Using Litterpan Less and Less...

Hello everyone! I adopted a spayed female August of last year, she was a year and a half old then. So she's over two by now. When we adopted her, she was fully littertrained (and spayed). She rarely made mistakes outside of it. She was given a poor diet of treat-filled mixed pellets. Still working on fixing her diet. Working with different types of hays, her droppings are improving, etc. Great teeth, eye, ear, and nose health. Had her taken to the vet after adoption, she checked out fine and healthy. She gets along perfectly with our three cats and they never have any issues. I still watch her while she is out for her safety, though. They are all indoor and don't hunt. Never have. She was in a shelter with free roaming cats, she is not intimidated.

We adopted her at our old location. She had the run of our computer room, the size of a small/medium bedroom with her cage in there against one wall, her outside litterpan was across the room.

We recently moved 3-4 months ago to an apartment. She now has the run of the living room. Again, we have her cage against one wall, and her litterpan is across the room. It's further than our old house, as it's a much bigger room. The first 2-3 weeks we were here she had no issues of peeing on the floor at all. She would go to her litterpans for that. Now, though, she's peeing on the floor 5-6 times a day and I don't know the last time she's actually wandered to her other litterpan. I've tried moving it closer to her actual cage but she is still not interested. I even put it in the middle of the floor on top of her blanket with hay and toys around it. She will pee on the blankey, but not in her pan. But she still pees in her cage's litterpan when she is in her cage.

When I catch her doing it, I gently hold her head down and tell her no, bad bunny (I don't yell or anything she's my sweetie); I then pick her up and bring her to her pan and tell her she has to pee-pee in there because no one goes and pees in her cage. (I can't help it I talk to her like she understands me I'm sorry hahah). Her litterpans are cleaned regularly.

The situation seems to be worsening and I have no intention of rehoming her because she is very important to me, and I did not adopt her only to throw her out over this single issue. She is a very good girl and this is very weird for her. Especially since overall she is becoming more social and healthy.

Can anyone help me out? Any tips for asserting her litterbox training back into ON mode? Any ideas on why she is doing this? I'm giving her more things to lay around on. She has a secondary nesting area under one of our end tables where she spends a lot of time and NEVER goes to the potty there. I tried putting her litterpan there and she still won't use it. Any help is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.

Rabbits pick their pee spots regardless of litter pan. It's up to us to put litter pans where THEY want to pee! Some rabbits like having a few toilet spots, thus necessitating multiple litter pans. Are there areas of the house where she likes peeing the most, or is it random? If it seems random/almost involuntary, she could have a urinary issue that's causing her to let it out before she can get to her litterpan.

Or it could just be that she's marking your apartment, as it is new territory. Her litter habits might have been perfect at first because she was too unfamiliar with the new place to call it her own, but now that she's settling in she's decided to mark the whole apartment as HERS. This should lessen with time. Clean up messes well with vinegar solution, and maybe help her along by putting pee-soaked tissues and stray poops in her litter pan to indicate where she should go.

whiskylollipop said:

Rabbits pick their pee spots regardless of litter pan. It's up to us to put litter pans where THEY want to pee! Some rabbits like having a few toilet spots, thus necessitating multiple litter pans. Are there areas of the house where she likes peeing the most, or is it random? If it seems random/almost involuntary, she could have a urinary issue that's causing her to let it out before she can get to her litterpan.

Or it could just be that she's marking your apartment, as it is new territory. Her litter habits might have been perfect at first because she was too unfamiliar with the new place to call it her own, but now that she's settling in she's decided to mark the whole apartment as HERS. This should lessen with time. Clean up messes well with vinegar solution, and maybe help her along by putting pee-soaked tissues and stray poops in her litter pan to indicate where she should go.

Click to expand...

It is mostly random, but usually on the black carpet in the center of the room. I've put a blanket for her on the carpet, and her litterpan on the blanket. She's been peeing mostly on the blanket now, but it's obviously still going through to the carpet... She seems pretty comfortable to me, I mean she's out... About 9-12 hours a day and just lounges around the room... She only has access to the living room, unless I bring her to sit with me on the bed, and hasn't urinated there... Yet. Hahah.

I will try your suggestion of putting urine soaked tissue in her pan, and maybe getting her a third pan. Thanks much! Sounds like a really good plan.

I also do not think it is accidental or an infection as it's only on the living room's extra carpet. She goes in her litter pan in her cage and hasn't had one incident in there. My fiance and I feel like she's just TOO comfy and is disregarding the litter box in this room altogether, and instead making the floor her personal pee zone.

When my rabbit stopped using his litter pan after years of using it we found out he had bladder sludge...

Hopefully that is not the case for you! Good luck!

We were considering bringing her to a vet soon for a check up. Her urine seems to be normal and I regularly check her bum area and clean it for her. May bring her in soon anyway just to be safe for her.

Bunnies do like peeing on soft things! Mine will pee on the bed or the shaggy carpet given half the chance. They're very good with litter habits otherwise, but soft surfaces will always be their favourite things to pee on. We've resigned ourselves to blocking off the bed and cleaning up the carpet every so often.

I have put a blanket on the carpet she's been peeing on and put her litterpan on top of that, along with some other items of hers. She's stopped peeing on the carpet, but occasionally tinkles on the blanket--BUT has been using the litterpan more again. So issue semi-solved, hahah!