Litter Training Or Lack Thereof

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Butterfinger

Butterfinger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
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Location
University Place, Washington, USA
So, it seems like I'm coming up with problem after problem all of a sudden, huh? :?

Well, somewhere around Monday, Butter un-litter-trained himself, and I've tried a few different methods, but he just won't use it again.
I clap my hands (Saying 'NO') and pick him up and physically put him in the litter-box when I catch him in the middle of piddling where he ought not. (He just stays there a while and hops back out. Doesn't finish his business) I tried getting him to sit in the litterbox more by giving him treats when he's in there (I think that might have just made him associate it with food). I've tried putting all his droppings and pee inside the litterbox, to give him a hint (Hint not taken), and I've also tried keeping it extra clean, in case he didn't like having it dirty and didn't want to use it because of that.....aaaalso didn't work.
So...now he'll pee everywhere except the litterbox, his little fluffy blue bed, and his hay box.
:headsmack
......So, I'm thinking of trying a few more things.... Like...
Changing his litter to the same bedding that my hamster uses (Carefresh. I didn't really want to do this in the first place because I haven't found a place that actually sells it close to where I live now, and it's also fairly expensive)...
Changing his litterbox entirely to a different one.... (Maybe he doesn't like that shape?)
And.... as a last resort.... Buying him a nice, sheltered/weather-protected cage and putting him out on the balcony and only have him come inside when I take him inside. :( I'd really like to not have to do this, as I enjoy having him in my room, and he's the sweetest, most well-behaved bunny except for that one issue (He even doesn't care when I step into his pen at any given time and clean it.....No territoriality, no 'What's she doing here??' Nothing but 'Hey, think you can pet me? How bout' now?' ). But my room reeks of rabbit urine, it's giving me headaches, and I'm getting tired of cleaning up his pee messes four or five times a day. I'm also getting tired of having to give him baths almost daily because when I come in there to clean his pee, he'll immediately run straight to where he peed and sit in it, soaking himself. (Not cool). (He also kicks up his heels and splatters my nice white not-mine walls )

Sooo....Any ideas/reccomendations? :sweep:huh Very sorry for posting so much. I just....need... help. Hahahaa......ah. :baghead

Anything will be appreciated
 
One big you need to be concerned about when your rabbits litter habits sudenly change is the possibility that something is wrong with the rabbit. For a rabbit to suddenly change is not normal since they are creatures of habit.

How old is Butter?

Has anything changed in the house? A new pet? A new cage? Did the cage get moved?

Anything like this could upset his routine enough to disrupt his normal behavious.

As for fixing it, I can't help since I have never litter trained a rabbit before. Good luck.
 
Thanks for replying ;)

Butter is three years old.
There was a sudden atmosphere change recently, but it went like this...
I moved from Washington to Oregon last Friday. Butter was set up with a NIC pen and his litter box and several other things. He had been previously been an outside rabbit, and I trained him to the litterbox by hvaing him use it when he was inside the house. (I couldn't keep him inside for longer than that because my mother is very allergic to him)
When he was first moved in to the new place in Oregon, he used the litterbox diligently for about two days, and peed nowhere else. I thought 'Well, great, he's remembered that he's supposed to use it still! '
But then....well, here we are.

I hadn't thought of it being a medical problem, because (Having had quite a few close-up encounters with his pee texture and color by now) his pee looks fine and is frequent, he's pooing frequently and they're all healthily shaped and firm, he's eating his hay like a little horse, and he begs for his pellets like no other. (He also doesn't appear to act ill or distressed in any way, and I've felt his stomach a few times to see if there might be some kind of problem there, but it was soft and normal-feeling)
But! Now that it's brought up, I should at least get him to the vet's one time for a check-up, just to make sure nothing's wrong, because I'm not a vet, and I know I can't catch everything. :? ( I also need to get him set up with a local vet now, anyway, now that we're too far away from his previous vet)

Thanks again for the reply
 
No, I think this is an issue created by the environment change, not a medical one.

One thing I am going to say is that I find that outside rabbits are VERY clean when they come inside for the first little while but they eventually get messy once they settle in. I've seen it happen quite a few times. So I think this is what's going on, he is settling in and that's why his habits have gotten bad.

i'm not sure how to fix it, so I'll let others advise you on that!
 
Aaaa.... One of the things I thought it might have been was that in my house, everything was mine, except for the litterbox. And he wouldn't THINK of peeing on anything that was mine, but he goes in the litterbox, which smells like him, but now that he's figured out that the area he's in is his, he can pee on it anywhere he wants (Because it belongs to him, not me) :?

Interesting that this happens with several previously outside rabbits, though.
 
I think the "I have to mark everything" syndrome is pretty normal for any rabbit that's in a new environment, though it's a bigger deal for some. (Like Butter, maybe.)

Two things that helped when I 1st brought Nibbles home: having several litterboxes handy for her, and restricting her roaming area a bit until she became comfortable with her new room (my living room). Like most buns in a new space, she "untrained" herself for the first week or so. I don't think she'd ever really spent significant time out of a cage prior to my adopting her, so that was also an issue.

I'm sure that Butter is also having to get accustomed to a lot of "strange" things right now. Maybe try lying down flat on the floor and looking at the lay of the land from his eye level. it's so different than what we're used to seeing. Chair and sofa legs make a living room look like a forest. :)
 
I'm not sure if he's marking it, or what :? He's neutered, and it seems like his hormones have calmed down all the way by now (He's a lot sweeter and doesn't even get 'happy' on me anymore, if ya' know what I mean) . I don't know about rabbit marking, but with dogs, it's only a little bit of the supply of pee to mark, but Butter seems like he's emptying the whole tank each time.

Thanks for the tips! I'll keep those in mind. (His space is already pretty limited, though. He's not free-roam in the room, he's just in an enclosed space with a thick plastic mat under it)
 
Spayed/neutered buns also mark territory; just not as much (or as often) as intact ones. But moving to a whole new environment is a guaranteed trigger for any bun. Nibbles was spayed 16 months ago, but she still has days when she *has* to soak one of her digging blankets.

Hang in there - it will take a little time, but I'm sure Butter will retrain himself.
 
Bo has been dropping extra poos everywhere in the playpen area when he gets in it - for Clover but really bad now that Heidi is here.

So far, so good on going pee. They all like the litterboxes.

Heidi has been pooping all over in her cage except her pan - and pees in there. :?Bo went through that some too.


I'd love to help but I am not sure how to fix those things either.
 
That's a good suggestion :) But I think it would confuse him, as he refuses to go potty while sitting in his hay box. Either he'd not go potty in the litterbox even more, or he'd start going potty in his hay box too, I'm afraid :p
Thanks anyway, though :D
 
UPDATE!

Just wanted to tell you guys how things are going. ;)

Oh, my little boy is confusing me, haha. So I notice that yesterday evening, I'm not seeing any pee puddlies around Butter's area.... I think "Okay, maybe he just doesn't have to go".
This morning, I wake up, and I still see no puddles, and Butter is chillaxin' in a corner-all stretched out. I think "Okay... I'm kinda worried. He should have gone by now. Is there a problem? Does he have some kind of inner blockage and I need to take him to the vet or he'll die? Aa! I don't want him to die! He's too young to go! MY POOR BAB--- *Looks in the litterbox to see all his pee in there* ......Oh....... Good boy~ :biggrin2: "

Haha, just when my friend had drawn me such a cute/hillarious illustration of his potty problem!
http://kiminolovecharm.deviantart.com/art/It-Were-Mochi-63110302
(Go look at it, it's adorable. :p I'm the one in the middle, the little girl on the left is my hamster, Mochi, and the little boy on the right is Butter )

Not sure if this will be a continuous habit, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! :)
 
Rabbits tend to pee in one spot anyways, it's just the poops that are harder to keep in the box, even my rabbits pee in one spot and I have never litter trained them.So I have a feelingif he was leaving puddles before he was just marking his territory. I'm glad his normal habits are back! I hope it sticks around.
 
MyBabyBunnies wrote:
One thing I am going to say is that I find that outside rabbits are VERY clean when they come inside for the first little while but they eventually get messy once they settle in. I've seen it happen quite a few times. So I think this is what's going on, he is settling in and that's why his habits have gotten bad.
Click to expand...
Really?:?I've found the complete opposite with Ruby and Millie, they are completely litter trained outdoors (even in their run), however if they come inside they poop and pee everywhere at first and then gradually settle in to using their litter boxes. They like to mark their territory.;)Which is probably what Butter is doing too.:)
 
Ask anyone who has seen my rabbits on bunny cam when I brought them inside, they were amazed that I could have my rabbits inside and they would notsomuch as leave a single stray poo.

But it does depend on the rabbit, if your rabbit adjusts to coming in really fast, then they will be messy. My rabbits hate being inside on the other hand and adjust rather slowly to being inside. I've had Mocha in for 12 hours once when I was keeping an eye on his behaviour and he held it in for the WHOLE time until I took him outside and put him in the run, then he ran right to the bathroom corner and relieved himself. He is like a dog in some ways. It wasn't fluke, he does it every time.
 
Bo CAN be good about going poo in the box, but he also can be very bad! He'll go right to his litterbox outside his cage if he's not in the xpen. If they are in the xpen he could care less. He also started pooing while eating hay which left poos falling out into the catch pan of his cage..... so I moved his hayrack. He has a litterbox directly below on the next level "just incase" but that's up where his bed is and he sure didn't want to poo there! :p

Cloverbunny is excellent in her cage but not when they are out playing in the xpen. She is marking her territory probably.
 
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