A couple of questions

[pupsicle]

When Meadow nibbles something she shouldn’t (wallpaper, sofa), i clap my hands, tell her no and move her away. Is this a good way to teach her? She’s also had a couple of nibbles of my hair and I’ve done the hand clapping, telling her no and putting her down, will it work here too?

She peed on me. I told her no (should I have told her no??) And stopped her pretty much as soon as she started peeing and put her in the litter box, is this correct?

She has 3 levels to her cage, food and water on the bottom level, toys on the middle, and then she has 2 platforms on the top level with a tube to play in and her litter box is up there. So far she’s just pooping all over (she’s not fixed she’s only 11 weeks old) I just keep cleaning the poop into the litterbox, anything else I should be doing? Also I would prefer the litter box on the bottom level, I put it to the top as that’s where she seemed to spend most of the time that she’s in her cage, will it make a difference what level I put it on as to if she will use it or not? 

Oh and when I start introducing vegetables, how much should I be giving her at a time? 

[TH004]

The “No!” clap trick is what I did to teach my rabbit “No” and “Bad boy”. I’ve had him for 2 years, and I no longer have to clap. So, I think it is an excellent way to teach them! If they continue to be bad, I put them up in their cage. If they nip at me, I squeal very loudly and high pitched. It lets them know they hurt me and not to do it again.

I think you did the right thing for the peeing too. Watch for them to lift the tail– that is a sign pee is on the way. My first rabbit had trouble with litter training. I just said NO every time I saw that tail come up and chased her back to her litterbox. Fixing her will help a lot with that. She may have had to go and you happened to be there or she could be marking her territory. With my first who had trouble (who wasn’t fixed– could be why!), I wouldn’t let her out unless she was due to be fed. That way she was less likely to have accidents. Going back to the cage was great too– she was getting breakfast/dinner!

Try putting food and water super close to the litterbox (hay in the litterbox). It encourages pooing in the right spot. Just keep picking up the droppings and putting them where they go. Keeping them out just shows her that is OK.

[Sarita]

Part of this is that Meadow is a baby. You can try the hand claps when she is nibbling on something she shouldn’t.

I think if she is nibbling on your hair it’s because you have your face in hers (I’m guilty of this with Bobby) and I don’t think you should discipline her for that since you are kind of sitting her up to do this :~)

As for peeing on you – this is normal for baby bunnies and they are not yet at the point where they can control themselves and discipline themselves – it’s a natural reaction. I think you did the right thing by putting her in her litter box – a better approach to saying “no” though would be praise. Put her in her litter box and pet her and praise her and perhaps a treat – you want it to be a positive thing, not a negative thing.

I would put the litter box where she prefers it most. At this point, it just takes persistence, patience, and routine to get her used to her litter box.

I think you can start slowly introducing the veggies at this age one at a time.

[Elrohwen]

I completely agree with Sarita’s advice. Hand clapping works for some rabbits, but I would only use it when she’s chewing. She likely can’t control peeing on you at this point (my boy used to do it every time we picked him up for grooming, but he grew out of it). Also, the hair chewing is probably a form of grooming, so I wouldn’t punish her for that. If you don’t want her chewing your hair, just pull it up out of her reach.

[Author]

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