litter training

[thatcrazybunny]

so i got my new boy (Ryley) on Tuesday, and he kept pushing his litter box out of the way to pee on the floor in the corner. i found a way to connect the box to the corner of the NIC cage and put hay in one side and litter in the other. is that the right way to do it? or should i worry about him moving to another corner of the cage? i have those absorbent puppy pee pads covering the cage floor, so it wont be so bad if he does, but should there be something else i should do?

 

[Tweetiepy]

If he chooses that corner, leave the litter there, maybe he doesn't like the litter material? Popcorn would empty his small litter every chance he got. I tied it to the corner of the pen, now his box is bigger (I thought he'd use it as a dig box but every morning, I let him out and he goes to pee in that corner box - even though he has one in his cage.
Putting hay in the box is the way to go. I find they lose their litter habit in their teenage years, but Peaches got his back once he was fixed.

 

[thatcrazybunny]

lol i think it's working now that i've tied the litter box to the cage. i haven't seen any accidents anywhere anymore )

 

[Gumby]

Hhm I have a question about litter training - It was mentioned that hay is the way to go... How do you keep them from eating the hay that is in their litter? I wouldn't want Gumby to be sick due to eating soiled hay. It would easily be cleaned on a daily basis, but during the hours that I'm away at work, I wouldn't be able to guarantee that he doesn't eat any of it. Would another substrate such as yesterday's news be effecient?

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Gumby wrote:

Hhm I have a question about litter training - It was mentioned that hay is the way to go... How do you keep them from eating the hay that is in their litter? I wouldn't want Gumby to be sick due to eating soiled hay. It would easily be cleaned on a daily basis, but during the hours that I'm away at work, I wouldn't be able to guarantee that he doesn't eat any of it. Would another substrate such as yesterday's news be effecient?

You want them to eat the hay. Most rabbits will eat and poop at the same time, so having hay in the litter box encourages them to use it. You can try making a hay rack and put it above the litter box so he gets clean hay but is still in the litter box. You can also try putting a grate over the litter box so that the pee and poop goes through and the hay is not as dirty if he eats some.

 

[Gumby]

Oh - I didn't even know it was possible to train them to actually poo in the litter, I thought it was only to train them to urinate in the box.. Will a regular litter box like one for a cat do the trick? The corner ones don't look quite big enough, and they look uncomfortable lol.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

The cat boxes are fine. I use the large size ones. Depending on the size of the rabbit, you can go for one that is a bit smaller.

 

[thatcrazybunny]

i'm using a corner one. he's going fine in it now that he's got the point to go IN the box and not BEHIND it lol. i find that with the corner one they sit along the wall and go right in the corner. though it definitely would depend on the size of the bunny using it lol

 

[elrohwen]

The only other thing I would do is remove anything absorbent from the floor of the cage. Many bunnies will pee if there is something to absorb it, so if he starts to pee outside the box removing the absorbent puppy pads should do the trick. Once he is perfect with his habits you can try adding soft things back (like a blanket) but know that he may always choose to pee on them.

An example from my bunnies: I consider my two to be 100% litter trained and do not go in the house or on the area rug in their pen. I have the litter boxes in a plastic bottomed cage and if I try to add blankets for traction, my girl will pee on them every time. She can distinguish between the rugs and litter boxes, but a blanket right next to the litter box is too tempting! Haha

 

[DreamsweptAlpacas]

We used a corner triangular litter box at first, but found it was much too small. We now use a large cat litter box. We made a grate to fit the bottom from the same wire material as the hutch. We bent all four sides of the wire grate down which raises it about two inches off the bottom of the litter pan so our angora bunny doesn't sit in any mess.

When we first tried training her, we put the litter box in her preferred corner. But she would push it out of the way and then use the corner. So we put a couple of holes on two sides of the litter box and attached it with removable ties to the same corner of the pen. In addition, we attached a small grain tray on one side and a hay holder on the next side of the pen wall. I tried putting the hay directly in the litter box, but she would hop out and the hay would go flying everywhere.