Sorry in advance for the long post, but I suspect my bun’s litter issues are territorial, so I wanted to give the full story to get clear advice.
A month ago we adopted a 2 year old spayed French Angora (Farrah) from a shelter who had her for 6 months. Even though she was in a small cage most of the day, they said she was “still working on” her litter training. I didn’t think anything of it, because it was love at first sight with Farrah. The day after she arrived home, we bought a baby lop bunny (Chico), thinking it would be easier to bond them when they were both new to our house. They each have their own 3-level bunny condo, and have a dedicated bunny room. Bonding seemed to be a pretty painless process, and they were soon sharing litter boxes, hay and pellets with no problem. However, while Chico took to his litter box with no prompting whatsoever, Farrah was peeing and pooping everywhere.
Then, within a couple of weeks, Chico started making amorous moves on Farrah (he was almost 3 months old and not yet neutered). That was the end of the bonding, and I had to separate them as I saw Farrah nipping him. They alternate run time in the bunny room (Farrah during the day and Chico at night), and I simply cannot keep up with the mess: the first level of her cage is filthy and so is the bunny room, within a couple of hours after cleaning up. I feel like I’m keeping a cow inside the house, and I’m exhausted! It’s about 90% Farrah, because Chico still has very good litter habits, although he does mark in response to her as well.
The problem is compounding, since she now needs extra help keeping herself clean around her privates. She has a litter box with a wire grate, but since she hardly uses it, she’s usually sitting in her own waste when she’s eating on the first level. Even though the hay rack is optimally positioned right above the litter box, she actually reaches over the box in order to eat. I’m about to get a 24×24 pan that will cover half the first level, and put a grate on top of it to keep her out of her mess. While I’m hoping that will help keep her cage clean, it doesn’t solve the issue of her habits in the bunny room, let alone the rest of the house.
I have hope that once Chico is neutered in a couple of months, her territorial urges may diminish and I can try bonding again. I’m also hopeful because Farrah does keep the other 2 levels of her cage clean, which is a sign she has some self-control. But right now I’m very sad because she is such a sweet, lovey girl and she craves human interaction, but she’s not getting much these days because I can’t trust her outside the bunny room (already tried), and none of us wants to spend much time in the filthy bunny room with her. I want to have my happy bunnies binkying around the house, but I can’t have her out and about until she is litter trained.
Thanks for listening, everyone. Hoping the experts out there can help me figure this out!