Bunny won’t eat hay or poop/pee in new cage or living area

[Pipje]

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently got my first bunny a week ago (I’ve always had cats and horses whilst growing up, and now I’ve moved out I can finally safely have a rabbit!). He is a dwarf rabbit of some cross breed, his name is Pippin, and it’s becoming a more appropriate name by the day… (LOTR fans will know ). He’s 3 months old so not neutered yet, currently a lone bunny till neutering takes place. We spent a week letting him get used to us and he now lets us gently pet him when he accepts food.

Originally he was going to be an outdoor bunny so we got him a large hutch, however after reading more about house rabbits on this brilliant site I managed to persuade my fiance to move him indoors, at least for the winter, so he can safely spend time around us without dangerous temperature changes. For this we got him a large cage to be his home which during the day is open and he hops in and out and plays in the room. He’s sniffed everywhere and rubbed his chin on everything as his territory. He chose one spot in the room to poop, and one corner in the outdoor hutch to poop and pee. He only pees there, he won’t pee in the house.

Now the problem!

So yesterday we made the transition to fulltime house bunny, he hopped in and out of the cage all day for food (hay/pellets) and water, but he did not choose an area in the large cage to poop or pee when he was shut in overnight, he held it in for almost 24 hours until I gave in and took him to his hutch where he let it allll go (so it is not stasis, he is just holding it in). He also did not eat his hay overnight, but he has eaten some fine whilst pooping and peeing in the hutch and whilst free roaming the living room today.

I wish to get a X-pen to attach in front of the cage to include his chosen pooping area and give him more space whilst we are sleeping/out, free roam 24/7 is just not allowed by my fiance (I would love some links to suitable xpens/fencing too, we are in europe – holland). But even if he has access to his poop area, he still will not pee anywhere but the hutch. Ideally I’d like him to pee and poop in the litter tray in the cage but he refuses to even let a poop out in there. I tired putting his droppings in there, his hay is there so he sits and eats in the tray, I’ve done everything I’ve read on here to encourage him, but apparently he has litter trained himself too well to his outside toilet…

TL;DR

He just won’t accept the cage as his place and even with an x-pen, I am worried he will never pee in a litter box inside. How can I safely encourage him to pee and poop inside the cage litter tray when he is in at night without him holding it in and getting ill?

Thank you for reading the wall of text!

[Peony]

Do you have a littlerbox outside? What I can try suggesting is put a littlebox at the corner outside that he goes in. Watch him and after a while of going in the littlebox, pick up the littlebox with him in it and carry him inside and put the litterbox down somewhere in his cage/hutch/pen (I have a hutch indoors) and see if he uses the bathroom inside now. He might think the outside is the spot he has to go in and this might show him to go inside where that littlebox is.

You can also try bringing the hutch inside the house, depending how big it is. The reason I have a hutch was to give her a second floor to run in. (She did not find the second floor and finde out what the ramp did till I picked her up and put her on the second floor)

[Pipje]

Thank you We set up an xpen and we tried this from his indoor poop spot in the room that he already chose, and I repeatedly picked up and put in any stray ones in and eventually(!) later on in the day he gave in and pee’d in that area, not in the cage and not in the box but ok, it’s a step forward! I cleaned that up and put the dirty paper towel in the box. He’s now always going in the box to poop… let’s see how he goes with peeing!

[Beka27]

He’s still so new, give him time. Confine him to the new space for a while (maybe a week or two) and you should start seeing his habits improve. From there, slowly expand his area.

[Pipje]

Yes, I was just so worried that he would make himself ill by refusing to eat/drink/go to the toilet all night 
inside the house, that really scared me! 

We’ve had a lot of improvement actually after herding him into the box and putting all his messes in there, he is now using it fine during the day in his xpen. So this is a massive improvement that he will go indoors, and in the box perfectly now as a bonus! But when we had to leave him in his cage at night (he gets upset when we go to bed and tries to jump out of the xpen by climbing his cage, and we are just too scared for that until we make it totally Houdini proof) he still will not eat his hay or drink or poop/pee in the litter box in there. He just sits. 

I know it is because he is unhappy with being locked in one area, he even thumps at us whenever we touch the xpen even when he is out in the rest of the room. He has about 4m² space, hay, water and things to chew and play with, and he will chill in there or out with us all day happily munching hay and drinking, using his litter box properly and binkying in and out…as soon as we shut it over he freaks out. Rattling the bars and trying to climb or jump out. He wants to be a free roam bunny but as we rent, we can’t risk unsupervised chewing on anything!

I’m not sure how to make him comfortable in his new living space, he seems to be so upset about being limited in his territory. I’ve been persevering with feeding him at “bed time” (though I know he doesn’t sleep then but he still has room to play) in his cage and giving him a treat when he hops in. But once he realises the gate is closed in the pen it is all hellll noo!

Maybe once he is neutered he will be calmer about not having 24 hour access to every inch of his territory and therefore will eat etc when shut in his pen? 

oh bunnies, they are so so picky!

[Elrohwen]

He sounds like a normal active young bunny! I would just stick with the arrangement you have and he’ll get used to it. I would feed him only in his pen or cage, so all meals and lots of treats happen in that space, and I’m sure he’ll come around in no time.

One of mine rattles the xpen when I shut her in, and tries to push it open on her own when I get home from work. Some bunnies just don’t like to be confined, but they get used to it.

[Pipje]

Well I’m glad that more experienced bunny owners still have the xpen tantrum problem!

Just an update: Pip is now using his litter box in his xpen very well and only has accidents outside in when he poops in his sleep (is that normal? He has done it since we got him). 

We have had no more xpen escapes at night after changing the layout, however he is still not going to the toilet or eating hay or drinking at night. Well perhaps a tiny bit that I don’t notice, but he is definitely not pooping until we get up in the morning as his tray is empty, then he jumps in his box and poops a lot and eats his hay and his pellets from the night before. 

This really worries me that he is holding it in for 8 hours and not even eating his dinner that we give him when he goes in his xpen at night. It seems that he just sits and does nothing whilst we are asleep, I think he hates being alone and he just stops doing anything in protest. We can’t get him a friend till he is neutered (as soon as he is old enough). The other morning he woke us up by thumping then as soon as we got up and came through he jumped in and pooped and ate… 

It seems to be a behavioural problem rather than anything medical. I have no idea if other people have experienced this problem? He is otherwise a very inquisitive, sociable and binkying bunny.

[Peony]

Posted By Elrohwen on 01/02/2014 10:54 AM

He sounds like a normal active young bunny! I would just stick with the arrangement you have and he’ll get used to it. I would feed him only in his pen or cage, so all meals and lots of treats happen in that space, and I’m sure he’ll come around in no time.

One of mine rattles the xpen when I shut her in, and tries to push it open on her own when I get home from work. Some bunnies just don’t like to be confined, but they get used to it.

SO true =.=

My bunny might be happy in the litterbox and soon you close that gate.. or even our kitchion gate she will dig at it being closed even though she has plenty of room to go elsewhere,,. In fact one day she opened the kitchen gate on her own, causing the clip to become undone so now I have two clips on it. It was funny how it was said “Making it Houdini proof, sounds like my mom and she said she wanted to name her Houdini if she was a boy.

 

My rabbit tends not to jump very high so I figured one layer of cube graits was high enough to keep her out of things. (I use two layers of imporant things and even make three layer door so it is high enough for me and mom to open without leaning over.) So this one day Peony was overlooking the bathroom door. (Mom does not want her in there yet and uses a single layer as a deterrent while being low enough we can easily step over it in case door is forgot to be closed) So she was standing there on her hind legs, having her front paws on the second highest grid and used that to help push herself up to jump over it. It is still the only time she did this even though we still have one layers in other places. Wonder what made the bathroom so interesting for her to do that.

[Rufus]

I have your exact problem!! Rufus will only pee in one corner of his hutch. There’s a lot of similarities about our situation actually. I originally had an outdoor hutch and then decided i wanted him to be indoors. I bought an x-pen and he refused to pee in it. The longest I ever left him was 9 hours and he made no move to the litterbox despite the fact I tried using the same one from his cage/ different ones with fresh/ dirty litter in them. As soon as I put him back in his hutch he ran to the litter box and looked so relieved. I just wanted to cry! I tried putting the litterbox in a whole lot of different places too and nothing. So I ended up moving his outdoor hutch inside (top-opening and on stilts) and now he lives in there and when I have him out playing I have to take him back for pee breaks every hour or so.

I’m about to face another problem though. His hutch is really too small for him so I’ve bought him a XXL dog crate to go with his x-pen. I’m about to move house and will need to get rid of his outdoor hutch completely. I am so so nervous! It’s difficult enough moving house with a bunny but this pee problem makes it even scarier. I get exactly what you’re saying about worrying that he will make himself sick. My parents used to have a puppy that wouldn’t go outside in the rain but wouldn’t pee inside and she gave herself a number of bladder infections over the years.

I’ve been trying to start getting him used to the new set-up so it’ll be less of a shock when I move in three weeks but he still won’t pee. He also doesn’t really poop in there anymore, only in his hutch.

I’m relieved to hear of someone else with the same problem but I’m sorry to say I don’t have any solutions Hopefully someone will come along and save us both!

[DeathByStereo]

I’ve had my Mercury for about 4-5 months now. I just got a huge new hutch for her, but she won’t eat or go to the bathroom in it. I hadn’t completely gotton rid of the old cage yet, so when I let her out to run after the first night of being in her new hutch, she went straight to the old cage to use the bathroom. I cleaned out the old cage and stored it away in hopes of her realizing it’s no longer there for a bathroom. But it’s been about 9 hours since she has gone to the bathroom or eaten her hay. I give her pellets every night and she ate those, but won’t touch the hay. During the day, she just sits around the hutch in one spot and doesn’t move otherwise. When I let her out of the cage to run, she seems fine and back to normal. She is about 6 months old.

[Love4Bunny]

Hi DeathByStereo,

Welcome

The rules of the forum are that it’s best to start a new topic cos this is an old thread, so I would highly recommend doing that. Like it mentions up top, if your rabbit doesn’t eat or poop in 12-24 hours, I would get her to a rabbit vet asap (not a dog or cat vet), especially if they are closing soon for the day (I don’t know what time it is in your neck of the woods). Try stomach massages, or baby gas drops (simethicone was recommended to me) but I don’t have the dosage information with me now (you can search binky bunny), leafy greens with water. Being hunched in a corner is not normal, so I’d rather be on the safe side and visit a rabbit vet, who will likely listen for normal gut sounds and feel for any blockages.

[jerseygirl]

Thank you Love4Bunny!

DeathbyStereo, are you able to start a new topic please? I’ve put a link below that should take you to new topic page when you are logged on. I’ll lock this thread now so it won’t be bumped up with current dilemmas. If you have any trouble starting a new thread, click on one of the leader names at top of the forum pages and sent a message. 

CLICK HERE to start new thread. 

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