Litter box training

[helena175]

Hey everyone,

My bun is about 9-10 weeks old now, I have him eating his food/hay in his litter box to train him to poop in there because that's what I read online on how to litterbox train rabbits. I let him free roam during the day and he poops a little bit here and there but its mostly in his litter box which is good. At what point do I move his food away from there, or does he eat in his litterbox for the rest of his life? And how do you train bunnies to pee in there as well? He will only pee on his soft bed or like a soft carpet. Any help is appreciated! I attached a photo of his litterbox/food set up. (don't panic about how empty the hay is, I fill it up about 3 times per day)

 

[Blue eyes]

Litter training is all about the urine. That should be the focus. The poos are the easy part (but almost all rabbits will drop the occasional poo even after being trained).

It's fine to be trying to train him now, but with hormones about to kick in, don't stress about it. Even those rabbits that happen to train when very young may also forget that training with the onset of hormones. You'll just need to be patient.

In the meantime, he shouldn't be allowed on soft surfaces nor allowed a soft bed -- not until he's litter trained. If he pees on carpet, that will be that much harder to get him to stop. They like to potty where they've gone before, so the goal should be to prevent him from going on anything that isn't waterproof (urine proof) -- no soft blankets, beds, carpet, rugs... etc. It is much easier to train a rabbit to do it right than to un-train him from a bad habit.

Your best option at this point is to change his litterbox and hay setup (will explain below), and then only allow him to roam on areas that have a wipeable solid surface. A linoleum floor, tile, or plastic tarp over carpet -- anywhere that he can't pee on rugs or blankets/beds.

The corner boxes for litter boxes are not recommended -- too small and harder to train. The hay rack is too small. If you have to fill it 3x per day, that shows it is too small.

For a better litter set up, check here (my website). It goes into more detail for a better set up that will make litter training go more smoothly. Just keep those hormones in mind, as they can interfere with training.
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/litter-training.html

 

[amdezo]

I had newspaper I put where my bunny was wanting to pee, then I'd put it in the litter box to get the smell in there, to give him the idea to pee in there. Mine was a bigger bunny, but I did find a bigger litter box helped too, and the hay is still by the litter box, five years later. If you ate hay and salad all day, you'd need to eat in the bathroom too, I think! ha!

 

[Nuage]

Changing the litter box to a nice sized cat litter box will help. Either getting a very large hay box with big opening or leaving the hay there in a pile will also help. Neutering helps a lot! Soak up the urine like @amdezo said, then put it in the litter box. Leave the poos there for 24 hours, then put them in. That way they leave his scent and he most likely won't poop there again (he will still poop out of it every once and a while). I recommend checking out @Happy Hollands article on litter box training. Litter Box Training: Tips & Tricks To Be Successful!