Litter training and nipping

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Katrina

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okay, I have two questions that I'm sure you getall the time but I don't know how to handle it. I have only ever owneddogs and caged rodents and litter training my bunny has been so muchharder than training the dogs.

Katrina used her littler box the first few days she had it but now shewill not use it. I'm moving around my entire room tonight because Idon't even know where she's been peeing (I'm pretty sure it's under thebed). Anyways, I don't know how to get her to use the little box andnot pee on the floor. I go to school fulltime, and work fulltime. I tryto spend as much time with her as I can but when I'm with her shedoesn't seem to go pee so I can't find where it is. She has no cagebecause she gets depressed in the cage but I have the bottom of thecage still on the floor and everything (food, water, litter box) wherethey were when the metal cage was around it. How do I get her to usethe litter box and not pee on the floor. Please help. I've been readingthings and I'm going to throw her in the closet for a week or sobecause I can tract where she's peeing in a smaller area but it's stillcarpet in there so I'm trying to have her not pee on any carpet.However, I have no access to any non-carpeted areas. Thanks for thehelp on this on guys.



Question B I'll try to make shorted. She used to always lick but latelyshe only nips me. I've tried saying no in a low but stern voice andnothing happened, I've tried saying no loudly (the scares her and sheruns away but she shows back up in 30 seconds to nip again). Any ideahow I can stop her from biting me? She has things to gnaw on butrefuses to use them.

Someone hep me with these problems. I love my Katrina but right nowit's very frustrating. I want my sweet licking girl back. Thanks.
 
Hi Katrina!

For the litter training, maybe try putting a few more litter boxesdown? Find out where she goes to the bathroom, and just try to put alitter box there.

If you find a place she has gone to the bathroom outside the letterbox,soak it up with paper towel and then putthe papertowelin her letterbox. Clean the area and repeat until shestarts to use her letterbox. You can expect the stray poop or so, butthose are easy to clean :).

Nipping can be a sign of affection just like licking. What is she doingwhen she nips? Usually when rabbits nip they want to communicatesomething to you. I get nipped mostly if I'm in the way of somebunnyand they nip to tell me to move. Some people make a squealing noisewhen the rabbit nips, but personally I don't like doing that. It justtends to scare them.
 
I get nipped all the time. I thought maybe itwas that she wants affection too because I am usually running in andout but she almost avoids me when I try to see her. I sit on the groundand she comes to me and than walks away. She's a mystery right now.
 
They've only hurt once. And I'm completely stuckon the peeing because I moved everything in my room around and foundnothing. However, well I was doing that she was in the bathroom andwent pee in there but it was brown. She was pooing fine, acting fine,everything is normal but is brown normal?? I've never owned a rabbitand I'm very confused.
 
If youcant find any I would say that she isntgoing. I would be going for a vet visit. Also brown pee is not normalfor buns.
 
Have you seen our NIC condos that many membershave built? They are so cheap and can be roomy enough that you dontfeel bad if you have to put your bunny in there while you are away. Myboy Tumnus hated going in his cage when I used a regular rabbit cage.He now loves going in his NIC condo and actually prefers it a lot ofthe time. If you have a condo for her, then you can train her to useher litterbox there first. Once she has mastered that, you let her outto explore the room. You have to do it in steps and cant give them toomuch freedom all at once, or they will just pee everywhere ;)

For problem areas, like if you think she is peeing under your bed, Iwould put something down. I buy that plastic carpet runner at Walmartfor very cheap and put it under my bed (my boys used to like to pee ANDdig, so this helped both). Its also is very easy to clean up.

All that being said, if you cant findpee anywhere and youthink its brown, I would get her to the vet. Are you sure shes eatingand drinking enough? That would be my first concern if the pee is dark.I would make sure shes getting lots of water and you might even want totrysome pedialtye (for babies) to rehydrate her. But if thatcontinues you want to get her to the vet.


 
I can't go to a vet until I get paid(Thursday)and she is back in a cage now. She learned how tojump onto my bed and decided to bite me while I was sleeping. She I hadto put her back in the cage and than sleep on the floor in my brother'sroom (he's not in town right now) because she was so mad thatshe was in the cage that she was throwing litter out and making lots ofnoise. Right now I'm just drained with this one. I know she wants tosee me and I try to see her but I can't be there 24/7.

And she's about 3 months old, has not been spayed. I am planning on doing that in a few months.

She finishs her water everday. Every night and morning I have to refillher dish for her because it's almost empty. She didn't finish the haywhen she was out of the cage but now that she's back in she's beeneating it all every day. She eats her pellets but she doesn't eat it asmuch as the hay.

 
Spaying will also definitely help with both the litter training and the nipping. ;)

Also, what kind of litter are you using? A lot of us here use woody pet(or other wood based pellet) and have had great success. I have alittle girl who digs in her box so I put a stitching screen over it andshe cant dig. This also helps me monitor their poo/pee because the poosstay on top of the screen while the pee falls through onto the litter.

Another thing to try is putting her hay in one corner of her litterbox. This encourages her to go in there and munch..

:D
 
I always put everything in the same spot for herso that everything is easy.I don't know if last night was afluk because I moved around my entire room and got rid of somefurniture because a) I had wanted to do it for a long time and b) Iwanted to find out where she was going to the bathroom so I know shewas really confused about why her room looks like it does. The litter Iuse is some rabbit brand litter. I don't know what it is but it's likelittle white round pellets. As for spaying I want to do it in Marchonce I get back from Whistler but I already have a week off of work forWhistler and I read that you should take time off when you spay yourrabbit because sometimes they have a terrible reaction to it. Wow.Thank you guys for all your help and advice. I will try to set up a vetmeeting for Friday since I'm off. I never knew there would be so manythings that I didn't know when I got her. Thanks again forthe patience with my ignorance of rabbits.

And as for the rabbit condos how big should they be and any idea whatto make them out of? My grandfather loves to do little projects and hasvery little to do nowadays so we were trying to find something else hecould do. This would be perfect.
 
Dont feel bad at all for asking questions! Iwish I wouldve found this place sooner bc I had to make all the stupidmistakes myself..I wish I wouldve had people helping me through it. Ithink most people are surprised when they learn how complex theirrabbits are!

Heres a pic of my bunny condo:

Bunnies091.jpg


Bunnies092.jpg


And heres a great link that has instructions and links (scroll down):http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=15348&forum_id=21

Hope this helps!

-Haley


 
Well if she drinks that much water and is noturinatring regularly she may have crystals she cant pass. I would go tothe vet thursday!
 
I have an appointment with the vet on Friday(first day off work) and will be getting her a rabbit play pen to usefor the time being well I try to find someone (either my grandfather orboyfriend) to make a condo. At least the play pen will be double thesize of her cage (at least) and therefore she'll have more space. I'llsee what the vet has to say. I hope nothing serious is goingonbut I don't know what to think. I'll have to see whathappens I guess. Thanks for all the help. I'll update you guys when Ifigure out what's going on.
 
Just thought I'd let everyone know Katrina isfine.. better than fine she's wonderful! The vet said that she has avery small bladder so that might be why she never seems to be peeing(she is just small amounts). She also said Katrina does not seemblocked and has perfect teeth (she said dwarfs can often have teeththat do not line up and therefore grow over each other causing a lot ofpain for the bunny. And as an added bonus she even said Katrina is avery sweet little bunny and licks a lot more than most bunnies. I'm sohappysee my baby is good. Thanks for the help guys!
 
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