Litter Training Woes

[iamawesum69420]

Ok so I've mentioned a couple times before that I've been trying to litter train Velma. The key word is trying because she doesn't seem to want anything to do with being litter trained. I've never seen her actually use her litter box for it's intended purpose. The only thing she uses it for is a bed. I know that it's normal to lay in the thing as well but that's all she does in it. The only poop in the box is the poop I've picked up from other places and put in there. I've been working with her for about 3 weeks now and she doesn't seem to be making any progress. I've tried using all the advice anyone has given me; I've put all her poop into the box; I've said "No" and put her in the box when she's pooped somewhere else; I've tried putting her food beside of her box to entice her to go into it. I just don't know what to do. This is really the only problem I'm having with her especially since her favorite place to poop is our bed. 90% of the time she is out of her cage she poops on the bed. It's almost as if she waits until we let her out in the morning so she can relieve herself only on our bed. This is getting a bit frustrating because I love letting her have free roam of our apt but this pooping on the bed thing is getting out of control.

 

[aurora369]

What about putting a litter box in the bed? Even if it took up the whole bed, then if she starts going it the box, you could start moving the litter box slowly out of the bed? The biggest part is getting the box positioned somewhere where she'll start going, then once she gets the idea, moving them a little bit at a time shouldn't be a problem.



Or, take the bed away till she is going in a box.

And make sure any place that she pees is cleaned with Vinegar or some other pet cleaner that will get rid of the smell 100%.

Good luck!

--Dawn

 

[naturestee]

How old is she and is she spayed? She sounds a lot like Mocha was before she was spayed.

 

[JimD]

How old is Velma and where does she pee?

My eight bunnies all have different litter habits when it comes to pooping. They ALL pee in their litter pans, and I'm happy with that.

Half of my buns are immaculate with their litter habits and do everything in their litter pan. However, I have one that absolutely refuses to poop in her pan.....MooShu. She pees in her pan, but has some kind of aversion to poopin in it. I even put several pans in her cage...enough to cover almost every square inch. Don't you know she would find the one tiny little space between the pans to poop. I hate to say it, but I gave up on trying to convert MooShu.

~Jim

 

[iamawesum69420]

The only problem about putting the litter box in the bed is that she stays in her cage at night and when we are not home during the day. Otherwise that would be a really great idea.

I have thought about taking her out of our bedroom until she is better about leaving little surprises in our bed. We have a hallway that can be closed off by shutting all the doors and we used to keep her in there but she would scrach on our door at night to be let in and she seems much happier since she is able to be in the same room as us so I might try putting up one of those baby gates in the doorway to our bedroom so it's still like she's in the room with us.

Velma is 4 months old so is she maybe too young to be fully trained? I've heard that they can be trained at 3 months but am I maybe expecting too much from her?

She isn't spayed because I eventually plan to breed her. I've talked to a manager at the local pet store where I got her and she says she would love to buy the rabbits from me if I ever decide to breed and sell them.

Velma doesn't seem to have a problem with peeing in the bed. She's done it a few times but it's mostly the pooping. For the most part she pees in her cage, not in her litter box, but sometimes she likes to pee on one of our rugs. It isn't a big deal. It's an older rug that we don't care much about but I would rather her use her litter box for something besides a bed.


Thanks everyone!:apollo:

 

[JimD]

It sounds like what we went through with Benji. The only thing he like to do with his litter pan was lounge in it. He was also about 4 months old. We thought maybe he was too young, so we just removed his litter pan completely.

We have a different situation, in that our buns don't have free run all the time. Poopin&peein, eatin&drinkin, sleeping...are all done mainly in their cages.

After we had Benji neutered we decided to try to litter train him again, and he took right to it. He has VERY good litter habits now....all poops&pees in the pan.

Is Velma spayed?

~Jim

 

[iamawesum69420]

Velma isn't spayed. I do plan to breed her at least once before I do so. Is there any hope of getting her litter trained without having her spayed?

Oh and a little add-to since it's been happening more recently. Since last night she seems to be wanting to pee in the bed. She's only done that once that I can remember since we've had her and that was within the first few days she was in our apartment. Is this something to do with her being away for the weekend? Or maybe because we've recently washed all of our blankets and sheets and she feels the need to mark her territory again?

 

[naturestee]

Some rabbits can be littertrained without being spayed.Age can make a difference, as young bunnies are often more difficult to train. Have you tried putting an extra litterbox on the bed? I keep a litterbox or two in each cage plus I put litterboxes out in the room where the bunnies are insistent about pooping. They keep going to the same spot, only now there's a box there for them to go in.

 

[iamawesum69420]

I haven't tried the litter box on the bed yet but I think that will be my next step. Either that or I may take her out of the bedroom completely until she is trained but to do that I will need one of those baby gates like I mentioned earlier so she will still be able to feel like she is close to us at night. She seems to be much happier since we've moved her cage into our bedroom so I don't want to mess that up.