Beauty help needed

[ldoerr]

So I finished building my new rabbit cage yesterday and got the rabbits moved in. This morning I noticed that there was a TON of poop and pee on the shelf. I do not think that Beauty was able to get down off of it on her own. I picked her up and put her on the ground level of the cage. After a couple of minutes she went right back onto the shelf. I have not seen her get down by herself yet. I gave her a litter box on the shelf which she is spending a lot of time in. A problem is that there is NO poop or pee in the box. I just gave her some cilantro (that I got less than 1 hr ago) and she ate it all really fast.

What should I do about this? The shelf is 1 grid up and covered in fleece. The floor of the main cage is wood covered in vinyl fabric that provides LOTS more traction than the coroplast in the previous cage.

The cage is a 4x2x4. Each rabbit has 1/2 of that so they each have a 4x2x2 (LxWxH). The shelf in each cage is 4 grids long (along the back of the cage) with 1 extra grid in the 2 front corners. That makes it so there is an area of 2x1 grids that is open to hop up to the next shelf and for streatching (both cages are just about identical minus a couple of minor placements of hay racks).

 

[ladysown]

so....they decided the poop place was the shelf.

I'd remove the shelf until they discover a more suitable place to use as a bathroom area, and once that area is well established I'd put it back in.

Chances are also pretty high if bunny can make her way UP to the shelf, she can most certainly make her way back down.

 

[JBun]

So is the problem she can't get down off the shelf, or that she isn't using the litter box?

 

[missyscove]

I'd take the shelf out for a while. That's what I did when one of mine was peeing over the side of the shelf. Once the litter habits improved, they got their shelf back.

 

[ldoerr]

It is not posible to remove the shelf at this time. The shelf has to go in while there is no roof on the cage. I would have to take the top cage off and then take the roof off the bottom cage. That would take HOURS to do and KILL my back (it is still sore from assembling the cage).

Since I placed the box up there she has not had any accedents. She still refuses to get down from the shelf. I have to manually pick her up and set her on the main part of the cage. She will stay on the bottom of the cage for a little while and then hop right back up and not come down. She has not toched her pellets that I gave her yesterday morning. She did not eat any of her timothy hay either. I gave her some cilantro this afternoon and she gobbled it up. I also gave her the rare treat of some binkybunny oat hay and she and Shiny Things are eating that like crazy. I also tried to place a box at the base of the shelf so that she would have a place to jump down to before the floor. No luck with that yet. My cat uses it though (the cat and rabbits get along).

 

[Nancy McClelland]

I'd just give it some time and see.

 

[JBun]

She might be a little stressed at the new cage setup. If she could see your other rabbit before this new cage, and now she can't, then that might be why she is stressed too. If she will eat her veggies good still, then maybe feed her a little extra of those each day, and if there aren't too many oat pieces in the oat hay, try and keep her eating some of that too. Just keep encouraging her to eat and hopefully in a few days she'll be back to normal.

She might be reluctant to use the box to hop down if she is finding it slippery. You could try attaching some of the vinyl or a piece of fleece, to the top of the box. That night help her feel more comfortable using it. It could also just be the new setup has her unsettled and she feels more comfortable on the top shelf.

 

[cwolfec]

Could you put a little box or "step" to make it easier for her to get up and down? I also built my NIC cage and the boys kept pooing on the second level in one corner, so I put a corner litter box there and it's been fine since. I mean they still like to poo in the cage during the night. Only at night....it's very strange.

 

[ldoerr]

This morning whenI woke up (around noon [it is christmas break, I am allowed to sleep in]) the whole bottom level of the cage was covered in poop. THere were also a couple of poop pieces on the shelf, though not as many. When the cage doors are open she seems to come down more to explore, though I am not sure how she is getting down. She has a litter box on the shelf that she is using as a bed. I am hopping that if I give her more time she will get used to the cage.

When I have both cages open at the same time, Shiny Things will come and say hi to her and hang out with her for a while. But after a little bit they get into little fights so I have to break it up. Part of the way that I designed this cage is so that when (and if) they ever bond again I can easily turn the cage into 1 huge cage. It would take only about 5 minutes to do because all I have to do is cut a couple of zip ties and fold a section of the floor of the top cage under itself and the cage would be like new.

 

[JBun]

Yeah, the poops everywhere are probably because of the new cage.

If you are going to try and bond them again, when you let them see each other, keep it short like a minute or so, and end it before a fight breaks out. If they keep getting in fights, you are less likely to succeed with getting them to bond again.

 

[ldoerr]

I have noticed that the only time that Shiny Things will come out of her cage now is if Beauty is out to run. They will snuggle for a while and Beauty will groom Shiny Things. I have not seen them actually fight just herd a bit of noise comming from Beautys cage where they both were. (Shiny Things goes in there and says hi and hangs out with beauty when she is out).