Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BEHAVIOR Second Litterbox Advice

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • Dubbanee's Dad
      Participant
      3 posts Send Private Message

        Hello.  I’m curious about how other folks have set up their secondary litter boxes for free-range house bunnies.  (With litter only, or litter + feed hay?)  And how this effects their bun’s litterbox pooping habits. 

         

        Working in cooperation with my bun’s instincts, I was successful in shaping his use of a primary litterbox area inside his home cage. Moving from a simple dishpan + hay & litter combo, to a final configuration of an easy to clean high-backed corner litter pan, within a larger dishpan facing a hay rack over three weeks.  Dubbanee is now very comfortable and hygenic, with excellent litter box habits.  

         

        When I later decided to let Dubbanee have 24 hour access to his exercise pen area (open to his home cage), I added a second litter box at the far end “just in case”.  Since then, I have found that Dubbanee has been leaving 5-10 stray droppings inside the expen, right next to this secondary pan. (With 99% of his daily droppings still inside his home litter pan [cleaned daily], and with no stray urine in evidence). 

         

        I’m pretty sure this is my fault for sending mixed messages – I also added feed hay to this secondary box, which D. can reach from outside the box, leading to browse & poop behavior from outside of the box.  For about a week and a half, I’ve been sweeping the poops into the litter pan, with new poops reliably reappearing outside the box each evening.  (I’m pretty sure this is distinct from territorial marking; before training, Dubs left poops around the entire periphery of the expen, but has not since.  He hasn’t engaged in any spraying [though admittedly he fits the profile as an 11 month old unaltered male]).  Because I’ve been priming the secondary pan, I haven’t been able to verify if it has in fact been used for poops during the day. 

        I considered blocking outside access to the hay, but eventually decided to scale back to just the inner litter pan for poops, with all feed once again inside his home cage last night.  (Because my goal is to have Dubbanee graduate to being a true free-range house rabbit.  I want to give my buddy the most freedom possible, but also have to be somewhat careful because I am immuno-compromised after a year’s worth of chemotherapy.  )

         

        I’ll be observing closely over the next few days to see if Dubs gets back to his previously excellent litterbox habits with a no-feed secondary litter box.  But I’d also love to hear from the community about how their bun’s secondary litter boxes are set up, whether their buns habitually poop where they flop & lounge, multi-room litterbox habits & etc. 

         

        Thanks for listening. 

        DD


      • Sarita
        Participant
        18851 posts Send Private Message

          Are you sure he’s not accidentally flinging the poops outside the box when he leaves the box? I thought my rabbit was leaving stray poops as well but that was not the case. Also small amounts of stray poops are very common for rabbits to leave – it does not necessarily mean they aren’t litter box trained but they may leave some stray poops to “mark”. If you are saying he is leaving 99% in the litter box and urinating in the litter box then I would say this is normal.


        • Elrohwen
          Participant
          7318 posts Send Private Message

            I’m with Sarita on this. I find 5-10 stray poos outside of the litter box area every day, but it’s just because they get stuck to bunny feet and kicked out of the litter boxes.


          • tanlover14
            Participant
            3617 posts Send Private Message

              Agreed. My buns are constantly knocking a stray poo or two outside when they leave the box, especially since they have a bad habit of ZOOMing out of the litter box at top speed.


            • Dubbanee's Dad
              Participant
              3 posts Send Private Message

                Thanks for the feedback. I am using excellent corner litter pans with a comfortable grate that keep everything securely contained and bunny’s feets clean.

                Today was the first full first day without any feed hay in the expen (litter pan only). Results are the usual small pile in Dubbanee’s lounging spot next to the box (6 poops), +4 randomly around the expen, with 100% of his urine and approx 240 poops securely contained in his home litter box.

                This is very manageable for me to keep clean, and I agree, excellent litterbox habits. But it might rule out unsupervised free-ranging for Dubs.

                He seems very happy with the current setup of home cage + free access to the attached expen area, so this might not be so bad.

                Bunny poop may be the least offensive dung in the universe, except perhaps for unicorn droppings.

                DD


              • Beka27
                Participant
                16016 posts Send Private Message

                  He sounds fine, especially for being unneutered. I don’t even think I’d introduce the second box because he’s using the “home” box exclusively. Not all rabbits need a second litterbox, even if they are free range. My two will run back to the xpen from wherever they are, do their business, and head back out. Those few stray poops could be “fly-aways” or just a simple expression of claiming his territory. Once he’s neutered, those dropped poops may stop altogether.

                  We keep a little Dirt Devil hand vac next to the xpen; once or twice a day I can just suck up any stray poops. They are certainly neater than dog/cat “material”.

              Viewing 5 reply threads
              • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

              Forum BEHAVIOR Second Litterbox Advice