Litter training advice

[BunnyBunch]

I have three wonderful loving buns that I couldn't possibly imagine life without. They live with my husband and I and our two children in a large apartment. I am having an enormous problem with their toileting habits though. The two females only leave stray poos on occassion, and don't EVER pee outside the litterbox. However the male is a different story. He pees, poos, and sprays wherever he feels like it and I need to end this! He is neutered, has been for a couple months now. And while he doesn't spray as much as he did a month ago when he was brought home, he does do it on occassion. We are still potty training our daughter, and he will hop into her room and spray anything that smells like an "accident." He mostly is a poo marker, as wherever he goes a trail follows. He does use the litterboxes, but also poos everywhere else. And any new surface he comes upon he'll pee on. They each got beds for Christmas, and he went around peeing and pooping on each one. I need HELP!! I am not trying to get us kicked out by way of his ruining the new carpeting (or so the landlord said even though there's no way its new).

 

[aurora369]

Do they have a cage or pen that they can be confined to when no one is there to supervise?

I would start confining them to a pen or cage that is sufficiently large to be comfortable for them but small enough to keep him from getting at things he's not supposed to be peeing on.

Only let them out when someone is around to watch, keep him out of bedrooms so he doesn't pee on beds or toys (I always close doors to bedrooms when I let my buns out to play).

It really sounds like you need to get this little guy back to potty training 101. In a cage/pen, no soft blankets or beds and lots of cleaning with vinegar. When I potty train, any time there is some pee outside of the litter box, I soak it up with paper towel and put that in the litter box, then clean the area with 50/50 vinegar water. Vinegar is also great for cleaning up carpet pee stains too, just let it sit for a little bit and then start soaking it up with paper towel.

I would start slowly expanding their play area again after the litter habits in the pen are good. Expand by one room at a time or smaller increments if possible by using a movable pen.

I know it may seem cruel to confine them after they have been having free run, but confining them to get their litter habits back is better than getting frustrated with them. Still give them play time, but carefully supervised until you feel you can trust him again.

Also, maybe he needs more litter boxes around? How many are there now for him to get to to pee in?

-Dawn

 

[BunnyBunch]

They don't have free run now most of the time. They are in a condo built of NIC panels. Its a big condo (we call it the playbun mansion). I let them out for at least an hour a day, but up to several depending on their behavior and what I am doing around the house. They have three litterboxes right now. We started out with just one in the condo. Its a little deeper but same size as a cat litterpan.After much trial and misses I discovered that they all prefer to have hay in the box and food right next to it or in it.Then I added to the condo area the litterbox from our lop's cage (back when she was living alone) whichis a smaller shallower litterbox that is just big enough forone bunnytostretch out in. It was put just outside the condo, but inside a fence that surrounds the whole condo. Seeing that this still was not enough I added the base of our lop's cage which is deep and rather large to the outside of the condo to cover more area, and placed the smaller litterbox that had been there inside the base.In addition to the smaller pan being in there, I also have a food dish there and hay covering the bedding. And there is still plenty of room for all three to go potty and eat without touching (but they like to touch). They seem to prefer the big base as there is a neat pile of poo in the dead center of it. But Travis will still poo everywhere else too. I've tried confining him and his girl to a much smaller area previously, but he just had a thicker layer of poo everywhere, causing Annabelle to be miserable because she couldn't escape it. Please let me know your thoughts : )

 

[Runestonez]

Of all our bunns I have only run into something like this once...with our boy Tucker...:grumpy:

He was neutered...about a year ago and he still tinkles like a firehose! Whenever he is let out for his run with or without his girl he has to sray as he zoots around! It drives me nuts! This evening he got me again because I didn't move fast enough to get out of his way...I actually hunted down hubby to be sure it really was our little white monster we neutered and not some random bunny we picked up! lol

It seems to be worst when he is excited, like when he first gets out to run. He chuggles along wagging his tail and spraying whomever and whatever gets in his way. We don't have the same issue as you with the carpeting...I just come along after with the vacuum and the steamcleaner. (What can I say...the bunns have trained me well). :biggrin2:

If we were to try to stop the little bugger...we would probably start by reducing his area to a more contained and managable area...putting up baby gates to keep him from the areas/rooms he seems to mark the most.

Basically he sounds like one very happy male...and with two females...how could he not be! I am hopful in our case Tucker will start to taper off his enthusiasm as he gets older...I wish you luck with your boy!

Danielle