LITTERBOX TRAINING IS IMPOSSIBLE

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leo (they/them)
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I cannot deal withthis.

Silas has two litterboxes because first he made his litterbox a bed, then he made the next one his bed, and they're ALL HIS BED!

Every morning, I wake up with a huge pile of pee and poop wherever the litterbox is not. I try moving the litterboxes but it doesn't matter!

And today you know what he does?
RACES out of his cage, and pees all over the sheet and carpet.

I can't take him out unless he litter trains.
(Rabbit pee is JUST like cat pee, and that's why my parents won't let me have cats, Because they pee everywhere)
But that means he'll be forever stuck in his cage.
I know he's just been neutered, but none of my other buns have done this. And they say younger buns areharder to litter train because older bunnies are "cleaner".

Silas is the dirtiest rabbit I have ever met.
And if he doesn't become littertrained.. I'm going to have to take him back to the humane society.

UGH!
What do I do?
 
make his cage smaller is the biggest thing you can do.

when he pees outside of the litter box put in in the box and give him a cheerio. pick up his poops while he is watching and put them in the litter box.

this place is really new to him to you need to be pateint. close him in his kennel and take off the run. rabbits are naturally clean animals so put the litter box on one side of the kennel and he can have the other half to lay down and eat and drink
 
Thanks Brenda, I just made his cage smaller with NIC panels. He's laying on the blanket, and not in the litterbox.. hopefully that's a good sign.

bschneider13, I've been doing that since we got him, and he just totally ignores me. Hay around the litterbox? I usually put some inside.
 
I put my bunny's hay tray in/over the litter box, his bowl of food is there also in one corner - he poops exclusively in the corner next to his hay - one big litter box with a huge pile in one corner. I have a grate over my litter box and I can often find Peaches laying in it - he'll flop there as well, he mostly does his poops in the litterbox in one corner, but he sprays pee all over that one corner as well. If I give Peaches a bowl of greens, that goes in the litterbox as well - he sees the bowl go in his box and he hops in sniffing for the salad & parsely - sometimes he can smell it as I approach the cage and he jumps in his litter waiting (kinda like a dog sniffing out a treat). I still get stray poops but I'm hoping that will change once he's fixed



You give him Cheerios? What kind? There are too many - regular ones, I think mine would like that!
 
Tweetiepy wrote:
I put my bunny's hay tray in/over the litter box, his bowl of food is there also in one corner - he poops exclusively in the corner next to his hay - one big litter box with a huge pile in one corner. I have a grate over my litter box and I can often find Peaches laying in it - he'll flop there as well, he mostly does his poops in the litterbox in one corner, but he sprays pee all over that one corner as well. If I give Peaches a bowl of greens, that goes in the litterbox as well - he sees the bowl go in his box and he hops in sniffing for the salad & parsely - sometimes he can smell it as I approach the cage and he jumps in his litter waiting (kinda like a dog sniffing out a treat). I still get stray poops but I'm hoping that will change once he's fixed



You give him Cheerios? What kind? There are too many - regular ones, I think mine would like that!
Click to expand...
Yeah, his food and hay and veggies usually are ALL in the litterbox. It doesn't seem to matter.

And no, I don't give my rabbits cheerios. I only give my rabbits natural fruits for treats.
 
I don't know what you're using IN the litterbox - I use a wood pellet. If you use that - put some of the wood pellet on his pee to soak it up - and then put that wood pellet IN his litter box so that the odor is now IN his litter box. Do the same thing with his poops.

Flemish seem to love sleeping in litter boxes...and it may very well take him a week or two or longer to train. Remember he has just had surgery and even though he's probably fine - he may just not be up to being trained yet.

Making his area smaller is a great start.
 
When we have problemsgetting a bunn to littertrain...when we clean out the litterboxes we save a scoop of dirty litter from one of the other bunns litterboxes and we will put it in the problem bunns box. It is usually enough to start them marking over top of the strangers litter. We keep their cage really clean and won't clean the litterbox for at least 4-5 days to let it get a bit smelly...and when we do clean it we make sure not to clean it right down with vinegar...we'll dump it out...maybe rinse it with hot water and then re-fill it with litter so some of their scent remains.

We are babysitting Izaty908's girl Olive and whileIzaty is gone for the summer we have been working onOlive's littertraining...she is doing awesome now...only leaving about a dozen poops and no pees on the ground!:biggrin2:

We had to restrict her at first because she had just had her spay...so that helped alot...the less area to roam the easier to train!

Danielle :)
 
Once they're litter trained and fixed - can the food and hay be taken out of the litter box and placed elsewhere? or is it best to stay there since they may poop & pee where their food is?
 
Thanks for the tips everyone.. I'm trying it all out :)

And Tweetiepy, I'm not sure, but with my successfully littertrained boy and girl, Sabriel and Solara, I put their pellets out in the pen.. they still go into their cage to go potty in the litterbox.. I also put their veggies on the opposite side of their litterbox in the cage.. of course they poop out of their litterbox sometimes.. but the peeing is the big ordeal (in my opinion) and they always go in their litterbox.
 
everybODY Already had great advice..i only wanted to ad that when he does make a pee in the wrong spot..u gotta clean it up quick..u cant leave it or else it will be another pee area that they will get used to using.....with my prob buns i have a hay rack over their poop boxes and i put their pellet bowl hooked slightly higher but over the poop box too.,....patience...patience,,,he will get it theres no need to take him back to the pound..poor thing.
 
Flash Gordon wrote:
everybODY Already had great advice..i only wanted to ad that when he does make a pee in the wrong spot..u gotta clean it up quick..u cant leave it or else it will be another pee area that they will get used to using.....with my prob buns i have a hay rack over their poop boxes and i put their pellet bowl hooked slightly higher but over the poop box too.,....patience...patience,,,he will get it theres no need to take him back to the pound..poor thing.
Click to expand...
I can't clean it up quick. He pees during the night, whehn I'm SLEEPING.
And it's NOT a pound. No animal gets put to sleep there.
If they did, the rabbits that have been there since Easter would be dead.
 
if your sleeping..lock him in the kennel. with the litter box in there then he will have enough room to lie down comfortably but not a lot of room to poop.

it took me 4 months to get my flemish gaint litter trained and now he is free roaming with no stray poops in the apartment cept by his box. no rabbit will be 100%
 
fuzz16 wrote:
if your sleeping..lock him in the kennel. with the litter box in there then he will have enough room to lie down comfortably but not a lot of room to poop.

it took me 4 months to get my flemish gaint litter trained and now he is free roaming with no stray poops in the apartment cept by his box. no rabbit will be 100%
Click to expand...
I woke up this morning.. I can't tell if he peed in the litterbox, but he didn't pee out of it. He did poop a lot out of it. I put some of Solara and Sabriel's poop and pee in the litterbox and he jumped in there. It looked like he was going potty, but I can't be sure. I gave him a bunny cookie when he came out.

I know rabbits are never 100%. Solara and Sabriel poop outside trhe litterbox too. I'm only bothered by the pee. As long as Silas is PEEING inside the litterbox.. I'll be fine.
 
it should be getting better, he has prob never had a litter box and this is all so new to him. time will tell :) i had a bun who wouldnt pee in the litterbox for 5 months....i would set her in there every ten 15 minutes and sometimes she would go sometimes not but she got the hang of it
 
i feel your frustration, my bunnies poop AND pee NEXT to the litterbox. even the one inside the cage. I put the hay in there and they will sit in it and eat the hay but pee next to the litterbox. i also am very aggrevated by the peeing mostly. i have hard wood floors and the pee is staining it! i will move the outside litterbox to where they seem to want to go and they pick a NEW spot :X
 
This might be just me...but I didnt think you were supposed to put his pellets and greens in the litterbox. I read in another thread that they should be on the other side of the cage.

I know hay is supposed to go in the litterbox, but not the rest of his food. Maybe I can find the thread that that was said in.
 
He was only neutered a few days ago, right? It can take a few weeks for their hormones to settle post-neuter. Until then, you'll probably just have to put up with it.
 
Well, it actually appears he is going pee in his litterbox now... The making the cage smaller and putting Solara and Sabriel's pee/poop in his litter box really has helped... I hope it stays that way! Thanks guys.. I'll keep you posted. :)
 
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