For Bunny Slaves who use interlocking mats as flooring....

[mysticcrystal]

How do you guys clean them? Today, for the first time since I made their new house, (about 4 days ago) I thoroughly cleaned their cage. It was disgustingly dirty! They peed and pooped everywhere. There was a pool of pee under the straw cave. I had to throw it after a month of use. I am getting frustrated with the litter box training. It's like, it's not working. I decided to not give them a full roam of the house till they get better with their toilet training in their house. I read somewhere that they shouldn't be left to a big area until they had mastered a small area first, then slowly introduce them to it. Anyways, going back to my question... how do you guys clean their cage/condo? I used a cage cleaner to spray/soak then wiped it dry. I let it dry thoroughly before allowing them access again to the cage. I used so much cage cleaner. I figured I will finish it in a week, if they get so messy like this every single day.:surrender It's not even general cage cleaning day yet. I spot clean the cage and empty/replace their litter box everyday. With a bigger place that they have now, I'm afraid it will be general cage cleaning day everyday!!! Sorry for venting! This is their cage....

 

[BertNErnie]

i have just thrown out my guys yoga mat for that reason now im using a knitted blanket for easy washing every 2 days and then just wipe up with cage cleaner etc

 

[shawnwk1]

nice set up. i'd make it even smaller for litter training though to start with. i started Chance in his hutch only for a couple days until he was 100% accurate with only going in the litterbox (it helps if you have a big litterbox and can put half of it with whatever "litter" you're using and the other half of it with hay that way he can sit on the litter side and use it while eating the clean hay on the other side (prevent you from having to throw out excess hay too since he only "goes" on the other side and doesn't mess up the hay too much. i then put a cage around his hutch which has a ladder for him so he has a little more room and when he was 24 hours without any accidents i've now expanded the cage (still have 2 big litter boxes in the area and another small one in his hutch so he has plenty of options to choose which one he wants to use). he has about half of his bedroom to run around in and i put down a shower curtain so he doesn't mess up the floor like someone suggested. he's already had an accident in the bigger area so i cleaned it well and put the poop and pee tissue in his litterbox. if he has another accident then he will have to go back to a smaller area until he gets it again. after he gets it again then i will expand it back to half of the room then the whole room, then the whole upstairs, then the basement with us, then the whole house. it is very tedious.

i'm like you though and very fed up with litterbox training and accidents. i can't wait until he's fully trained and can have run of the house. i know it depends on the individual rabbit, but i've read most catch on and are pretty accurate after a couple weeks so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this boy gets it before christmas. it would really suck if he can't join us for christmas eve and christmas day (i'm a sap though and will bring his play pen down to set up so he can be with us anyway, but still would be nice if he doesn't have to be in the pen lol)

good luck and keep it up. they've gotta give in eventually right? lol

 

[mdith4him]

I have similar mats, but I have them covered with a bed sheet. I tuck the edges under the mats and then the xpen we have sits on top of all that (like yours). Our bunny doesn't pee on it, so the sheet has stayed pretty clean, but it's easy to wash when necessary. You could maybe get one of those plastic bed sheets people use on kids' beds (when they're potty training) so that if stuff soaks through the sheet, it won't soak into the mats. Or maybe something like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006B46V2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 (a plastic table cloth). So you could layer it: mats on bottom, plastic cloth/sheet on top of mats, then bed sheet over all with edges tucked it. Did that makes sense, lol!

 

[JarJar Binks]

How big is your litterbox? Do you have more than one? I was having difficulties and so I decided to add a second litterbox. They accepted it, and eventually graduated back down to one. Could replacing the litter box every day be confusing them? I only clean the litter box on set days of the week (Wednesday, Saturday).

And as for the actual cleaning I just spot clean. A lot. Sweeping, wiping, spraying, washing.

 

[shawnwk1]

changing the litterbox everyday could be confusing and a lot have experienced this from what i've read, but i really think that depends on the individual rabbits. if i don't change out chances litterbox every single day then he has "accidents", but if they are clean then he uses them and has no accidents. once that sun comes up he refuses to use any dirty litterbox which is probably why he uses all three of his boxes right now. of course when i do clean out the litterboxes i don't wash them out every day (i only wash them out a couple times a week, but i rotate which one gets washed that way he's always got 2 in his area that haven't been completely washed and still have his smell in them). i just empty the dirty and leave about 1/4 cup or so of the old dirty stuff in the litterbox to mix with the new stuff.

 

[mysticcrystal]

shawnwk1 wrote:

nice set up. i'd make it even smaller for litter training though to start with. i started Chance in his hutch only for a couple days until he was 100% accurate with only going in the litterbox (it helps if you have a big litterbox and can put half of it with whatever "litter" you're using and the other half of it with hay that way he can sit on the litter side and use it while eating the clean hay on the other side (prevent you from having to throw out excess hay too since he only "goes" on the other side and doesn't mess up the hay too much. i then put a cage around his hutch which has a ladder for him so he has a little more room and when he was 24 hours without any accidents i've now expanded the cage (still have 2 big litter boxes in the area and another small one in his hutch so he has plenty of options to choose which one he wants to use). he has about half of his bedroom to run around in and i put down a shower curtain so he doesn't mess up the floor like someone suggested. he's already had an accident in the bigger area so i cleaned it well and put the poop and pee tissue in his litterbox. if he has another accident then he will have to go back to a smaller area until he gets it again. after he gets it again then i will expand it back to half of the room then the whole room, then the whole upstairs, then the basement with us, then the whole house. it is very tedious.

i'm like you though and very fed up with litterbox training and accidents. i can't wait until he's fully trained and can have run of the house. i know it depends on the individual rabbit, but i've read most catch on and are pretty accurate after a couple weeks so i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this boy gets it before christmas. it would really suck if he can't join us for christmas eve and christmas day (i'm a sap though and will bring his play pen down to set up so he can be with us anyway, but still would be nice if he doesn't have to be in the pen lol)

good luck and keep it up. they've gotta give in eventually right? lol

I just feel so bad to make the cage smaller. I don't let them roam the house anymore. At least, they get to run and hop around in their cage. So far, no pee on the mats for now. I scooped up their poop and put them in the litter box . I've had them for a month now. Not a great improvement in litter training yet. I had the buck neutered already. The doe will be spayed in January . Hopefully, that will help.

 

[mysticcrystal]

JarJar Binks wrote:

How big is your litterbox? Do you have more than one? I was having difficulties and so I decided to add a second litterbox. They accepted it, and eventually graduated back down to one. Could replacing the litter box every day be confusing them? I only clean the litter box on set days of the week (Wednesday, Saturday).

And as for the actual cleaning I just spot clean. A lot. Sweeping, wiping, spraying, washing.

I have a big high back litter box and 2 medium ones. I put them in 3 corners of the cage. I have to empty the litter boxes everyday, because I can't stand the smell of their pee. I don't wash it everyday though. I thoroughly wash and scrub it with dish soap once a week. My goal is to get them to use just one box.