Potty training new bunny

[Pino]

I am having trouble litter training my new (9 wk old) rabbit. He's had the run of the house since bringing him home a week ago. Until now I didnt know that I was supposed to keep him in a smaller area and gradually give him more freedom so he now considers the whole house to be his toilet. He has 2 litter boxes. One is in his cage and I use organic paper litter in both of them with alfalfa hay in the corner as an enticement. He generally pees in the boxes but it's 50/50 on pooping. Ive been trying to coax him into using the box by putting him in it when I catch him in the act and praising him when he does use it but I'm not having a lot of success. He doesnt seem to have a favorite place in the house to go but rather just goes everywhere. Yesterday I left him in his cage for a couple of hours hoping he would catch on by seeing me move his poops to the box but he was so furious with me that he sulked at being denied the rest of the house. He grunted and kicked his back feet at me and when I did let him out of his cage he peed everywhere, ignored me, and avoided getting to close to his cage for the rest of the day probably fearing he would get locked back in. He's slowly warming back up to me so I dont want to push too hard and lose his trust but I dont know what to do. Any advice?

Thank you,

Christi

 

[Tweetiepy]

Angry bunny! He is quite young, and maybe in the beginning he should be confined to a smaller area. Bunnies (or maybe it's just mine) tend to go in a corner - mine likes to squoosh his butt in a corner and then go - so his litterbox is in the corner of his cage. His hay and food is right in his litterbox, his food he can get to out of his litter box, but he now jumps in there to eat. For his hay, he has to get in the box to eat that - his bowl of veggies goes in his litterbox and if he smells the veggies, he'll hop into his box now and be all excited and wait impatiently.

I got my boy Peaches at about 8-9 weeks too and in the begining there were stray poops, then he got real good at going in his box, then when he hit adolescence at about 3-4 months, there were poops all over and pee spray on the walls. I got him fixed about a month ago and he's been much better now (he's about 8 months old now).

Get him used to using the box in a smaller area, then gradually make that area larger and include a litterbox (or more) in that area. Food and hay in the box is the best too cuz they eat & potty at the same time. Stick with it, it's might get worse before it gets better, but it should get better - good luck

 

[elrohwen]

I agree that he should be confined to a small space for now. Depending on how large your cage is, adding an exercise pen to it will give him a lot more space. I would then gradually increase his play area, only allowing him into the new area when you're home to supervise. Also make sure you clean up the areas he's peed and pooped very well - with vinegar/water solution - because he's probably smelling where he went and going there again.

Some bunnies can be fully litter trained at his age, but some just don't get it until they're a few weeks older (and some don't get it until after they're fixed), so be patient with him and give him a smaller space so he can understand where he needs to go.

 

[Pino]

Thank you both. Strangely enough he seems to be making it to his box each time today. I've only had to clean up after him twice and once may have just been kicked out of his litterbox. He still is not acting very warmly towards me since leaving him in his cage. It's really quite heartbreaking. He seemed very fond of me up until then.

Christi

 

[Flash Gordon]

get him neutered.thatll fix all ur probs that u have now and the ones ur gonna have in a about 2 months...grunting,circling ur feet ,,humping ,spraying...peeing everywhere...

 

[Alyssaur]

He's way too young to be neutered, so don't do that yet.

He seems to be doing better, so I wouldn't worry too much about it -- especially since he's still a baby. Just keep praising good behavior and picking up stray poopies when he has an accident.

 

[elrohwen]

It sounds like he might be getting the hang of it as he gets older. He might have just been a bit too young to understand what you wanted before. Babies develop so quickly that a few days or weeks is all it takes to make a big difference in what they can understand.

 

[BrittanyandFruFru]

Also, a factor would be that rabbits are very territorial. So when you bring him into a new environment he will naturally want to mark it as his own. You probably should keep him confined to a smaller area but expect him to do the same marking when he is allowed full access to your home again

 

[Pino]

Thank you all for your help. The very next day after making this post he started using his litter box consistently. I think the problem may have been that I was told by the pet shop to feed him timothy instead of alfalfa which seemed to be very hard on his system. As soon as I switched him to the alfalfa he stopped having accidents.

 

[elrohwen]

Honestly, I doubt timothy would be the problem - timmy hay is lower in calories and calcium than alfalfa and is eaten by the majority of adult bunnies. Don't rule it out as he gets older.

 

[Flash Gordon]

yep what Laura said..timothy had nothing to do with it..hes gonna go back to goin outside the box ..prob until hes old enough to be neutered....yep kinda stinks but thats the way they are.thats also why i can t live with an uneutered male rabbit...