Help – New Bunny

[cort]

We have a 2-3 month old Mini Rex.   It is eating fine and we finally have her drinking from the hanging bottle..  She is in a cage with a litter box on one end which has pellets and the hay – we give her the food in the morning then take that dish out after she eats. the issue is she goes up the platics ramp and pees on the platform .  i now took that ramp and platform down – put the platform in place of the litter box with pellets on it (will buy diff one because it barely has sides around it) but i thought that by eliminating the ramp to go up there an pee and poop it would maybe go where the litter box now is made.  it has been pooping in there -  i’m afraid to let it run around of of cage i don’t want pee all over?

 

also one vet said 8-9 months for spaying and another 4-6 months to spay????anyone know

 

 

[Monkeybun]

Put the hay in the litter box, bunnies like to eat and go at the same time She needs out of cage time for exercise, just keep a cloth and some vinegar handy to clean up accidents until she is litter trained.

You can get her spayed at around 6 months old, if the vet won’t do it until 8-9 months, I would find a different vet, that one doesn’t sound too sure of what bunnies require.

[Sarita]

Well, a few things. At her age, she should have unlimited pellets to eat.

I guess I have to question what size your cage is and what is the setup? Most rabbit experienced vets will spay at 6 months.

This behavior you are describing is very normal by the way for a young rabbit this age.

[Sarita]

Also, I am going to move this to the Behavior section as you are asking about litter training.

[Elrohwen]

Do you have anything down in the rest of the cage? The litter box should be the only place with absorbent material, so if you have any bedding down in the rest of the cage remove it. You can add back a towel or fleece blanket later if you want, but for now just leave the bare plastic. I would also try moving the litter box to where she is peeing – if she’s not going in the box but is going consistently on the other side of the cage, just move it there. What kind of litter box is it? The corner ones are too small for most rabbits and sometimes they’ll pee elsewhere if they don’t like the small litter box. A rectangular one made for cats will work better.

She definitely needs exercise. You can put some old towels down in case she pees. Bunny pee isn’t hard to clean up if you get to it right away before it can sink into carpet – a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar works the best.

As the others said, a spay can be done around 6 months.

[bunnyfriend]

6 months is a good age for a spay. It is important that the surgery is done by a rabbit savvy vet (the success rate should be over 99%). Here is a link to a HRS page on spaying that has a lot of good info: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/spay-neuter.html Do you have a rabbit savvy vet yet?

She definitely needs exercise as Elrohwen said. Rabbits need 4+ hours outside of their cage to run around. Also the cage size should be at minimum 8 square feet and tall enough that the rabbit can stand all the way up on her hind feet. Spaying should help with the litter box habits.

Also, rabbits a lot of the times have difficult drinking from a water bottle. If you want to you can try a heavy water crock.

Welcome to BB

[Author]

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