Nibbler stopped using litter box

[cardcrimson]

He's been here about a week now, and for the first five days, no problems. Yesterday he stopped using his litter box for his urine. He's never been very good with his poop. . . .

I'm using wood pellets and have hay in a section of the box. Yesterday, he used his bed (reed basket with bedding) as a litter box. I moved the litter box to where his bed was, and he just tinkled next to it. Now he's just using the floor.

Suggestions? I'm hoping I can change the behavior quickly before it becomes a permanent issue. . . .

Thanks for the help!

 

[LakeCondo]

How old is he? Was he litter-box trained before you got him? Did he have the same kind of litter? Did he have bedding before you got him? Many rabbits don't have bedding because they confuse it with litter.

 

[JBun]

It's pretty common for an unfixed rabbit to not be very good at keeping it's poops in the litter box, especially when it's new. He may get better the longer he's there, or you may have to get him neutered to see real improvement. With the peeing, take the basket out of there for now, as he'll just keep peeing in there. It could be the litter that he has decided he doesn't like the feel of on his feet. I had a rabbit that wouldn't use her litter box until I changed the litter. First you could try covering the wood pellet litter in a layer of grass and see if that makes a difference. If you are using a small litter box, a bigger rectangular kitty litter box may work better. If all that doesn't work, you could try a different type of litter like the aspen bedding or kaytee soft granule bedding. With new rabbits it sometimes just takes a litte experimenting and trying to figure out what is going to work best for your rabbit.

 

[cardcrimson]

Thanks for the responses.

He's about 11 weeks old and has been here about one week. I'm not sure his prior litter, though I doubt it was wood pellets--the store tried to sell me corn cobs, but I read they're not so hot. The box is a small cat box, with a little hay on one end.

I've taken out his little bed, it was soaked anyway.

He seemed to be litter trained when Santa dropped him off. He did great for his first few days, not a mistake anywhere. Then, he stopped yesterday. . . .

 

[tamsin]

You often get a period of good litter habits in a baby, and then their hormones start coming in and they lose the litter training again until after being neutered.

 

[cardcrimson]

I had put in some nice fleece mats so he wouldn't slip on the plastic floor. Interestingly, when I took them out, Nibbler went back to using his litter box for the most part. . . .

I did put hay over the wood pellets, and that may have helped as well.

Thanks for the help!

 

[ldoerr]

Glad that he is back to using the box My rabbit Beauty has stoped using the box even though she has been good with it for months and I have not changed anything (other than building her a huge new cage).