Litter box problems

[PickledOlives]

I got an 8 week old mixed breed bunny about a month ago, the guy at the pet store said to use regular, unscented cat litter. She took right to the litter box and was almost immediately potty trained!! The problem though is that it is her toilet, her bed, her sandbox.. Lol she has a house, why does she want to sleep in her pee?! And she gets inside of there and just flings the littler alll over her cage. So I'll go in and pick it all out the best I can and put it back in her litter box and she'll just go back in and do the same thing. She was a pretty cranky little bunny and the pet store had a rabbit about the same age that they were going to feed to their snakes because everyone preferred their mini lion heads rather than this plain adorable little baby so I took him (HE was supposed to be a SHE, but that's another story). Well now my female is MUCH happier and I thought since she only peed in the litter box he would catch on quickly. He is not! He just goes wherever he pleases and is a poop machine! When I got him I got a bigger cage and litter box. Well they made their litter box their new bed. So now they're teaming up to fling the litter all over their cage! It's a never ending battle lol. So just this morning I switched back to the smaller litter box so maybe they will sleep somewhere else since they like to sleep together but as soon as I put everything in their cage, they went right at digging out the litter. I know that you aren't supposed to yell or get mean to rabbits, and I am still trying to bond with them and let them get used to the house, but when they start flinging the litter I just give them a calm, quiet, stern "no" and they stop. Am I just scaring them? I don't want to do that but they are driving me crazy! They are actually doing it together right now and I just cleaned their cage lol 🙈 how can I fix this?! I don't put very much litter in there so there's not too much. Am I using the wrong litter?


This is Pickle, who wasn't cute enough for the jerks at the pet store, and his "why are you putting the litter back in my bed" face 😻. There are some wood chips in there from me trying to put the litter back in.

 

[JBun]

First off, change your litter immediately. Especially if it is clumping cat litter as it can lead to gut blockages in rabbits if ingested, which can be fatal. Cat litter is not good to use with rabbits, so you got some pretty bad advice from the pet store there. Rabbit safe litters would be paper based litters, aspen bedding, wood pellets. I prefer the wood pellets. They are very absorbent, control odor well, don't tend to get tracked out of the litter box, and are relatively cheap especially if you get the big bags used for horse bedding.

All of the behavior you are describing is perfectly normal rabbit behavior. Your boy bunny isn't neutered yet right? He's right at the point where his hormones are coming in, so peeing everywhere is his way of marking his territory. If you want this to stop you will likely have to get him neutered. Digging in litter box, is normal too. Rabbits are burrowers. It's in their nature, especially the females. Spaying can help tamp down the behavior a little, but really if you want it to stop, you will have to change your litter box setup, and also giving other activities for her to do can help. Sleeping in litter box. Normal again. If you don't let the litter box get too dirty, it shouldn't be a problem. I change mine twice a week and my rabbits stay perfectly clean, even the ones that like to take a nap in their litter box.

I would suggest a new litter box setup. It sounds like you have shavings for bedding in the cage? You don't need that, and it can actually confuse the rabbit you are trying to litter train. Keep litter/bedding in the litter box. In the rest of the cage, if you want to put something down you can try newspaper, though this often becomes a shred fest activity for bunnies . A piece of fleece fabric will work too, but if it ends up being a new potty spot you may have to just leave the floor uncovered for a while until your buns have the potty training thing down.

Next, a bigger litter box would probably be better. I prefer the rectangular cat ones. Corner boxes don't usually work out very well. Just too small for buns to situate themselves comfortably in there, which can lead to litter box training problems. Put your base litter, then I will put a layer of hay over that and a pile of hay in a non peeing corner. This encourages a bun to poop in the litter box, as rabbits poop while they eat. If the layer of hay doesn't stop the digging behavior, you may have to buy or construct a grate to go over the litter.
http://www.sandiegorabbits.org/litter-box-training/litterbox-setup-success-0

There are several different options for that. For my rabbits I constructed grate covers out of pet screen with a plastic j trim border zip tied on. For buns that will chew on the soft screening, you may need to use something like a 1/4 inch wire mesh screening. There are also riser grates that can be used, though I don't prefer these.
.
You'll find that getting the right set up all worked out is a bit of trial and error. Each bun has their own quirks, and you often end up going through a lot of ideas to come up with the best situation for both you and your buns.

One other thing, is if your two buns are living together and neither are fixed, then you will need to separate until you can get them fixed, for the obvious reason so you don't end up with babies, but also as rabbits reach sexual maturity(at around 12 weeks old), they can start to get a bit grumpy and the hormonal pestering behavior can lead to fights. Then once fixed you can work on rebonding. If you keep their cages next to each other so they stay used to each other, then it should make it easier. The sooner you can get them fixed the better and easier it will be to rebond them.
http://www.wheekwheekthump.com/2013...rs-guide-rabbit-bonding-everything-need-know/

 

[KaylaMD]

Do NOT use cat litter! It's very dangerous for a bunny I use normal hay that you put at the bottom of small animal cages. At 6 weeks old, my bunny was litter trained in a snap. Make sure you have hay right above the litter box. I also have her water bottle right next to it. Bunnies usually pick one corner to always pee in. If your bunny only pees in one area, put the litter box right there Hope this helps!

 

[missyscove]

Just to clarify, it's clay cat litter specifically that's unsafe. There are paper or wood-based, non-clumping cat litters (e.g. yesterday's news, feline pine) that are okay to use with rabbits.
I agree with the above.

One rabbit I had, Timmy, liked to sleep in his litterbox. He had two boxes and if we took one away then he'd pee on the floor and sleep in the box. If we gave him both he'd pee in one and sleep in the other.

 

[PickledOlives]

Thank you for the responses! I had a gut feeling that the cat litter probably wasn't the best choice but when she peed and slept in it right away I thought well okay maybe this is good then. This was also the same pet store that told me my male was a female lol. It's horrible there, they've actually been shut down a couple times and I would love to never go in there again but all of their rabbit supplies are 10x cheaper than anywhere else around here. I do have a bigger litter box for them about the size of a cat one it's just triangular, will this still be okay? They seemed to love it but I switched back to the small one to try to stop them from sleeping in it. So for the wood pellets, are they made for rabbits, or would I have to go to like the tractor supply store where they have the farm animal stuff? And I have a few small fleece type blankets I could use for them, but when they get dirty, if I wash them in the washing machine will they be okay with the smell of the laundry soap?

 

[PickledOlives]

Also I want to get the cat litter out of there asap (although I have watched very carefully and made sure they've never had an interest in eating it) can i put the rest if the wood shavings I have in there for right now, or will that just be confusing for them?

 

[missyscove]

You can use the wood shavings as litter, but they're not really the best in terms of absorbance. The wood pellets are generally made for either cats or horses. The paper pellets are usually made for cats or small animals (but I usually find the cat versions are cheaper.)
If you're at tractor supply ask for pelleted horse stall bedding, and while you're there you might enquire about buying larger quantities of hay if you aren't already. If you don't have room for a whole bale, some feed stores will sell you a trash bag with a few flakes of hay for much cheaper than the little bags in pet stores.

I use fragrance-free laundry soap (e.g. free and clear) when I wash anything for my pets and I don't use a dryer sheet, just because their respiratory systems are so sensitive, but yes washing is fine.

While you're trying to litter train, I would just put litter in the box and leave the rest of the cage floor as just the solid plastic bottom with nothing on it. Once they seem litter trained you can add in a towel or blanket or something for them to rest on.

 

[Blue eyes]

I also use the wood pellets (and used to use Yesterdays News unscented which is the paper pellet). Just thought I'd offer another visual of a litter box set up. I also agree with Missy Cove about not having loose bedding anywhere other than the litter box during training. Once training is complete, there will be no need for loose bedding elsewhere in the cage.