Cage flooring

[thisisfliss]

Alfie is 16 weeks and eventually I'd like him to be cage free once he's litter trained. He has a plastic bottomed cage at the minute and I'm using wood shavings on the floor. Is this the best thing to use? He keeps weeing on the wood shavings and not in his litter tray sometimes and I'm wondering if he's getting confused?

 

[Imbrium]

It's actually best to not use any shavings or bedding on the cage floor - as you've noticed, it has a way of confusing their litter habits! Neutering (if he's not neutered already) also tends to improve their potty habits a good bit.

Some people use fleece, as it's softer/provides more traction and it's the only fabric that's safe even if chewed on (the fibers are too short to cause a blockage). This works for some bunnies but others (like my girls) will pee it up.

 

[thisisfliss]

Oh great thank you. What about newspaper? I know I'll have to pop something there because it's plastic bottomed!

 

[RabbitGirl101]

You might want to replace the shavings with fleece, or hay. The most important thing is to keep your rabbit off the cage bottom, the plastic doesn't have traction and that can lead to joint problems and sore hocks. For litter training I usually recommend one type of litter and only use that type of litter in the box. This will make it so he knows that is the stuff he has to weewee on. Kind of like a cat, they recognize their litter boxes but they also recognize their litter. (Personal experience don't accidental drop a bunch of litter of the floor and say you will clean it up the next day, haha you will be cleaning up a lot more than just litter lol )

 

[thisisfliss]

He'll be getting neutered in a few weeks so I'm hoping that might help to sort it out. I'll change his flooring for fleece. I'm guessing he won't see on that because he won't like it? I thought he was about litter trained but after waning out his cage he proved me wrong again!

 

[Ape337]

Of my 3 bunnies, Faith was the only one that was still in tact when I got her (thank goodness!). She peed/pooped everywhere. She was about 6 months old. I don't know exactly because she was given to me. Anyway, no matter what I did she went everywhere. I tried everything I could think of. She was with me about a month before I had her spayed. She never had another accident again, pee wise, and I only have to pick up 4-5 poos a day. Those I think she kicks out when launching out of her litterbox.

IMHO I think rabbits aren't really litterbox trainable until either they fully grow up or they are spayed/neutered. I had one adult bunny that came to me at 2.5 years old that was fully litterbox trained before her spay surgery. I think that's an example of being fully grown up. I give credit to any bunny owner that doesn't alter their rabbits and is capable of suffering through all that mess until their rabbit grows out of it. I've never had one that peed outside the litterbox after being altered, thank goodness. Poos are easily sweeped up so not a big deal for me. And there are never many out of the boxes.

The exception to all of this is fleece. All 3 of my rotten buns will pee on nice, soft fleece if given the chance. Never carpet, just fleece. And there's no way in heck I'm letting any bunny on my bed after hearing all the pee stories on here. There's something about soft and fluffy to some rabbits, you just need to figure out which type your bunny is, lol. Good luck to you and hopefully your problems will be over once your bun gets the snip 😊

 

[thisisfliss]

I thought I'd update the litter training of Alfie!

He's learnt that his cage is where he wees, not the living room floor which is great because he can run around a lot now and just seems to hop in his cage when he needs a wee. However, he's weeing on the newspaper I put down. I stopped putting wood shavings down and it worked for about a week!

I think his litter tray is a bit small. He has hay next to his litter tray but he scatters it on the floor and wees on there too!

I'm just hoping he starts to use just his tray and not his cage floor once he's neutered!

 

[thisisfliss]

He does use his tray too!

 

[Bill Jesse]

I have seen plastic trays that are fairly deep (about 4") with pine pellets in the bottom. On top there are plastic grates the kind you see on flourescent light boxes. The squares are about a half inch or less square. These can be obtained at lighting stores or big hardware stores. Taper the edges so the grates slide into the box. The grates will be well above the pine pellets and the squares are a bit thicker than wire ones, can be easily washed and won't rust. I have photos if anyone wants to email me.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We have a litter pan with wood shavings in each bunnies hutch. The floors are covered with wood, tile, carpet, and grass mats. This works well for us and gives them a variety of surfaces. Only Cosmo and Serena have wood only as they would shred everything else to bits. All of ours are corner pans and are different sizes as our bunnies are from 3 to 19 pounds and they each have a hay rack on one side and a water bottle on the other side.