Potty Training in an NIC Condo

[debjesse]

Good Day Everyone,

 

I am in some need of help, I just got our first bunny (from a friend) and she is already a light in our lives, but she is in an extra large “rabbit”cage (store bought) and I wish to build her a NIC condo, but she is not littered trained and she is still only 9 weeks old.

She came to me very sick, I took her to the vet’s right away and she is doing much better, she is eating and is on some of the better food for her pellets and Organic Farm Alfalfa Hay (from our area).

 

Should I potty train her now, should I even try, I also want her in the NIC Condo (for her room to move), but afraid if not trained she may pee outside the cage through the bars?

 

What shall I do?

 

Thank you,

debjesse

[Stickerbunny]

You can begin litter training her now, though don’t be upset if she doesn’t get it. Put a couple of litter boxes in the condo and bedding/litter ONLY in the litter boxes. When she has accidents, clean them up ASAP and put any mess into the litter box (wet paper towel from urine, droppings, etc) so she knows that is where it goes. If you’re worried about her making a mess outside the condo, you can get a cheap piece of linoleum or something like that and put the cage on it so if she does have an accident, it will go on an easy to clean surface. Or, you could attach an x-pen to the cage she has now to give her more room as well.

[FrankieFlash]

Also for more protection you can put cardboard on the edges of the condo where the litter box is if you’re afraid she might spray. Or use high back litterboxes.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

I think most rabbits do really well if they are the only rabbit, Samson picked up litter training pretty much the day I brought her home

[Elrohwen]

Absolutely litter train her now. Litter training shouldn’t even be called “training” – you aren’t training them so much as you’re setting them up for success. With the majority of rabbits, if you put in a good sized litter box with litter and hay they’ll start using it at least most of the time. Otto was litter trained from the day he came home at 8 weeks and never had an accident. She might lose her habits as she goes through puberty, but after being spayed they should come back.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Totally fine to litter train now I really ditto Elrohwen-you are just setting them up to pee in the right spot and not training-so you can totally do this with anybunny

If you go right to an NIC cube condo-I would suggest making the lower level the litter pan-the whole floor, and putting the hay and food down there. Rabbits ‘go’ when eating, so by making the whole floor a litter pan, and the lower level to boot, and giving food there, I think that would be ideal -just a thought.

[Beka27]

I’d imagine she’s pretty tiny right now, so it’s okay to keep her in the petstore cage for now. Help her get accustomed to the litterbox. Then within the next couple months, you can work on expanding her space. Giving too big of an area at first can be more detrimental to litter training. In the meantime, you can gather the needed supplies and check out NIC condo plans and decide how you’re going to configure it later.

[debjesse]

Great ideas from everyone, she (Name is Sparrow) is only about 1 pound right now, she is tiny.  We have put a corner litter box for her in a corner I think she uses (I may clean her cage too much to notice where she goes), last night we tried picking up any poops and pees outside the box nd put it in the box, she immedaitely went to sniff it out, but nothing yet.

I placed hay in there too and she likes to pull it out (LOL) and drag it around the cage, we are hopefully going to start the NIC cage this weekend and will keep her in the smaller area frist and then expand.

 

Thank you

[Elrohwen]

What is the rest of her cage like? Just make sure there’s no other bedding down on the cage floor or she won’t understand where she’s supposed to go.

[debjesse]

Wonderful idea Elrohwen, I will remove the rest of the bedding tonight and start again.

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