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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A New owner…few questions

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    • lily2521
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        We’ve had Gizmo home for 3 days now, and I’m learning lots from him already   But…I do have some questions.  He’s a 2 year old male mini lop, he is neutered.  I was told he’s litter trained.

        *I know rabbits are crepuscular, I’ve noticed that even though we’re home in the evening, from about 5PM-10PM, he really doesn’t get very active until closer to 10PM when we’re going to bed.  Will this change with time, will he end up more on a schedule like ours?  I’d like to see him more active when we are, instead of when we’re going to bed. 

        * Even though we were told he’s litter trained, since we’ve gotten him home, his litter box habits aren’t that great.  He’s gone a couple of times in the box, but other times not in the box.  I read that they should generally go in the same spot in their cage, but he’s not doing this.  Earlier today, he pooped twice, both in different spots, and tonight he peed in another spot.  Should I give him more time?  I know he’s been through a lot coming home with us strange humans to a new family. 

        *I tried putting only paper pellets in his litter box, with a hay rack right next to the box, but when I do that I noticed that he doesn’t eat the hay from the rack, or use the litter box.  The only times he’s used the box is when there is hay in the box (paper pellets, with hay on top).  For some reason this grosses me out, having the hay he’s eating in the box, but maybe I just need to cave and realize this is how bunnies do it, and the hay rack might not be an option? 

        *So far I’ve just had fleece down under his hutch, with a rug underneath that.  Because he’s been peeing on the fleece, and throws hay everywhere, and picked up his litter box and threw it (I’ve since tied it down), the fleece isn’t working, I’m having to change it too often to keep it clean.  I’d rather have a hard surface, one that’s washable…with blankets that can easily be removed.  Can I do this?  I was thinking of buying a sheet of vinyl flooring or something, putting that under his hutch, it would be much easier to spot clean, and then if I just had a blanket or rug I could remove that and wash it when it gets dirty.  Is this an okay plan?

        Sorry for so many questions…kind of learning as we go here!


      • lily2521
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           I want to add, in regards to the part about his schedule…we plan to leave
          his hutch door open for play/exercise time during these times that we’re home
          (5PM-10PM), and we’ve been doing that, but so far during these times, he’s just
          in his hutch sleeping, and not really coming out for exercise time.  I’m hoping
          he’ll adjust to our schedule for this reason as well.


        • Little Lion Head
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            Hi Lily and congrats on your bun! I can answer most of your questions from my own experiences.

            In regards to schedule; your bunny probably won’t change his schedule. I wish ours would!! We have two free-roamers who do god knows what during the day (sleep!) and the only time they are very active in the evening when we are home is when they are begging for their salads! I think they are most active while we are sleeping which I guess is fine since they are free roam. I understand your frustration with wanting him to get exercise though! Maybe someone else has some better info or advice here.

            Give him some more time on the litter training….weeks, even months. When he pees outside of the box, clean it up with a paper towel and have him watch you put it in the box. He’ll get the idea eventually. Same with poops. Keep picking them up and have him watch you put them in the box. It will get better!

            Bunnies eat where they poop and poop where they eat. It’s super gross!!!! haha…a lot of us try to designate a “side” for hay in the litter box but my Pumpkin must sit on all the hay!!! The only solution I’ve found is wasting a ton of hay b/c I insist on constantly refreshing it which makes a lot go to waste! Find a good cheap place to find hay in bulk!! The other option would be to put a rack of hay above his box if possible? Then he can sit in the box while munching.

            What is the bottom of his hutch like? do you need a special flooring? If its wire or very hard I can see needing something. The fleece might be what’s confusing about litter training though. If you can do something not soft and fuzzy you might be better off. What about some cheap carpeting?


          • manic_muncher
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              Agree with the cleaning up and putting in the litterbox, but… make sure you are placing his litterbox where he PEES! That’s where he’s choosing to go, my buns have their hops counted I think to their proper spot. If the box isn’t there, they don’t care.. 5 hops and pee… 4 hops and pee.. I dunno how they decide, but THEY decide!… the poos are likely territorial right now and the bulk of them will probably end up in the litterbox, but don’t be surprised if not all of them are! My Bumpy is TERRIBLE with his poos. He DOES poo in his box, you know when he’s ready to read his magazine on the toilet kinda thing.. but his entire floor will be littered with them. I’ve given up on a completely poo free floor with him. But my bonded pair are immaculate and only go in their box for pee and poo!

              As for activity time… my buns have adjusted to my schedule to a degree. Yes, they sleep during the day mostly, but they have picked up on when -I- am most active in the evening and do their running around then. Hmm.. maybe our schedule is just more in time with theirs? I do know mine were much more active at night when we first got them than they are now. They don’t do a whole lot while we are sleeping, and my husband sleeps in the living room with all the buns! So when the lights go out and the tv goes to black… well… they are kinda outta luck.

              I gave up on the hay rack. The buns didn’t want to eat from it and I was worried about hay intake. I have big boxes, bigger than usual cat boxes and put fresh hay off to the side in the 2’x18″ on and in the underbed storage box for my flemish giant and her hubby, I put the hay right in the middle so they each can sit to one side of the pile or the other. Like you are thinking… I ended up caving on being grossed out about it.

              It’s 1am now and all the buns are quietly resting, hubby is asleep, though tv is on. Now, if I start opening cage doors and act like there is a party going on, you can bet they will be all for it! Well, everyone except the hubby! LOL


            • lily2521
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                Posted By Little Lion Head on 7/27/2015 8:53 PM

                  
                Bunnies eat where they poop and poop where they eat. It’s super gross!!!! haha…a lot of us try to designate a “side” for hay in the litter box but my Pumpkin must sit on all the hay!!! The only solution I’ve found is wasting a ton of hay b/c I insist on constantly refreshing it which makes a lot go to waste! Find a good cheap place to find hay in bulk!! The other option would be to put a rack of hay above his box if possible? Then he can sit in the box while munching.

                What is the bottom of his hutch like? do you need a special flooring? If its wire or very hard I can see needing something. The fleece might be what’s confusing about litter training though. If you can do something not soft and fuzzy you might be better off. What about some cheap carpeting?

                I’ve been doing that too, putting 1/2 pellets on one side, 1/2 hay on the other.  He did have poops in there this morning so yay for that!  I’ll change that daily though too, including the hay, just to keep it clean.  I tried the rack, and he wanted nothing to do with it, he wouldn’t eat hay from it at all.

                The bottom of his hutch is actually open to our floor, so I can do whatever I want to do with flooring, as long as my laminate floor is covered, because I don’t want to ruin the flooring in my home.  So my thought now is to maybe buy a sheet of vinyl flooring, or something similar, to lay underneath his cage, then add some rugs, hay mats, etc. on top of that so he has some soft spots.  That way, I could easily shake the rugs out, sweep up the vinyl flooring, and spot clean it if needed.  Right now I have fleece flooring and it’s just way too messy, the hay sticks to it and gets everywhere, because his litter habits we’re working on so I’m having to switch it out daily to wash the fleece, it’s kind of a pain.  

                I don’t know about carpeting, he’s a chewer, and I’d be afraid of him eating it, and I worry I’d be having the same problems I’m having now with the fleece.


              • lily2521
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                  Posted By manic_muncher on 7/28/2015 12:06 AM

                  Agree with the cleaning up and putting in the litterbox, but… make sure you are placing his litterbox where he PEES!   My Bumpy is TERRIBLE with his poos. He DOES poo in his box, you know when he’s ready to read his magazine on the toilet kinda thing.. but his entire floor will be littered with them. 
                    
                  As for activity time… my buns have adjusted to my schedule to a degree. Yes, they sleep during the day mostly, but they have picked up on when -I- am most active in the evening and do their running around then.  I do know mine were much more active at night when we first got them than they are now. 

                  About putting the litter box where he pees, he’s peed in 3 different spots so far, so that’s what’s causing part of my confusion.  With time we’ll get there, I know this is a new home to him and he needs time to adjust.  The poo thing is funny because that’s exactly how Gizmo is acting, this morning I saw him sitting right in his litter box eating, and sure enough, poo.  But…I’m still finding random poos elsewhere, which might just be something I have to deal with.  I’d rather pick up a few random poops than have pee everywhere. 

                  I’m happy to hear that your buns have adjusted to your schedule, I’m really hoping with time this is the case.  As I said last night, same deal, had his hutch door open for exercise time from 5-10, and he only started to liven up around 9-10pm, so I felt kind of bad putting him back in the hutch when we were going to bed, but I had to.  This is my biggest hope right now, that he adjusts with us a bit.  Plus my daughter goes to bed at 8, and he’s been snoozing at that time, so I’m hoping his schedule changes so she can interact with him a bit more in the early evening.

                  I know I need to give him more time too, maybe he’s sleeping more because of the stress of the move?  I wondered that too. 


                • manic_muncher
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                    You may need to put down a couple of boxes. When I only had Bumpy as the only rabbit in the house, his area was much larger and I had 3 in there with him. He also pooed less random poos. LOL But after awhile I was able to remove all the extra ones as you settled in on using just one to pee in. When we moved his pen to the other side of the room and downsized the area, he went to where I put the box, so he did recognize that as where he was supposed to go.

                    As far as the time adjusting, I just wanted to say that this has been ever-changing over the last 2 yrs. So it may go a bit slower. ALSO, we keep our house very dark, so I’m not sure if that tricks my rabbits at all into thinking it is dusk way sooner than it actual is. Mine also go pretty nuts when I break out the pellets, so maybe you can offer yours a few to get him moving around a little sooner than he normally would. Rabbits are so greedy!

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                Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A New owner…few questions