Bentley un-litter trained himself! Advice needed.

[tinybun43]

Hey all,

I have had Bentley for about three weeks now. He pretty much litter trained himself (or so I thought!) The cage he is in is a long wire cage, with about a half inch of newspaper covering the bottom wire, so he's standing on a flat, smooth surface. Eventually, I would like to put a mat down so his cage is lined with a more comfy surface, but he newspaper he's on right now provides enough cushioning. Originally, he had a corner litterbox, which worked great. (Sidenote: He's currently on leftover carefresh as litter, but he will soon switch over to Yesterday's News (which is what my other bun uses).)

I personally hate the corner boxes. IMO they're too small and just not as easy to maintain, and Bentley had started going directly to the side of the litterbox. So, yesterday, I switched over to a rubbermaid bin, low enough for him to hop over, but tall enough for him to keep his mess inside and so he won't be able to go over the box.

However, he has now identified the new box with the comfy carefresh as his bed, and the free space where his bed USED to be, his litterbox. I've been religiously taking the soiled newspaper, and putting it in his box, *hoping* that he'll get the point. Unfortunately he hasn't and I'm running out of ideas. Has anyone ever had a bun "un"-litter train themselves? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

If pictures would help, I'll be more then happy to post them!

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

tinybun43 wrote:

Hey all,

I have had Bentley for about three weeks now. He pretty much litter trained himself (or so I thought!) The cage he is in is a long wire cage, with about a half inch of newspaper covering the bottom wire, so he's standing on a flat, smooth surface. Eventually, I would like to put a mat down so his cage is lined with a more comfy surface, but he newspaper he's on right now provides enough cushioning. Originally, he had a corner litterbox, which worked great. (Sidenote: He's currently on leftover carefresh as litter, but he will soon switch over to Yesterday's News (which is what my other bun uses).)

I personally hate the corner boxes. IMO they're too small and just not as easy to maintain, and Bentley had started going directly to the side of the litterbox. So, yesterday, I switched over to a rubbermaid bin, low enough for him to hop over, but tall enough for him to keep his mess inside and so he won't be able to go over the box.

However, he has now identified the new box with the comfy carefresh as his bed, and the free space where his bed USED to be, his litterbox. I've been religiously taking the soiled newspaper, and putting it in his box, *hoping* that he'll get the point. Unfortunately he hasn't and I'm running out of ideas. Has anyone ever had a bun "un"-litter train themselves? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

If pictures would help, I'll be more then happy to post them!

try a quarter inch-plywood floor,,and a poop box-or twowith hay,,i would not use any scented,pine,cedar,or clay anything in or around the rabbit...sincerely james waller:wave::rose:

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

I would make it smell like his old one best you can. Did you clean the area with vinegar? This helps with them marking where they aren't supposed to. Give that a try, maybe move the tray a bit back if you can see if that helps as well.

Hopefully, he improves here real soon.

 

[elrohwen]

That's tricky. My first thought would be to add YN to the carefresh to make it less comfortable. He may decide that the pellets don't make a nice bed.

Also, I would try covering the wire with something non-absorbant and waterproof. Then when he pees on it, it won't absorb and he'll be left to stand in his own pee. Many bunnies learn quickly that peeing in the litterbox, on absorbant material, is preferable to having wet pee all over their cage ;-)

 

[MikeScone]

tinybun43 wrote:

Has anyone ever had a bun "un"-litter train themselves? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

The supplier I'd been using for aspen chips switched to larger, harder chips recently, and Scone didn't like it. He stopped using his litter box and started going in front of it instead. After seven years of nearly perfect litter habits, that was a bit startling.

He's back to normal again, but it took a few weeks. First, I found a new brand of chips which were small and soft like the old ones, and changed out the litter. I put a bit of fresh Orchard Grass hay, his favorite, in the far corner of the box, so he had to hop in to get it. Then, whenever I caught him about to go in front of the box I'd say "NO!" and pick him up and put him in the box. When I saw him hop in the box I'd praise him and tell him what a good boy he was to use the box. That was all it took, time and patience.

At this point *knock wood* he's been OK for a week, so I think he's back in the litter box habit again. We've both been trained - he's using the box, and I'm never going to change litter types on him again.

 

[tinybun43]

elrohwen wrote:

That's tricky. My first thought would be to add YN to the carefresh to make it less comfortable. He may decide that the pellets don't make a nice bed.

Also, I would try covering the wire with something non-absorbant and waterproof. Then when he pees on it, it won't absorb and he'll be left to stand in his own pee. Many bunnies learn quickly that peeing in the litterbox, on absorbant material, is preferable to having wet pee all over their cage ;-)

I think I'll try to add the Yesterday's New's to the carefresh and see how he does with that. I just came back from a weekend away, and he has officially converted his litterspace to the corner that's NOT the box :X.

Do you have any suggestions as to what I should put down instead of the newspaper? I'm having trouble finding something that is cheap and fits the inside of the cage.


Thanks everyone for your replies and if you have ANY other idea's please let me know!

 

[bengal77]

If he's using a new corner move the litter box to that side. I would suggest putting a grid in the litter box so that it's not a soft surface. People use fluorescent lighting grid but you can also use a cookie cooling rack. Also, put some hay in there so that he wants to spend time in it. This works for Lily although she does have the occasional accident.

 

[Never2ManyBunnies]

If you have enough room in the cage, you could try adding a second litter box. He may then decide to use one for the litter box and the other for a bed.

When I trainedmy rabbits, I had to fill each corner of their cages with either a litter box or the food and water bowls. If I didn't, some of the rabbits would use the free corner for their "litter box" - even when I moved the box, they would use the new free corner. Occupying every corner helped resolved this. I eventually removed the extra litter boxes, once enough time had elapsed. For one bun, he has decided he likes the extra boxes to use as beds and for playing/digging.


A side note - to save money and space,I initially used cardboard boxes and changed them often. I then found "litter boxes" in the children's section at Ikea for $3 and switched over to those.


Wishing youluck with his retraining!!

 

[tinybun43]

Thank you everyone for your awesome suggestions! I ended up putting the corner pan back in the cage, giving him a cat potty as a bed, and I had this laminated cardboard that I cut to the size of his cage, and used that as his floor. So far, NO accidents! arty0002:

There's not as much floor space left in his cage, (just enough for him to make a mess of his hay), but he's rarely in there anyway!

You guys are awesome! Thanks!