Luna's Litter Training...

[ariusshadow]

Luna's being a tad bit difficult with her litter training. She's a four(ish) year old Polish mix who may or may not have been spayed. I've been told by the person we got her from that she was fixed. But, due to her behavior, and the fact that I got her from Craig's List, I'm doubtful.
We've had a litterbox in her cage. She uses it, then gets bored with it, and moves onto the rest of the cage. I don't think we should be changing the litterbox every day. Does the wire bottom (as opposed to a 'bedding bottom') cage matter? She has the type with a pull-out tray. But it's not because she sees no reason to go in the box! Because she's urinated on a box before and trounced through it (gross~) and was covered in her own urine. And still refuses to use the litter box all the time. We use a grate over our litter box. It came with it. It's a corner litter pan. She will use it with this on it. But, not consistantly. And if we take the grate off, she digs the litter out and sleeps in the box and refuses to use it as a litter box. Hay is always available at the litterbox's reach.
Her diet's being altered a bit at the minute due to soft stool. She's being given small bits of pedialyte and minimal pellets, more hay. Is there anything I can do during this transition to make litter training go easier? I'm about at the end of my rope, here.

I've litter trained rats, hamsters, cats, and my young Flemish Giant mix litter trained in the first week she was home. I don't understand if this is my fault or not. Hope to get some guidance.

 

[kirbyultra]

Yeah, hard to say if she is really spayed. Typically if they were, I would ask for copies of doctor's paperwork for the spay surgery as validation that they are telling the truth. With girls, you can't tell by looking.

If she's 4 years old and unspayed she could be marking territory bigtime and this could just be normal rabbit behavior which may subside after she's satisfied -- or it may not.

For purposes of getting her to use the box, could you change the litter box out every day temporarily? She might tolerate the grate for a while but get tired of it and decide it's easier to go somewhere else more "convenient". I would remove it for now to see if she "likes" it better. What type of litter are you using? Does it absorb quickly? I find that a thick pile of old newspapers does as nicely as any litter when I have to wastefully change the litter box every day. It absorbs well and with a pile thick enough, she can sit in there all day, it shouldn't wet her because she's separated from the liquid that sets in the bottom.

You could also try to give her multiple litter boxes and just overwhelm her into going into a box, any box, until she learns that she must.

 

[ariusshadow]

I'll have to see if we're still getting the newspaper we didn't ask for. >.> But I'll try using that... Knowing the nature of newspaper, I've always been against it because I can't believe that it would actually absorb the smell and the liquid... But since a lot of people on here use it, I'll try it out on Luna. I use yesterday's news. Because it's a different texture, I imagine that it makes a difference. If we don't have newspapers at our dispoal, any thoughts on how to obtain some?

 

[elrohwen]

I don't think you really *need* to use newspaper if it's not available- as a long term litter it doesn't absorb odor nearly as well as YN. Helen was just recommending it if you're going to be changing the litter every day and don't want to waste more expensive litter because most people have newspapers around that they throw away anyway.

If you don't have newspapers, you can probably buy some wood stove pellets or pelleted horse stall bedding. Both are cheaper than YN and won't be too expensive if you want to change the litter every day. It helps to put newspaper or papertowels under the litter so the pellets don't shift around as much and there's something to absorb if they dig the litter away.

 

[kirbyultra]

elrohwen wrote:

I don't think you really *need* to use newspaper if it's not available- as a long term litter it doesn't absorb odor nearly as well as YN. Helen was just recommending it if you're going to be changing the litter every day and don't want to waste more expensive litter because most people have newspapers around that they throw away anyway.

Yes, that was my intention as a cheap alternative. Newspapers, if you have some or can grab some free "local neighborhood freebies" that some towns run, are easy for litter training because they are fairly absorbent and they can easily stand on a stack and feel stable. If you decide to change the box every day temporarily, odor wouldn't be a huge issue. Also, the worst a bun can do is shred newspaper. It's not as messy as having pieces of yesterday's news flying around from a bunny digging in it. Just my suggestion - you don't have to do it if newspaper isn't an option.