Litter Training

[kikimarie]

Hello all - new member, new bunny owner. I bought an English angora about a month ago - he is 4 months old and intact. I am trying to litter train him but he continues to pee wherever he wants. For the first few weeks, when i was not home, he stayed just in the wire cage where the poop/pee fall to tray beneath (see pic). When I was home, I took him out of the cage and put him in a large xpen with a litterbox, cardboard flooring, toys, food. This was alot of work - after a few weeks, he was still pooping/peeing everywhere. So, i thought a new set up would help so his cage holds all his food, water and hay and surrounded by an xpen. I leave the door open when I am home but close him in the cage when I go to work. The outside area has no food just the cardboard floor and toys - the cage is where all his food is but he continues to poop and pee all over. Am I confusing him by not having a "litter box" for him to stand in or by changing his home? Any advice or suggestions would be great - Thanks!

 

[Augustus&HazelGrace]

Neutering should help his litter habits tremendously. Also, can you post a picture of your current litter box set up?

 

[Kale Passfield]

Fix him around 6 months of age. Then after a month when his hormones settle use a litterbox and a small enclosed area. Whenever he uses bathroom outside the litterbox clean that area including for odor and put the poop or pee toilet paper into their litterbox. Continue this until you notice he put it together and uses the litterbox then limited free roam him.

 

[Blue eyes]

Aside from the fact that he is intact and probably hormonal (not the best time to litter train), your set up is counter productive. If I'm understanding you, he only has access to a litter box when he is not in his cage?? That isn't going to work.

The way to litter train is that he must have constant, 24/7 access to a litter box. If he's allowed to pee all over his cage (through mesh floor), he can't be expected to suddenly start using a litter box when he's out in his exercise area.

He needs a large roomy litter box in his cage. Forget the mesh flooring -- remove the wire and make it solid. Then read here for further detail on training. It will provide litter box set up must-knows and how to go about training. You will need to confine him to his cage (once it is set up properly) in the early stages of training.

 

[zuppa]

He's gorgeous!
In my opinion the cage is unsuitable, maybe wired floor makes it easier for you to clean but I am pretty sure he's very uncomfortable in there and he simply needs another cage with solid floor, and good size so he can have enough room you can't expect a rabbit just laying in his tiny spot all the time!
You train him first inside the cage as Kale Passfield already said above and when he knows what this litter box for you can give him more space but he must have access to his toilet all the time.
One of my rabbits is 4,5 months old lionhead he's also unfixed but he learned to use his toilet pretty soon. He poops everywhere when outside the cage though but never pee, well we will have to work on it harder perhaps, or maybe it's because he's not neutered, I don't know.
My other male rabbit is an adult unfixed as well but he is excellent with his toilet and never pee or poop outside of it even when in playpen.
Good luck with your training

 

[JBun]

He's used to a wire floor where he could pee wherever he wants, so you need to retrain how he views where it's appropriate to pee. I think you need to first get him used to the idea of litter being the best place to pee, before you start expanding his space larger than the cage.

I would start with a solid bottom cage and use the whole thing as a giant litter box. If the cage you have pictured above is the one you are using and it has a wire floor, you may be able to just remove the wire floor and make it into a solid bottom cage. Or you may need to buy a new cage with a deep solid bottom tray to contain the litter. I would use wood pellet litter covered with a layer of hay, but any rabbit safe litter will do. The idea is for him to get used to the litter being the best place to pee, and since he'll be surrounded by it he'll have no choice but to use it.

Once he's had a few weeks of this, there are two options. Either empty out the litter from the solid bottom cage(setting some soiled litter aside to put in the new litter box) so the cage floor is bare and add into the cage a separate liter box that is large enough that he can lay down in if wanted with some of the soiled litter put in the litter box so he gets the idea that's his new place to pee, or keep the cage as a large litter box and open up a limited small area outside of the cage using the xpen to control the size. Keep it small, you don't want to expand too quickly until you are sure about his litter habits. One method may work better than the other so I would first try the one that I think has the best chance of working.

So that's what I would try,, but you may not be entirely successful until you are able to get him neutered. Though even then neutering doesn't always correct or improve the problem. Just depends if it's primarily a learned behavior or if it's hormonal marking behavior.