Litter Training a Baby

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Love your rabbit
Shop deals on ebay
Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

burythelight

Active Member
Joined
May 22, 2010
Messages
30
Reaction score
0
Location
New York, New York, USA
Hello, I'm new here and so is Otto. He's almost 8 weeks old (almost 9 weeks!) and I'm taking on the daunting task of litter training him from this early age.

I have looked at a lot of online resources and I'm certainly not expecting him to "get it" right away, but I'd like to see that he's trying... which he's not. He has taken up peeing either in, or on the corner of his food bowl. I thought switching his bowl with his litter box would help, but it didn't, he just moved his little butt over to the food bowl on the other end of the cage.

Anyway, I've read many times that litter training baby bunnies can be a pain, but I'm bringing him back to my apartment up at college and I'd like to ensure that he's not going to do damage.

Do you guys have some suggestions for me?
 
Hi! Good to see another New York City dweller on the forum.

I litter trained my baby bun at about 8 weeks old. Took him about 3 days to get him 80% there, 7 days to get it 100% and he's been perfect ever since!

How are you doing it so far? What is his cage/housing like? If he's in a cage, make sure that the cage does not have bedding on the floor as to not confuse him. He should have a litter box that he can hop into and fit in comfortably. Put some rabbit-safe litter and hay (for him to eat) into the litter box and wait. Don't be grossed out, rabbits really do eat and do their business in the same place. It's the best way for them to litter train if they eat where they poo. If he goes outside of the litter box, pick up any poops and put them into the litter box. If he urinates in the cage, wipe it up with some paper towel and put the soiled towel in the litter box. It may take a while but he should eventually get the idea.
 
Well, the cage has newspaper lining on the bottom because I realized I should probably distinguish the litter box with the comfy bedding and the cage floor. Originally, I had the food bowl at one end of the cage, with his water hanging next to it and on the other end, the litter box. Now, I have the litter box where the bowl used to be, the bowl next to the litter box, but not in a corner, and the newspaper that he kept peeing on is placed in the litter box. I saw that placing yummy and fragrant greens like basil, mint or rosemary in the litter box might also help entice him.

Anyway, I've had him for 5 days and the only improvements he's made is he doesn't eliminate nearly as much as he did before, when he's outside of his cage. However, I decided I'm not taking him out of it to explore a small area until he can handle peeing and eliminating in his litter box.
 
I have an 11 week old and I wasn't sure if I should start right away but I'm going to have a go at it now too. I would love for her to be able to run to her cage when she needs to go so she can always be out when we are home with her. She's such a sweetie :) Good luck on litter-training and wish me luch as well. WOW 7 days, I'm inspired now ;)
 
everytime he poops or pees, clean it up and put it in his litter box . that way he will smellit and go there. thats what i did with my bun :)
 
You might consider popping some hay in the litter box. Many buns like to have a snack while they do their business!

If you have a wire hay rack though, don't put it inside the cage. There's been a couple of little ones who got excited, zoomed around their cage like crazy, and got their legs hung up in the racks.
It's best just to pop the hay in there or very close by :)

Glad you provided multiple cage substrates. I think that goes a long way in deciding what surface is proper for piddling ;)
 
Well, he doesn't actually eat and "do his business" at the same time. It's the strangest thing! In fact, he likes to keep those actions very separate.


I did put hay in his litter box, so we'll see how that goes.
 
Okay, so he has figured out the peeing in the litter box thing, but pooping is still coming slowly.

How can I work on this? I do pick up his poops and put them in the litter box, but I don't think he's catching on. The only thing he has caught onto is that he shouldn't poop in the food bowl.

I got him not to poop in the food bowl by not putting any of his hay in his food bowl and by only putting it in his litter box.

Still, how can I get him not to poop everywhere?
 
Clean up the poop multiple times per day and put them back in the litter box.

Does he poop in a specific spot? Or all over the cage? Does he poop outside the cage at all?
 
It could be that he's young. Or it could be that he's marking his territory (this generally slows down and stops with time). Neutering, when he's old enough, should help too.

Just keep picking it up, and put hay only in the litter box. Hopefully someone else comes along with another suggestion because it sounds like you're doing everything correctly at this point.
 
Talk to your vet about it. Some like to wait until 4-5 months with smaller rabbits, so that they are at a higher weight and better able to handle the anesthesia. Some will neuter as early as 3 months. If your vet is comfortable neutering at a certain age, then you need to determine if it's a rabbit savvy vet and go forward or not.
 
You live in NYC? Is there a specific reason you want to take him to Ithaca?

I went to Cornell, and as much as I'm an advocate of their vet school, there are also plenty of wonderful doctors much closer to you that can do a rabbit neuter. It would be much cheaper and less stressful to do it close to home I think.
 
Ok burythelight, do you mind if I ask some questions in this thread too?
I would start my own thread but the ops will probably shut it down and merge it into this one anways :p Since they're the same.

So do you mind if I do?
Cause I'm in the same boat as you, my babies are about nine weeks old and I'm trying t get them used to the litter box.
I just put their new litterbox in today, with critter friendly litter pearls for rabbits and other animals like ferrets and such.
I put a used piece of news paper that they had urinated on to get the smell under the pearls.
I just put it in tonight...so lets see how it goes ;)
But I had but a dish type thing in before with news paper and they would pee in it sorta, but everywhere else too.
Hopefulyl since this one is in the corner they'll take to it more...
Do you guys recommend anything? Should I put their grass by their litterbox? Its a little off the ground cause the cage has urine guards and the litter box connects to the wire. They can reach it just fine though :)
I'll try to add a picture of it soon.

I do have my doe and buck together...I plan on separating AS SOON as I can get up to the women that makes the cages. I really dont want me doe to become pregnant at three months because of the chance of it killing her, I know its not good for them...but do you guys think it would for sure kill her?
I'm just worried about it...
But I cant get another cage until I can get up to the women near Denver. She has great in door cages for only $60, but anyways...she lives like 200 miles away, so thats my problem =/


 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top