lapse in use of litterbox after spay?

[Cinnamon Bun]

My bunny was SUPER easy to litter train and picked it up very quickly.  She’s now around 8 months old and she has peed outside of the litter box only a few times since litter training.  I got her fixed at the end of August.  The past few weeks she hasn’t been using her litter box as regularly. I think she’s using it about 80% of the time but I keep finding pee in her cage in other places.  I noticed one time that she sat in her litter box with her bunny butt sticking out of the litter box (even though the litter box is a cat sized box and large enough for two of her to fit) and peed outside of the litter box -> how do I prevent this from happening?

The more confusing part is that she keeps moving her litter box OUT of the corner that its in and into the middle of her cage.  Twice I’ve seen her then hop back over to the corner and munches on hay and then pees there… when the litter box is no longer there!! Why is she doing this, and how can I get her to stop?

[litheandgraphic]

It’s pretty common for recently fixed rabbits to lose their litterbox habits. She may need to be re-taught. It sounds like she also might not like the box that you’re using. Have you tried other boxes, possibly one with lower sides?

She also may not like the location. If she’s picking another corner to go to the bathroom in more regularly, try putting the box in that corner instead. Are you putting hay in the box and/or in a rack, basket, or box where she can munch while she goes? Hay will attract a bun to the box. You can also put a few tasty, healthy greens that she likes inside the box so that she’s more tempted to go fully into the box.

If you feel it’s necessary to start the whole rigmarole of training again, what you can do is make her area a bit smaller, so that she has less of other areas to go, but make sure she’s also getting a lot of exercise and out time, and put her in this smaller area at night when it’s time to sleep. This should make her adjust to using the box more quickly after a few weeks. Then you can re-expand her area.

No matter what you decide to do, it will probably take a few weeks of adjusting for her to come back to her litterbox skills, but more than likely she eventually will.

[Cinnamon Bun]

Thanks for your reply! I hope you’re right that she will adjust soon I have three litter boxes and I have tried two of them, so if she keeps having trouble I will try the third one, which is quite a bit bigger than the other two and will basically FORCE her to pee inside the box!
The weird thing with the location is she is peeing in the corner that the litter box is in -> but shes moving the litter box OUT of the corner and then peeing in the corner.
Her hay rack is in that corner, but I will try the trick of some nice greens!

[litheandgraphic]

Haha, her moving the box out of the corner suggests to me that she either doesn’t LIKE the box, or that she doesn’t understand that she’s supposed to to INSIDE of the box. Fixing ultimately does change some of their behavior and attitudes, so this is probably just her deciding she doesnt like or understand the box anymore. Re-training her will probably help with this.

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