I think I'm doing it wrong! Help Mushu :)

[Mushu]

Hey everyone, I'll start off letting you all know this is my first bun and I'm having one hell of a time trying to figure/learn bunny language. I'm very inexperienced with animals, this is my first pet. Also, my bun poops everywhere!! :craziness

I picked up my 3 month old Flemish Giant last Sunday 9/15 which I've named Mushu :bunnyhug: and I've had her for almost a week, unfortunately, my C&C cage materials didn't arrive until early morning 9/20 so for the most part she had free roam of my room since I was forced to take steps to bunny proofing everything.

What I mean by "the most part" is that for the first night I had her in the largest storage bin I could find with pellets/hay/water as a temporary home and she was perfectly fine. I guess she wasn't curious that night so she didn't move around in it and make much noise, just ate and slept I guess. The following night I heard a loud thud that woke me up so I turned on the lights and found that Mushu jumped out! I didn't want to lock her out of her food, water, or hay, so I took the contents out of the bin and laid the bin on its side so she could access them any times... which also meant along with the rest of my room :halo

I expected to pick up poopie pellets the next morning but holy cow, my room was a minefield with a billion orange stains on the carpet to which I quickly picked up and scrubbed away with vinegar :shock: As the days and nights went on, she just kept pooping and peeing everywhere in my room including my bed when she finally was bold enough to jump up. I had no choice but to clean up after her since I didn't have a good solution for housing her properly. Last night when I came home from work and opened my room door she immediately greeted me, ran laps around me and showed me a few really fast and high jumping binkies for the first time ever!!! :bunnyhug:

Well today after I got all the materials and built the cage, she's still treating her cage like my room (which I thought was kind of unexpected) I like to think I've done a fair amount of reading and this behavior doesn't seem to follow what other people are saying buns "typically" do in their homes. One corner has a hiding hole made out of an upside down cardboard box, another corner has a wall mounted pellet feeder which she has to be in a litter tray to access, another corner with just a litter tray and hay, and the last corner is empty... but she's still pooping and peeing wherever. Yes, some of it does go in the litter box, but I think it's more by chance and placement of the litter boxes rather than her choice. Both those litter boxes are lined with yesterday's news and alfalfa hay. I'll open the cage up every now to offer her exercise but she's obviously not used to it yet because she'll ignore me at times. (I think in her mind, the room is still her playground and since I put her in the cage she'll just sit there and remain unhappy.)

I want my bun to have free roam of my room eventually but there is no way I'd give that to her unless I can get her properly litter trained! Did I screw up already and give her too much freedom which caused this bad pooping/peeing everywhere habit? Also from reading various rabbit books at the petstore and info online, there is a LOT of contradictory information of when to get my bun spayed/best ages for successful litter training so I don't know what to think.

All I know is that I'm extremely inexperienced as this is MY first pet and I need all the help I can get!

 

[MikeScone]

First off, welcome to RO! You're going to find that "usually" and rabbits don't go together very well. They're all individualists, and you're in for a ride figuring out your bunny's personality, likes and dislikes.

I wouldn't worry about her litter habits this soon. She's still settling in, and marking her territory. Besides that, at three months, she's still quite young, and her habits haven't settled in yet. Give her some time - it may well take six months before she's (a) comfortable in her new home and (b) grown up enough to take litter habits seriously.

Rather than worry about training her to use a litter box, I'd let her settle in, see where she wants to go (she will decide on that fairly quickly), and put a litter box there. The rest will settle down with time.

When my current rabbit, Natasha Rabbitova, first came to live with me she was two years old, so already an adult. While her litter box habits were well established and she was very good about them, she still had to mark her new home as hers. It was all new, and didn't smell like home at all. And since I was a big part of her new home, that meant that she had to mark me. It took the better part of four months before I could sit without a plastic bag and a towel on my lap. You can read all about the experience in Natasha's first blog.

 

[Azerane]

Hi there, and welcome to the forum Mike is right, since she's both new and young, it's not unexpected for her to be making a mess everywhere. The territorial part will settle down with a bit of time, and the rest will be a little bit of a learning process. You can help it along by sweeping up any poops and dumping them in the litter tray, and any pee accidents, soak them up with a bit of paper towel and put those in the litter box as well

Keep at it though, she will learn with a bit of time, after all, puppies and kittens don't just know where to go, every young animal has to learn It's very cute how she came running up to you and was so excited to see you when you got home

 

[Chrisdoc]

Here, here. Just be patient with her, scoop up her poops and put them in the tray and soak up her pee and do the same thing. If she decides she likes to pee and poop in one place more than another, move her litter tray there to try and accommodate here. She will learn but you´ll probably always get poops left somewhere in the house. That´s something you learn to live with.

 

[Mushu]

Thanks for the help everyone! Mushu seems to be a little more settled now that she's had some more time in her cage, but STILL whenever I take her out of her cage to get some exercise in my room she will literally take a few steps, drop a (few) poopie pellets, take another few steps, drop a few pellets, and repeat until she's done a few laps around the room all the while she's sniffing everything.

I've noticed that she loves her food pellets, so naturally she eats a ton of them but in turn they seem to make her poop a lot more everywhere (in/outside of cage) as opposed to just having her munch on alfalfa...

There's not one or two spots that I can put a litter box because my room really turns into a minefield of poop within minutes of letting her roam! Well anyways, what's the best age/time to get her spayed?

 

[Mushu]

Here are some pics with my setup!

and my roomies pup. :toast:

 

[Azerane]

Awww, what a cutie. I love her colour, what's it called?

The pooping everywhere when you let her out should settle down with time, things are still new

 

[Mushu]

tbh I have no clue, her fur coat is a mixture of light/dark browns

 

[PaGal]

Your bun is still getting used to her new home, both her cage and your room. Buns poop a lot no matter what they are fed. Because she is still getting used to her new home she is marking her territory by pooping all over it. Over time the poop marking should slow down. My flemmie Thumper was the same when I brought him home at 10 weeks old. By 7 months old he was only dropping a few when he was out for most of the day and it wasn't even every day.

I have also litter trained Laverne and Shirley who I took in at over a year old and they also only drop a few when they are out.

It can be done it just takes time. It does help sometimes to limit the buns space at first until they start using the litter box. For the first few weeks I kept Laverne and Shirley in their cage which was 27" X 7'. They had room to play but not so much room that it was difficult for litter training.

If you have found a rabbit savy vet for your bun then discuss with your vet at what age they would spay your bun. It varies from vet to vet.

 

[missyscove]

Buns use poop to mark their territory so she's making sure her new room (trust me, now it's hers, not yours) smells like her. Chances are that as she gets older and more used to her territory those will decrease. Personally I consider a rabbit litter trained if it pees only in the box and I allow them some poop mishaps.

 

[whitelop]

Her color looks like gold tipped steel.

Everyone else gave great advice about the poop marking, just give her time!