run and he binkys all the time when he's loose. But I have a 3 year old and I live in an apartment so he's got to get this litter training. What the heck am I doing wrong? :-(

 

[Minilopbun]

Does he just poop out the litter box or pee also?

A lot of the time, it's difficult to litter train an unfixed rabbit, but it's possible. Mine is litter trained and not neutered. But, confining him to a small space could help. If he is escaping, try a large dog cage. They're heavy duty and he won't be able to get out (hopefully!) once he starts using the box, then you can let him out into the larger space of the x pen.

He may be just getting used to a new place though, and leaving poop is his way of marking his territory. The most important thing is that he pees in the box though. And if you put hay in his litter box, it'll encourage him to only poop in there since many rabbits like to munch on hay and use the bathroom. Try a really large heavy duty dog cage if you can and see how it works or you can cover the top of the x pen with a sheet so he can't see that he can jump over. I've heard of people doing this and it helps!

 

[bonelady29]

I can't tell if he's peeing because our carpet is a mottled brown and black color and it's thick so it's hard to tell without running hands over it and I think he's done it a couple times. It's really really hard to even find the poops! :-( What age should he be neutered?

 

[Watermelons]

IMO he should be restricted in his cage size to a small area. I would put him in a typical pet store cage or dog kennel (plastic or wire sided depending how small he is and how small of a space he can squeeze out of.
Either use shavings or towels. With the last rabbit I litter trained she had a large towel down as the main floor and a face cloth laid down in each corner. This was all in a 36" plastic dog crate. Food and water bowls were at the front. Overnight she picked a corner to pee in. it ended up being on a face cloth in the small box she was given as a hide. Removed the soiled face cloth and cardboard box. Placed litter pan in that same corner with the soiled face cloth and placed her in the litter box on top of the peed on cloth. She promptly hopped out but continued to go in the litter pan after that.
Other rabbits I have used shavings and placed shavings in the entire cage, water and food bowls in the middle along an edge. They pick a corner they start peeing in. I scoop up the peed on shavings and place them in a litter box and place said litter box in the corner the peed on shavings were removed from.

Until he can pee ONLY in the box, he should not be allowed out of the cage.
Poos are another story. Most rabbits wont fully poop train until after their spayed/neutered. Even then I would say them pooping freely in the cage but not in their play area which is outside of the cage a full success.