One rabbit isn't litter-trained

[kagerod]

I am slowly trying to train my three 3-year-old rabbits into being litterbox trained. For the most part, they are.

However, one of them is peeing on the floor of their cage. I have a feeling that it is Heim. I have seen both Napoleon and Rasputin use the litter boxes - with Rasputin even hopping back into the cage to use them. I have, however, seen Heim lift her tail and pee no matter where she is.

Is there a way to try and train her? I have found pee spots outside of the cage, which makes it hard to give them more freedom around the house because of the supervision needed.

 

[Blue eyes]

Are they neutered? What is the flooring in the rest of the cage? Does it have bedding, a blanket, solid floor?

 

[missyscove]

Can you post a picture of your cage setup? Do the others hang out in the boxes? Sometimes you need to add more boxes, then slowly take away any that they aren't using.

 

[LakeCondo]

It's hard when you have more than one, but only one with a problem. What would happen if the other 2 were left out longer than she was, especially if you but her back right after catching her going?

 

[kagerod]

They are neutered/spayed/whatever; they're fixed. (1 boy, 2 girls; Heim is a girl).

The cage set up is admittedly pretty small - big enough for them, but not really to run. I want to get another fence to open up their pen some more.. The floor covering is a tarp on the carpet, with the bottom part of a hutch (minus the cage) on half of it. There's three litter boxes and all are being used. I put a new litter box outside of the pen last night in the spot that I find peespots the most (my blind spot actually).

I will be trying out what happens if I put her away the second she pees, but the same with the pictures - they have to wait... It's kind of early in the morning at the moment and my camera is my room with my sleeping roommate. Give me a few hours and I'll get pictures up and see what happens if I let out the rabbits for a bit.

 

[kagerod]

Sorry for the double-post, a "few hours" turned into "few days" as I kept getting swept up in **** and trying to avoid too much computer time.

(Pardon the mess. I wanted to get a pic with the bunnies still in before I let them out to clean, for size comparison...)

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Some pick it up very fast while other have to have things just right or never at all. Commander Bun-Bun used only one spot, so it was easy to place a pan for her to use--she never did anything outside of the pan and was the neatest little bunny. Peter kept turning his pan around, so we left it were he wanted it. You may want to place the pan in a box with a hole cut for ingress--maybe a little privacy will help.

 

[Blue eyes]

kagerod wrote:

I am slowly trying to train my three 3-year-old rabbits into being litterbox trained. For the most part, they are.

However, one of them is peeing on the floor of their cage. I have a feeling that it is Heim. I have seen both Napoleon and Rasputin use the litter boxes - with Rasputin even hopping back into the cage to use them. I have, however, seen Heim lift her tail and pee no matter where she is.

Is there a way to try and train her? I have found pee spots outside of the cage, which makes it hard to give them more freedom around the house because of the supervision needed.

From thephotos, it looks like youcurrently have 3 litterboxes in the pen. One of those litterboxes appears to be inside maybe a 4th litterbox that has wood shavings? So is the 'culprit' going in that 4th box, or on the tarp, or both?

Honestly, I can't quite determine where bunny is supposed to go, so I was wondering if the culprit can't tell either. Have you considered trying just one-large litterbox for all three? I was thinking you could remove all the boxes, make the tarp taut, and maybe use that gray/whitish boxfor the new litter box. Put your litter and plenty of hay in that large box only. The rest of the floor of the cage will have nothing save their cardboard toys.

It's been my experience that some bunnies get confused if there are wood shaving or hay elsewhere in their cage. They can't seem to figure out where to go. But maybe this idea can work and would simplify cleaning too.