My bunny won’t pee in her litterbox

[Bumbleberry]

My 6 month old holland lop bunny has to live in the garage. She has a fairly small cage but it is attached to an excersise pen that she can run around in. I got her when she was 2 months old and I litter box trained her right away. She was great, pooping and peeing in her litterbox all the time. But lately she has been peeing right beside her litterbox. She sits on her litterbox but somehow the pee goes out. We are going to get her spayed next month. Please help and give any tips you may have.
Thanks

[Teddy]

Hi Bumbleberry! Yay, a fellow holland lop parent

At that age of 6 months, I would say her toilet mistakes are caused by behavioral changes (blame it on those raging puberty hormones)! She is simply maturing and doing what bunnies naturally do– marking territory and distinguishing their areas. If she is doing it right beside her litterbox, that actually isn’t so bad; before he got neutered, my little buck used to leave puddles here and there outside his hutch at any point during the day!

As you probably know already, there is absolutely no use trying to reprimand a bunny to make him/her understand the way you would to train a dog. SO, the best way to try to help your girl resume her litter habits is to wipe up the pee with like a paper towel and leave the paper towel in her litterbox. They can’t help what the hormones dictate them to do, but they are still very smart. It helped my Teddy after all, I don’t think he liked me invading his space without his consent Try that and see if it works for you too, and good luck!

[LBJ10]

If the peeing problem is hormone-driven then there isn’t much hope until after she is spayed. Once she is spayed and her hormones have settled, you should be able to work of re-litter training her.

[vanessa]

My holland lop sits at the edge of his box and pees half in half out. Not intentionally. He has various shapes/sizes of litterboxes. The large 9 gallon box that is about 7 inches tall, never gets peed over the edge. I fold a dish cloth and put it at the lip of the shallow litterbox to catch the “edge-pee”. If she is just sitting outside the box and peeing next to it, I’d make a square of about 4 puppy pee pads, and place an inexpensive airline-style blanket over the peepads (my bunnies chew pee pads). That way the pee pad can catch the outside pee. That could at least mitigate the problem. I have 2 spayed females. One is super duper extra good about using her litterbox. Always was, even at 3 months when I got her. It was instinct for her. She was never litter box trained – she came from a meat farm. My other female is super terretorial. I have 2 bonded pairs living in one room with a divider fence. When Guinevere is feeling terretorial and jealous, she poops and pees around the litterbox, and on the fleece. So I remove the fleece and replace it with a towel (soft fuxxy blankets will also get peed on). Once she has calmed down and is back toi using the litterbox, I replace the fleece. So even after a spay – their might still be cases of going outside the box, but aside from occational behavioral causes, – once litterbox rained, always trained.

[Author]

Messages