Not managing to litter-train bunny :(

[SuMykl]

Hiii,

I have got a litter problem and would really appreciate your help ! I have got a 13 week old baby girl who refuses to choose a place for her disposals. In the end I chose the area (I believe) she used most and put all her disposals and rabbit litter there. But although I do that every day she continues to pee and crap all over the cage. When I move her pee she gets annoyed and tries to get at my hand, but she doesn't do that with the droppings. She is not spayed yet as I was told that I should only look into in around a month. I am really getting worried though as she doesn't seem to understand
Any suggestions ?

Note: I have also posted this as a reply to a previous post but couldn't see it pop up. Sorry if there is duplication.

 

[Imbrium]

do you use bedding in the cage? I did at first, and my girls would use the litter box but would also have at least 1-2 other pee corners in the cage as well. not using bedding in the cage helps SO much!

depending on your vet and your bunny's size, she'll need to be 4-6 mos old to get spayed so yes, it's too early for that right now. spaying does improve litter box habits (more of the poop ends up in there and few, if any, pee accidents happen), but it's possible to get a bunny about 90% trained as far as pee goes before spaying.

 

[SuMykl]

Hii,

Thanks for your response. When you say 'bedding' do you mean the wood shavings ? I have got wood shavings in the whole cage as her bedding, but in the litter area (no box since she threw it around) I put rabbit litter which she keeps mixing with the wood shavings
What do you use when yous ay you don't use any bedding ?

 

[missyscove]

If you have a solid bottomed cage, I would just leave the cage bottom throughout the cage and then put litter only in the litterbox. What kind of shavings are you using? Many shavings have oils that can be harmful to a rabbit's respiratory system.
(note: I am assuming your rabbit lives indoors. If she lives outdoors, some sort of bedding is definitely necessary this time of year)
Lots of rabbits like to poop while they eat so I usually place my hay rack right over my litterbox. I consider a rabbit "litter trained" when it pees almost exclusively in the box. Getting her to poop only in the box is a fairly unrealistic goal.

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, pine and cedar shavings are really bad for bunnies... aspen's safe, but bedding's unnecessary with an inside bunny. mine *prefer* to sleep on hard surfaces (when I used bedding when they were little, they pushed all the bedding out of their sleep corner, lol), and many others do as well. with an outside bunny, straw is the best insulating material to give them to bed down in.

if she's throwing the litter box around, you can take a drill, dremel, scratch awl, soldering iron or similar tool and punch a couple holes in the rim of the box. zip-tie carabiners to the holes and then use the carabiners to hook the box to the side of the cage. in case you don't know what I'm talking about, carabiners are these things:

that way, it's easy to get the box out to clean it but it can't be tipped over and thrown around.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

yeah, pine and cedar shavings are really bad for bunnies... aspen's safe, but bedding's unnecessary with an inside bunny. mine *prefer* to sleep on hard surfaces (when I used bedding when they were little, they pushed all the bedding out of their sleep corner, lol), and many others do as well. with an outside bunny, straw is the best insulating material to give them to bed down in.

if she's throwing the litter box around, you can take a drill, dremel, scratch awl, soldering iron or similar tool and punch a couple holes in the rim of the box. zip-tie carabiners to the holes and then use the carabiners to hook the box to the side of the cage. in case you don't know what I'm talking about, carabiners are these things:

that way, it's easy to get the box out to clean it but it can't be tipped over and thrown around.

That is a wonderful idea. I have used binder clips to attach the litter box to the side, but sometimes he undoes it. I've had some success with large paperclips (my rabbit's litter box has a place I can slide the paper clips through)

 

[Imbrium]

when I had fleece in the condo, I had it attached with binder clips... Nala made a game out of going all around the edge of the condo flipping up the metal piece on every binder clip, lol. I'd put them all back down and she'd flip them back up.

 

[Trixie]

I too use a fleece bottom with layers for my rabbits. I use carefresh for the litter box and I feed them their hay in the litter...seems to work here. My male was litter trained very young but my female took a lot more time. She would pee outside the litter box all over the blankets. lol

 

[LakeCondo]

If you use a large enough litterbox, it's harder to move around. I just use a brick outside the box in each of the 2 corners.