toyabrooke
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,
We have had our little Netherland Dwarf Horatio almost a week now, and we are very excited to say there has been no problems with anything with him. He has a bit of a broken nail which is healing up well (we think it must have just happened some time ago with the breeder), and his little limpy leg is perfect now after some exercise (pretty sure it was just sleepy after a 5 hour long car ride). I am just checking though that I am doing all the right things in regards to toilet training, as Poe my other bun bun stil hasn't taken to it resulting in my lovely mummy coming in to rescue and help train him.
So here is what I so to promote using his puppy pads:
He has a tray in his crate lined with pads that I put a few poops and some soiled pads there to show him that it's his toilet. After the first night I saw he went a few other places (in his house, beside the water bowl), so I cut little pads to put there. He now goes on those little pads in those spots and a little bit on his tray (not as frequently as the other spots though). When he is out, I have 2 trays in a small area to promote him to use them when he needs to go. He has made a few mistakes on the carpet but each time I pick him up and put him in his tray, pet him for a bit and then let him hop back around. He has gone in them a few times just on his own, but I also try to put him in them every 10 minutes or so (so far that hasn't promoted him to use it more).
He isn't crazy active, so I don't think having a smaller area to run around in bothers him much. He is out about 4-5 times a day (maybe 3-4 on busy uni days), ranging from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours as we have had no issues with skiddish-ness in a small pen (plus he just isn't like that with his calm personality. I know he would love to explore the study and the apartment but I really want to get him a little bit better trained before he does. I have also never seen him hop yet (he does mini binkies, but hasn't yet hopped up on top of his house or onto anything when he is out, or done big hops in the air), so I am trying to take advantage of that while it lasts and toilet train him as fast as possible - soon I won't be able to restrict his area as much!
He hasn't shown any signs of pooping in his trays on purpose, but he mostly does his poos in a pile rather than spread them out (there are a few, but not too many), so hopefully once he learns where his toilet should be he will learn to do that there as well. He has hay next to his tray in his crate to tempt him there more often, but he does like to poop while he eats.. so that is a hard one.
So I hope I have been going about this the right way... I am very much trying to groom him into a very clean apartment bunny to match his OCD owner!
T
We have had our little Netherland Dwarf Horatio almost a week now, and we are very excited to say there has been no problems with anything with him. He has a bit of a broken nail which is healing up well (we think it must have just happened some time ago with the breeder), and his little limpy leg is perfect now after some exercise (pretty sure it was just sleepy after a 5 hour long car ride). I am just checking though that I am doing all the right things in regards to toilet training, as Poe my other bun bun stil hasn't taken to it resulting in my lovely mummy coming in to rescue and help train him.
So here is what I so to promote using his puppy pads:
He has a tray in his crate lined with pads that I put a few poops and some soiled pads there to show him that it's his toilet. After the first night I saw he went a few other places (in his house, beside the water bowl), so I cut little pads to put there. He now goes on those little pads in those spots and a little bit on his tray (not as frequently as the other spots though). When he is out, I have 2 trays in a small area to promote him to use them when he needs to go. He has made a few mistakes on the carpet but each time I pick him up and put him in his tray, pet him for a bit and then let him hop back around. He has gone in them a few times just on his own, but I also try to put him in them every 10 minutes or so (so far that hasn't promoted him to use it more).
He isn't crazy active, so I don't think having a smaller area to run around in bothers him much. He is out about 4-5 times a day (maybe 3-4 on busy uni days), ranging from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours as we have had no issues with skiddish-ness in a small pen (plus he just isn't like that with his calm personality. I know he would love to explore the study and the apartment but I really want to get him a little bit better trained before he does. I have also never seen him hop yet (he does mini binkies, but hasn't yet hopped up on top of his house or onto anything when he is out, or done big hops in the air), so I am trying to take advantage of that while it lasts and toilet train him as fast as possible - soon I won't be able to restrict his area as much!
He hasn't shown any signs of pooping in his trays on purpose, but he mostly does his poos in a pile rather than spread them out (there are a few, but not too many), so hopefully once he learns where his toilet should be he will learn to do that there as well. He has hay next to his tray in his crate to tempt him there more often, but he does like to poop while he eats.. so that is a hard one.
So I hope I have been going about this the right way... I am very much trying to groom him into a very clean apartment bunny to match his OCD owner!
T
