Peeing outside the crate

[Valkamy]

My fiance and I have had our bunny for about a week now. He is 3/4 flemish and 1/4 chinchilla. His is the first bunny either of us have had.

We picked him up at 5 weeks old because we were told he was weaned and was eating fine. We were also told that he was litter trained.

We have an extra large dog crate as a home base kind of thing for him right now as we want him to be able to roam the house. When he is in the crate, he sometimes poops beside his litter, but only pees in his litter pan. However, when he is out of the crate, he pees near doors. We also sometimes find a random poop somewhere.

What is the best way to re-train him to use his litter? Or to go back to his litter?

 

[Watermelons]

5 weeks is not old enough to be sold or away from the parents and is most definitely not litter trained.

You need to limit the amount of space he gets until his litter habbits are better. Scoop up the poops and put them back in the pan.
Accidents will happen. He is way to young to expect him to be perfect.
Keep him away from doors. He should honestly be limited to an xpen right now surrounding his crate until his litter habbits are solid.

 

[Blue eyes]

Also, keep in mind that even rabbits that do litter train when young, can often forget that training with the onset of hormones. Once neutered, he'll take to training more readily.

Stray poos are to be expected -- even for litter trained buns. And almost any rabbit will scatter stray poos when first brought to a new home. It is how they mark their new territory.

I definitely agree that it is too soon to allow free roaming. That needs to be after he's thoroughly litter trained. Too much space too soon just encourages accidents. Once accidents occur, they become a very difficult habit to break. Best to start slowly. Confine him to an x-pen until he's older and more consistent.

 

[zuppa]

It is something I wanted to talk about too. I have two young rabbits, Leo is lionhead/dwarf mix tomorrow almost 14 weeks and he's with me 5 weeks already, and Smokey is a grey lop she's just one week younger than Leo and yesterday was one month she's here. They came from very different families and had very different habits.

Leo is very tidy and likes his cage clean always use his corner toilet and yes he poops a lot but as was said above just scatter stray poos now and then but generally poops really responsibly.

Smokey uses her toilets for No.1, well first week she peed everywhere I think in their cage where she came from there was just whole cage filled with hay and they didn't train at all. So now she does into the box in the right corner but I had to put another box into the left corner as well because she liked using it too. Her poop is all over the place, course she poops where her hay but there's a lot of poop everywhere too. She is a great eater and I am happy that she poops just have to start training probably, but my home and cages are still not perfect I can't ask too much, keep working on it. I walk her with harness as well, she never peed outside her cage but I only let her be outside for 15 mins, they both like to be on my lap love grooming I kinda feel a bit guilty that I still keep them locked, Leo is trying to destroy his cage I must film it and post here he's so tiny but he shakes the cage so strongly I had to put an extra clip to keep it together.

They are both still unfixed and they like each other but I have to keep them separated because Leo won't let Smokey alone for a minute he's grooming her and mounting and I only put them together for maybe 15 mins when cleaning their cages twice a week, after last time it was yesterday Smokey was very nervous but she kinda starts replying to Leo's grooming but keeps hiding from him, lets him dominate a bit though, but Leo becomes so upset after that I don't want to say angry he has no aggression generally but he's very active and he's just trying to get back to her at any cost, I really feel bad for him he wants her so much can't eat sometimes.

That was just an intro.

Now I've got fire guard panels yesterday and more getting next week so will be able to wall my desks and cables all around with these panels so they can have whole middle of my studio apartment but maybe as it was said here already I shouldn't let them use this space together before they're fixed and bonded now I think maybe I can let them out one by one for an hour or so, while other is in cage, but I don't know maybe they will be marking territory or something, I really don't know how to do it I hate keeping them in their cages a couple more months, with Leo it seems impossible as he's just really trying to break the cage and get out, you should see it. Smokey likes her cage and not trying to escape she's comfortable there.

Anyway I will follow this thread, thanks for starting it!