Litter Trained But Droppings In Cage?

[fsshaer]

Clover is a year old spayed female, adopted 3-4 weeks ago from a shelter with no rabbit experience. She is litter trained, she hasn't urinated outside her her pan once. The shelter also said she never did, but did leave droppings in her cage. A lot of them. Still doing it here. I clean them out and either put them in her pan or the trash about 5 times daily give or take a few.

Is there any reason for doing this? I've heard rabbits eat-and-go, and he pellet bowl is not reachable while in her pan--that may have something to do with it. But there is just so much, hahah. I was told she may be marking her new cage? She doesn't really leave droppings outside of it when she's playing, or on me while cuddling. Any ideas? She doesn't have bedding, she has two flat folded soft towels (not a chewer) and two smaller towels to move around and nest in as she pleases.

 

[Bonsai]

I would try, perhaps, getting a side-of-the-cage feeder for her pellets (and placing it so that she has to be in her litterbox to access them) or even hand-feeding them in the morning and evening, holding your hand in such a way she HAS to be in the litter box. This might get the memo across to her that she is to poop in her pan. Rabbits poop almost continually, but sounds like she's either marking or pooping while she eats. Totoro had this problem so I finally nestled his bowl into his litterbox and he pooped in his food bowl but never peed, and his poops outside it were few to none after that.

Good luck!

 

[fsshaer]

Okay yeah, that's a good idea. My fiance and I were looking into doing something like that. Maybe even getting a sliiightly bigger pan to make that work out. Thanks so much!

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

I've noticed that sometimes when they leave the litter pan, some of the poops jump out with them lol. If you're seeing a lot of stray poops by the litter pan that might be part of the reason why.

 

[middlemuse]

It's pretty normal for rabbits to leave little poos around their cages. I'm kind of impressed anybody bothers to try training them out of it. I just sweep up Aria's stray poops when I sweep up the hay that gets scattered around. I have a special hand broom and dustpan just for cage cleaning.

 

[Blue eyes]

It is the rare rabbit indeed that keeps 100% of poos in the litter box -- very rare.