Re-litter training our rabbit

[gsloan]

We've had our bunny, Munchkin, for about 4months (since she was about 6 weeks old). Within a day ofmoving in with us, she had litter trained herself. We gaveher very free roam of our apartment and never had the slightestproblem. We have a cage that houses her litter box and food,but we never used it to pen her up (as it's a little small to be anactual home, it's just good for containing food and bathroom messes).

Unfortunately, due to her own brilliance (i.e., her ability to thwartall attempts at bunny-proofing), we've had to significantly restricther freedom when we're not around. We had successfullyblocked off half of the apartment where she was perfectl fine to roam,but she inevitably managed to get past the barriers and into off-limitsareas. So now we've built a large cage around the smallercage. It's got plenty of room for a bunny, but at this point,Munchkin is thuroughly spoiled and is most unpleased with thearrangement.

The good news is she's not doing anything desctructive (not tearing atcarpet, not peeing where she shouldn't). And when she's outof the cage while we're home, she happily will go into the old cage touse the litter box and never poops where she shouldn't. Butthe instant we close up the big cage to go to sleep or go out, shepoops right at the entrance, purposely eschewing the litterbox. It's clearly a deliberate act of defiance since she usesthe litter box as normal otherwise.

So far, we've tried immediate correction by picking up the poop,placing it in the litter box, and closing her inside the smaller cage(don't worry, it's still big enough for her to move around in) forperiods of 15-20 minutes. But without fail, we let her out ofthe small cage and she's instantly back at it. We've alsotried placing a second litter box outside of the smallercage. That seemed to work for a moment, but she eventuallygets annoyed at that, digging it out and continuing to go on thecarpet.

Any ideas to get some cooperation out of our slighted friend?

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

It sounds to me like perhaps she is marking herterritory. She may just be doing it on purpose as well but consideryourself lucky if that's all she does. Young rabbits are often messyand she may get messier with age.

Most litter trained bunnies still leave poos outside of their boxes,it's just one of those things. They are at least easy to clean up!

Now all of mine are outside bunnies so I can't do more than offer anexplanation but others may be able to suggest some things to try.Anyone?

P.S.- Don't count your chickens before they hatch, she may still becomedestructive! She's very young, my doe didn't start her destructivebehaviours until she was 7 months old.

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

Is she is only young I'm afraid she mayun-littertrain herself untill she is older and is spayed. I recentlybunny-sat some 5 month old girls and they went to the toilet everywherewhereas my adult girls are perfectly littertrained! It's justhowyoung bunnies are.She should improve once sheis older andspayed.

 

[Runestonez]

If she isn't spayed yet getting her spayed willhelp. Bunnies also used poops to tell you exactly how theyfeel. It's the bunny way of saying "Mine, mine,mine!"She is marking her territory!

Ours are all spayed or neutered and they still leave poops here andthere...it's the equivalent of a small child who is too involved inplaytime to realize thay have to go to the potty! When Iasked our vet she told us to count our blessings that it wasn't pee andbuy a hand vac!

You are doing the right thing by picking it up and putting it in thelitterbox...but as long as your bunny is in her teens and isn'tspayed...

 

[gsloan]

She is spayed already.

This is more than just a poop or two in the wrong place. It'simmediately when we close the cage, and it's a lot of poo.And considering that until we started putting her in the cage, she wasamost 100% good about using the litter box, it's VERY clear that she'ssending us a message.

But there's good news. We repositioned her litter box lastnight and she seemed more willing to use it, far less poo on the carpetthis morning. Perhaps it's a turning point.

 

[FlopsnWills]

when did you get her spayed? most vets won'tspay a female until 6 months, but it can be done earlier. theirhormones do not go away completely until 6 weeks after their surgery.bunny poops are very easy to pick up, i've become quite used to them..it's the pee i worry about. all buns, no matter how good with litterhabits will always leave a few poops out of their box, it's just normalbunny behavior.

 

[gsloan]

Yeah, she got spayed a little early. 2vets were pretty sure she was male, so she went in for aneuter. Opened her up and...surprise! It's beenabout 6 weeks now.

Oh well, I guess I'm not going to get much help here. No onehas actual litter training advice, rather than "they all leave somepoops" comment? 'Cause those aren't helping.

I don't know how many different ways I can state that this is wellbeyond the occasional misplaced poop, or even a little bit of territorymarking. She went from pooping in her litter box 99.9% of thetime to pooping on the carpet 90% of the time almost theinstant we closed the new cage the first time. This is adrastic change in behavior, for obvious reasons. I understandthat some of it is territory marking, and I know it's not difficult toclean up. But I also know that she spent 4 months being near100% litter trained, so I know she's capable of it. I justneed some advice on ways to help her along. Anyone haveactual advice?

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

You could check out the reference section on litter training as that has lots of ideas.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12213&forum_id=17

 

[gsloan]

Great, thanks for the link.


Bunnys_rule63 wrote:

You could checkout the reference section on litter training as that has lots ofideas.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12213&forum_id=17