Hello, everyone! I read quite a few litter training posts, but none of the situations seemed to be exactly like mine.
My rabbit Maisy has a few litter training problems. She is a 3 1/2 year old female spayed rabbit. She has been spayed since she was about 3 months old when I got her. She has two rabbit companions, Bernie and Herman, who are neutered males and are not new. The three were all brought into our home at the same time.
The boys have immaculate litter pan habits (thank God), but Maisy has struggled with a couple things. For the most part, she always tried to pee in her litter pan at our old apartment. She did frequently not scoot her butt into the litter pan as far as she needed to and would pee over the edge. That is the first problem. This problem (the lack of butt scooting) got worse after we moved, to the point where I had to put all the litter pans in a six inch high storage container so that if Maisy didn’t put her butt in the pan all the way urine would not get on the floor. I line the plastic container with newspaper. If anyone has suggestions on how to fix this problem I’d love to hear them.
The second problem is peeing outside of the litter pan completely. She did this occasionally at the old apartment (maybe once or twice a month), but it got worse when we moved (once or twice a week). On one of the first days at our new house, she peed right in front of me while she was looking at me. I took her to the vet; she did not have a urinary tract infection. We’ve lived here a year and I am still struggling with Maisy peeing on the floor every week. Sometimes it’s right next to her litter pan, sometimes it’s not. I’ve tried moving her litter pans to the places she pees, but this hasn’t helped at all. Luckily the boys have put up with me moving the litter pans all over the place. I also guessed that maybe she was opposed to hopping over the six inch high wall to get into the plastic container area with the litter pan, so i cut a doorway into one of the plastic containers, but her behavior has not changed at all. She does not live in a cage. All three of the rabbits share a bedroom together. There are two litter pans in their bedroom. I have experimented with different types of litter thinking maybe she didn’t like something about the litter. She also pees outside the litter pan even if it was cleaned fifteen minutes beforehand, and I clean her litter pan very regularly (I don’t let it get stinky) so I don’t believe she’s protesting unacceptable conditions.
For the most part, Maisy pees in her room and not in the other rooms of the house, but I’m not sure if this is because she spends the most time in that room or if the peeing is territorial in some way.
Right now my solutions is putting rag rugs in the areas she most frequently pees, I remove and replace the rugs when they are soiled, and I wash the rag rugs every week. This is a lot of work.
What I’d like to know is:
1. What are possible reasons Maisy might be peeing outside of her litter pan?
2. How can we get her peeing in the litter pan again?
3. Is there a way to get Maisy to stand inside her litter pan every time rather than standing with her butt hanging over the edge of the litter pan?
I am REALLY looking forward to your answers. I’ve read many thoughtful responses to other questions asked in this forum. Thanks for your time.