Rabbit doesn’t wanna use his litter box?

[BinkyLouie]

Hey guys, my rabbit hasn’t been wanting to go into his litter box. I cleaned it out today and he did go on it for a few but when I put it in the corner where he goes he didn’t go anymore. I put him in it and he recognizes it’s too pee but nothing else.. do you think I have to move the litter box somewhere or something? I feel like he just doesn’t remember where to go.

 

[John Wick]

Personally, I never view it as rabbits can actually be litter boxed trained (i.e. they think "I need to go to the bathroom-- let me go to the litterbox."). I've always viewed it more as rabbits have a natural inclination to poop/pee where they eat and feel secure, so it looks like they're associating pooping with the litterbox, but it's just them pooping where they want, which happens to be a litterbox. That's my opinion though.

Based on that, I would say it may be worthwhile to get more than one litterbox. I have 4 around my rabbits' free roam space. I also forget the timeline in terms of how long you've had your rabbit for, but marking in general is very common until a rabbit has gotten used to and feels they have adequately claimed the environment. The bigger the space, perhaps the longer that will take.

 

[BinkyLouie]

Personally, I never view it as rabbits can actually be litter boxed trained (i.e. they think "I need to go to the bathroom-- let me go to the litterbox."). I've always viewed it more as rabbits have a natural inclination to poop/pee where they eat and feel secure, so it looks like they're associating pooping with the litterbox, but it's just them pooping where they want, which happens to be a litterbox. That's my opinion though.

Based on that, I would say it may be worthwhile to get more than one litterbox. I have 4 around my rabbits' free roam space. I also forget the timeline in terms of how long you've had your rabbit for, but marking in general is very common until a rabbit has gotten used to and feels they have adequately claimed the environment. The bigger the space, perhaps the longer that will take.

That makes sense. I’ll see if I can do that. Thank you. Would you mind also responding to my other thread? It’s an emergency tbh.. It’s about my rabbits droppings and I think I might have to take him to the vet but I need someone to tell me whether it’s a serious matter or not.

 

[NYAngela]

Hey guys, my rabbit hasn’t been wanting to go into his litter box. I cleaned it out today and he did go on it for a few but when I put it in the corner where he goes he didn’t go anymore. I put him in it and he recognizes it’s too pee but nothing else.. do you think I have to move the litter box somewhere or something? I feel like he just doesn’t remember where to go.

I noticed my bun being reluctant to go in his litter box when it’s freshly cleaned, so what I do is take a scoop of the old with pee/poop and put it in the clean one. This seems to help.

 

[JBun]

You're saying he pees in there ok but he's just not pooping in there? Does he usually poop in there? Is this just happening after the litter box is cleaned out and eventually he goes back to using it? Is he neutered yet?

 

[BinkyLouie]

You're saying he pees in there ok but he's just not pooping in there? Does he usually poop in there? Is this just happening after the litter box is cleaned out and eventually he goes back to using it? Is he neutered yet?

He pees and poops in there. Sometimes doesn’t poop in there for a while but my guess he just doesn’t want to poop? I’m not sure because I had a question about this in my other thread about his poop. He’s was pooping small often and almost not pooping anything all day until like the afternoon or something. It’s odd. He just sleeps all day though so that might be eat. Another this is when he eats hay he doesn’t poop and I’m just like what… Since they like to let poos out when they’re munching on hay. It was just concerning but I think someone said it’s fine(you can check it out but I think you were just there giving me some help). He does usually poop/pee in there but sometimes he just poops/pees anywhere he wants. He does zoomies when he wants to go in but now it’s like he looks for the litter box and he can’t seem to find it or he walks up to it all confused yk? It’s weird. He isn’t neutered but he is going to be were trying to neuter him and get his vaccines together rn. We’re looking for places. I clean the litter box every 2-3 days. On the third day I clean it automatically and on the second day I notice it’s all dirty like starting to get dirty but not so dirty but these past few days it hasn’t been so dirty because he doesn’t poop there all that much.

 

[JBun]

What's his litter box set up like? Big box, little corner box? Do you use pelleted litter and do you put a soft layer of hay over the litter?

Rabbits don't necessarily poop constantly. They can hold it in and chose when they want to poop. So there will be times, especially the middle of the day when he's more tired, that he may not need to use the litter box as much. You can gauge how a rabbit is doing in large part, by how their poop looks. If it's a good size, normal round shape, and crumbles easily when broken apart with your fingers, then your rabbits digestion and diet is likely just right.

https://bunssb.org/bunnies/guide-bunny-poops/
With the litter training, keep in mind you're dealing with a hormonal unneutered rabbit. So the fact that he's using the litter box at least part of the time is pretty good. Some unneutered bucks can be real pigs and a complete mess until they get the snip. If you're there with him and it looks like he's going to pee or poop outside the box, you can always usher his little bunny bum into the litter box, so he knows not to do that. Doesn't always work, but for some rabbits it will.

 

[peanutdabunny]

Do you have a closed litter box? If so i'd change it <3

 

[BinkyLouie]

What's his litter box set up like? Big box, little corner box? Do you use pelleted litter and do you put a soft layer of hay over the litter?

Rabbits don't necessarily poop constantly. They can hold it in and chose when they want to poop. So there will be times, especially the middle of the day when he's more tired, that he may not need to use the litter box as much. You can gauge how a rabbit is doing in large part, by how their poop looks. If it's a good size, normal round shape, and crumbles easily when broken apart with your fingers, then your rabbits digestion and diet is likely just right.

https://bunssb.org/bunnies/guide-bunny-poops/
With the litter training, keep in mind you're dealing with a hormonal unneutered rabbit. So the fact that he's using the litter box at least part of the time is pretty good. Some unneutered bucks can be real pigs and a complete mess until they get the snip. If you're there with him and it looks like he's going to pee or poop outside the box, you can always usher his little bunny bum into the litter box, so he knows not to do that. Doesn't always work, but for some rabbits it will.

He has a big litter box. Its a litter box with a hood but I pull it back so it’s not closed all the way so that air can circulate through. It’s in a corner in the kitchen and he chose that spot. I use pine pellet litter and then a layer of hay on top. He’s been going back to it now so that’s good but he’s been pooping a batch of small poops. Mostly 10 poops that are small. No more than 5-10 of those. Other than the small poops he’s been pooping normal. Ahh okay that makes sense. I’m hoping we can get him neutered soon but we’ll see what goes down. Should I be concerned about the small poops or no? It’s just hard to believe that I shouldn’t be worried as I’m my other threads people said it wasn’t necessarily serious you know? I don’t know but I’m trying my best to not be stressed abt it.

 

[BinkyLouie]

Looks like this.

 

[peanutdabunny]

Small poops means something, we just dont know what yet, or if its good or bad

 

[Momma Luvbun]

Small poops make me take alert with my buns.
Although it is hard at times to tell who is leaving the small ones, I am more than sure it is my little fella who has ISC (Intermittent soft cecaltropes) which causes small poops and also excess of mushy ones (beyond the ones he eats) so when this happens I just do straight hay diet for a week or so to get him back on track.

 

[BinkyLouie]

Small poops make me take alert with my buns.
Although it is hard at times to tell who is leaving the small ones, I am more than sure it is my little fella who has ISC (Intermittent soft cecaltropes) which causes small poops and also excess of mushy ones (beyond the ones he eats) so when this happens I just do straight hay diet for a week or so to get him back on track.

I see. Would that work if I did it? The only thing is I’m worried by rabbit wouldn’t want to eat hay everyday.

 

[Diane R]

I see. Would that work if I did it? The only thing is I’m worried by rabbit wouldn’t want to eat hay everyday.

Don't worry about a few small droppings. As long as there is a decent amount of normal size poop you're good.

 

[BinkyLouie]

Don't worry about a few small droppings. As long as there is a decent amount of normal size poop you're good.

Okay! I’ll try not to worry it’s usually only a few and thankfully he hasn’t pooped any today. Thats an improvement

 

[JBun]

When determining if there's a problem with your rabbits poop, you are looking at consistent changes. There will almost always be an occasional odd poop, but when the rest are normal, it's usually not a problem. If your rabbit was consistently producing small, hard, dark fecal poop throughout the day, then yes you would need to address what was causing it. But just a few small poops when the rest are normal that day, and your rabbit is continuing to eat and act normally, usually means there isn't anything to be concerned about.

 

[BinkyLouie]

I’ll keep that in mind. I just think about the worst ): he’s dealing good with the weather alright. It’s hot here.. im gonna have to make a thread right now about how I can help him fight the hot weather.