Litter training rabbit

[vek555]

My rabbit is kinda sorta litter trained but not really. I have him in a 6 by 8 foot pen with newspaper (indoors). Hes a german lop or american lop I think, and around 3 months old (not neutered). I have sorta trained him that when he hears the clicker, he should expect food. I'm gonna use this as a tool to help train him for other things in the future. He naturally poops in his litter box. However, around 10% of the poop is all around the pen (lined with newspaper). I don't know what to do because 90% of the poop is in the right place, but when I go down there there's always some poop dispersed evenly around the pen. What should I do to train him to poop ONLY in the litter box? This is imperative because eventually I'm planning on moving him to my room, and I don't want him pooping at ALL on my carpet.

Also, side note - I can't tell where he pees, but I'm hoping he pees in his litter box. But do rabbits naturally pee in one place? It's hard to tell because if he pees on the newspaper it probably dries up before I can see it. The only thing worse than a rabbit pooping on my carpet is a rabbit peeing on my carpet! So how do I make sure he always pees in his litterbox as well?

Thanks so much!

 

[LakeCondo]

I assume the newspaper would be puckered up a bit & be discolored of it'd been wet on.

The poop is him marking his territory. It may lessen as he becomes more comfortable, but you can always expect some.

 

[saidinjester]

I think most of the 10% of poop outside of the litter box will go away once he's neutered. As for the pee, you should definitely be able to tell where he's peeing. If it is on the paper, it will be puckered and discolored (even if dry). And if he's going in the litter, you should be able to tell when you clean the litter box that it's wet, discolored, etc. What kind of litter are you using? I use wood pellets and I can definitely tell when he's peed bc they absorb the liquid, turn dark and get all "fluffy".

 

[vek555]

I'm using carefresh. Is that an okay to use? How often should I clean his litterbox? Also I have noticed that he pees in another corner as well as the litter box - maybe this will go away once he's neutered?

 

[Ape337]

Hello, carefresh is fine to use. Your bun is still young, so bound to not be perfectly litter trained even after you neuter him. My Faith is about 8 months old, and peed/pooed everywhere especially when she hit puberty (about 2 weeks after she was given to us) When I had her spayed it was like night and day! She's about 98% with poo, and 99.9% with pee. Maybe 2 pee accidents since spaying in January. And I'm thinking both times were my fault. If she digs litter out of the box and I don't clean it fast enough she gets confused and pees on it.
I clean her box about every 3 days which is more often than my 3 year old. Just be sure to keep some dirty litter for scent. Also maybe put a second litterbox in the other corner your bunny uses? Sometimes they need more than 1 while they're little.

Good luck :biggrin2:

 

[vek555]

So how did you train her? did you give her food every time she used the litter box? and said "no!" every time she went outside the litter box?

 

[Ape337]

Well, I think she did it all by herself really. When she was spayed my vet suggested she be confined for 14 days. So I put her in an xtra large dog crate for her recovery time. She had a cat litter box, a willow tunnel for munching, and her food dish, water bowl, and water bottle. She had tons of hay in her litter box too. Immediately she began to use her box for potty. Any stray poos I swept up and put in her box. She might have had 1 or 2 pee accidents (maybe one but I can't remember), which I cleaned up and sprayed the area with vinegar/water solution.

I think the confinement, plus having hay only in the box, and keeping up on cleaning naturally made her trained. But I always made sure there was some used litter and poos placed back in the box when I cleaned it. I still only give hay in her box to this day bc she tends to poo when she munches hay.