Bonding - Learning to share litter box

[lyndym]

Hi everyone!

I've been working with my two buns, Doc and Trixy, since November. We are finally in a really great place with their relationship - there is mutual grooming each time they are together, they share food well, they are content snuggling next to each other and are able to ignore each other from separate ends of a shared space, they share a carrier well in the car, and their record for sharing a pen is almost a full day! However I cannot for the life of me get them to do well when a litter box is introduced! I typically will have them together without a box for an hour or so, so when the box is put in they will both use it and be distracted because they haven't used a box in awhile, but eventually one will nip the other. This happens regardless of whether or not it is a brand new litter box. I have tried putting in two fresh boxes as well, but that only had territorial feelings escalating a little quicker. How has everyone else dealt with a litter box in bonding?

Other details about Doc and Trixy -

- They are both fixed.
- They have each been successfully bonded with another bun in the past.
- Doc is roughly 3.5 years old, Trixy is perhaps 1.5-2 years old.
- Each day I have them trade areas/boxes, they are used to each other's scents.

Thanks guys!

 

[GardenSpots]

I had this trouble with my boys when I was bonding them. If I tried to introduce food or a litter box in the expen bonding area, one or the other would get territorial about the item. I did find that they could get along very well in a small space together (small carrier) for extended periods of time even when they could not get along in the expen area (which was totally opposite of what I thought it should be).

What I ended up doing was introducing a small litter box into the carrier. The carrier is large enough to have a small litter box, hay rack and two 3-4 lb bunnies in it. I think it is a 24” long plastic carrier. To be comfortable, one bun needs to hang out in the litter box and the other in the empty space in the carrier. The litter box is a tight squeeze for both buns, as is the empty space that is left in the carrier. I could squeeze in a small food bowl also and found that they could eat very well together crammed in there, without fighting, but would fight if I tried to feed them in the expen.. Same thing with the litter box. The space is so confining in the carrier that there isn’t enough room for them to get bent out of shape.

You might try using a small litter box in the carrier you have and see what happens. Obviously, be ready to release them or “shake’em up” (add an element of stress here) if a fight or nipping starts, but it worked very well for me to get them past being territorial about both food and the litter box. I did that for two days. They also slept in there for three nights, right next to my bed in case they started to tussle. In addition, they had date time in the expen without food or a litter box so they could continue working on their relationship in larger spaces. I think the “immersion” time they spent in the carrier allowed us to make significant progress. I had them bonded in 9 days, with one “date” each evening after work and then more time together on the weekend. It was not at all what I would have called an easy bonding process, but it was far from the worst case scenarios I have read about.