Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum DIET & CARE Will I ever get my 4-year old bun to use a litter pan?

Viewing 19 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • Ellie from The Netherlands
      Participant
      2512 posts Send Private Message

        My boyfriend owns a dwarf rabbit named Breintje, and after we started dating he brought him to my house so I could have a companion. Before my boyfriend brought him to my house, Breintje used his bedroom as his living space. He has always been quite neat: he does all his business in his cage. However, he doesn’t do it in one place. My BF never taught him to use a litter pan. Breintje just spreads it out through the cage, though he seems to do most of it in the back of the cage.

        In my house Breintje has free range of the living room, and he is only in his cage at night or to do his business. His cage is made from plastic with a wire top, and he has free access to it during the day. We use wood pellets with a thick layer of hay on top (not straw, I have a wheat allergy). 

        My health has gotten worse over the last two years, I regularly have trouble with lifting heavy stuff and picking up things from the floor. Cleaning the cage is difficult on those bad days. I hate to admit it, but sometimes the bun needs to wait a day or two until my boyfriend can come over to help. I know that this is quite unacceptable, and can be unhealthy for the bun in warm weather Luckily we don’t have a lot of warm weather here in the Netherlands, but I want to take proper care of the bun.

        The solution would be a litter pan in his cage: these are easy to pick up and clean. However, he is extremely stubborn about it. He goes everywhere in his cage except for in the litter pan. This is what we have tried already:

        – Placing the litter pan in the back of the cage, where he seems to do most of his business, when we noticed he just used the open space next to it we moved his water bowl there.

        – Scooping some droppings into the litter pan

        – Rewarding him with raisins and pettings when he occasionally picks the right spot

        – Picking him up gently and putting him in the litter pan whenever he tries to poop.

         

        So far, no long-lasting success. He uses the litter pan only randomly, and more than half of his poop and pee is still spread out through the cage. He mostly uses the pan during the daytime, possibly because there’s a raisin coming, but every morning I’m greeted again by piles of poop in the wrong place.

        Dear bun, don’t you understand that I’m trying to take the best care of you? My health is bad, but I still want to care well for him.

        How do I get my stubborn little bun to use the litter pan exclusively?


      • jerseygirl
        Moderator
        22338 posts Send Private Message

          His cage is made from plastic with a wire top, and he has free access to it during the day. We use wood pellets with a thick layer of hay on top

          Hi Ellie
          So this is what is in his litter pan? Or on the cage floor?


        • Ellie from The Netherlands
          Participant
          2512 posts Send Private Message

            The cage and the litter pan both have the same filling: wood pellets with a thick layer of hay on top. When I clean the cage I place the litter pan in an empty cage, put in the wood pellets in both the cage and the pan, and cover everything with a layer of hay. This should make the height difference between pan and cage as small as possible.


          • jerseygirl
            Moderator
            22338 posts Send Private Message

              Okay, try this. Put the wood pellets and hay only in his litter pan. Leave the rest of the cage the bare plastic. Give it a few days and see what he does. Currently, the 2 areas are too similar so he’ll treat the whole cage like a big litterbox. 


            • Ellie from The Netherlands
              Participant
              2512 posts Send Private Message

                We never thought of this and will definately try this in a few days! Thanks


              • jerseygirl
                Moderator
                22338 posts Send Private Message

                  He might pull the hay out and eat it on outside of the box (mine do!) and leave some poos, but they’re easy enough to sweep up. But this set up *should* help getting all urine in the box, provided the box is big enough for him.


                • cinnybun2015
                  Participant
                  570 posts Send Private Message

                    I like to put the rabbit’s food bowl into the litterbox for the first few weeks of litter training. Worked immediately with my Chom, as he realized he could only eat if he sat in his litterbox. (Your bun might spill the food- I know my Chomondeley did!) What Jersey said should also work, but it’s different with every bun.


                  • Ellie from The Netherlands
                    Participant
                    2512 posts Send Private Message

                      Thanks for the tip cinnybun, but his litter box is too small for that. It’s a corner model, and that may be part of the problem as well I read on some other sites.

                      We replaced his food bowl with some toys btw, so he has to work for his food. There’s a special exercise ball with a hole in it for his pellets. But he doesn’t get a lot of those nowadays. It’s mostly hay and fresh greens, these are put in a wire ball and he has to be creative to get to his favourite veggies. He’s not bored and overweight anymore, and the ball has made him quite the football (nose-ball?) pro


                    • Ellie from The Netherlands
                      Participant
                      2512 posts Send Private Message

                        Well, I changed the litter today and only put hay and pellets into the litter pan. The floor of the cage is now bare except for a large piece of cardboard. Our bun has to make a little jump to get into the cage, and the plastic was too slippery to land on properly.

                        So far he seems a bit miffed about the changes *thump*, but let’s see if he’ll finally take the hint ^_^ Fingers crossed!


                      • jerseygirl
                        Moderator
                        22338 posts Send Private Message

                          Is it working?

                          Thanks for the tip cinnybun, but his litter box is too small for that. It’s a corner model, and that may be part of the problem as well I read on some other sites.

                          This is true. There are some that are quite large, but normally, they are small and have a grate. The rabbits end up using it as a sitting spot. They like elevated perches.
                          So step 2 might be to get a rectagular cat litterbox with high enough sides.


                        • Ellie from The Netherlands
                          Participant
                          2512 posts Send Private Message

                            I was just about to give you an update, it works like a charm! Thank you so much for your help. He hasn’t done a single thing outside of his litter pan And it is definately easy to clean.

                            The only thing is that he seems to dislike the cardboard in the cage. He doesn’t find it relaxing at all. So I’m wondering about the next step: introducing soft materials into the cage again. I think I’ll try with a towel or a blanket first. Switching back to hay will probably just confuse him again.


                          • Vienna Blue in France
                            Participant
                            5317 posts Send Private Message

                              Well done you ! Yes mine likes only doing toilet on soft surfaces so I can’t make her ‘bedroom’ nice and warm and cosy with hay in the winter as she just pees in it !! (even though all summer she’s known it as her ‘bedroom’…..!! tut !) So the next best thing is carpet tiles, it’s sort of soft without being fluffy and takes the coldness out of the floor… and also gives her traction which as a big bun, she likes…. alot !
                              Depending on the size of her cage, you could try the “carpet samples” size that some shops give away or sell very cheaply.

                              When Zou was smaller (and I didn’t realise just how big she was going to grow), I started out with a medium sized corner box, and then moved to a cat litter tray, but I saw a huuuuge corner one the other day – shame…


                            • Ellie from The Netherlands
                              Participant
                              2512 posts Send Private Message

                                He’s still doing it perfectly

                                My next question: (how) do we re-introduce soft materials? The cardboard is being chewed up to pieces, and the blanket I put in 2 days ago was only used for digging and dragging around.

                                It’s ribbed carbdoard from a box, and he loves stripping the top layer off. So he’s sitting on a ribbed surface sometimes. Can a cardboard box cause sore feet for my bun in the long run? If so, we’ll replace it ASAP.


                              • Vienna Blue in France
                                Participant
                                5317 posts Send Private Message

                                  Ellie – GREAT news about the litter box !

                                  1) The fun of having cardboard IS to rip it to pièces, in as many pièces as possible. Some bits are eaten, some are thrown passionately to one side.
                                  2) The fun of having blankets is to dig in them, and drag them around !!

                                  There is really no ‘reintroduding’ of soft materials… if they were peed on they will be again.
                                  A carboard box won’t hurt his paws but esthetically speaking you may want to replace the cardboard to make it look nicer.

                                  I have a huge cardboard box in the kitchen for my monster bun and cut 1 ‘window’ half way up 2 of the sides. She chewed all the way round from one window to the next and so the box collapsed !!!! So then I had to replace it !!

                                  Cardboard : playing in it, chewing it, eating it and throwing it around is THE number one pastime of the bun ! Don’t panic


                                • Ellie from The Netherlands
                                  Participant
                                  2512 posts Send Private Message

                                    Nearly 3 weeks into the training, I thought I’d keep you all posted.

                                    He’s still going to the litterbox to do his poops. Yesterday I changed both the litterbox and the cardboard, and yesterday evening he peed on the cardboard next to the litter box. I wiped it away as well as I could. There was also pee in the litterbox, so I hoped this was just an “aiming mistake”.

                                    Overnight he had peed straight into his water crock, the little idiot. I woke up to a bright orange water crock.

                                    Now he’s happily looking at me from his litter box with his “doing my business” look. I hope that this temporary setback was just that, and that he keeps the excellent habits he has been developing over the past weeks.


                                  • Ellie from The Netherlands
                                    Participant
                                    2512 posts Send Private Message

                                      Over the last weeks I noticed that he’s mostly trained now. He only has accidents when we all have been away from home, especially on the day after we return he has a few slip-ups but he soon returns to his trained behaviour. Thank you all so much for your expert advice, it’s so much easier to care for him now My friends have supplied me with a nearly endless supply of old moving boxes, so cardboard aplenty.

                                      From previous accidents I’ve learned something about Breintjes personal preferences. He does demand that I change his litter box at least every 3 days and scoop out all droppings daily, he’s fussy about it. He will even jump in his cage to inspect the whole scene when I’m scooping out his droppings. If the litter box is too messy for his tastes he will simply stick his butt out over the side and I can proceed to clean out the entire cage including his water crock. Oh well, bunny trained, human trained as well. Fair exchange…


                                    • Theodorusrex
                                      Participant
                                      336 posts Send Private Message

                                        If you’re still using a corner litter tray it could well be aiming mistakes. Theo shuffles right into the corner and lifts his bum so high in the air when he pees and sometimes he can miss his litter tray by a good 6 inches haha.
                                        We changed to a high-sided cat litter tray which sorted that problem.


                                      • Archer
                                        Participant
                                        31 posts Send Private Message

                                          Posted By jerseygirl on 6/30/2016 9:07 AM

                                          Okay, try this. Put the wood pellets and hay only in his litter pan. Leave the rest of the cage the bare plastic. Give it a few days and see what he does. Currently, the 2 areas are too similar so he’ll treat the whole cage like a big litterbox. 

                                          This is genius, and I’ll be using it to litter train my baby buns!  Thank you!


                                        • Ellie from The Netherlands
                                          Participant
                                          2512 posts Send Private Message

                                            Posted By Theodorusrex on 8/23/2016 5:21 AM

                                            If you’re still using a corner litter tray it could well be aiming mistakes. Theo shuffles right into the corner and lifts his bum so high in the air when he pees and sometimes he can miss his litter tray by a good 6 inches haha.
                                            We changed to a high-sided cat litter tray which sorted that problem.

                                            This really got me thinking, because we frequently had “happy little accidents” in the last weeks. He was sitting in his tray, but with his behind over the side.

                                            Today we decided to buy a rectangular plastic box, and by sheer luck we found a box with the perfect dimensions in the second store we went to. It tightly fits in the litter-part of his cage, without any gaps on the side. The plastic box used to be the bottom part of a cupcake carrier, but now it’s in his cage and he seems to be very pleased More space, and easier to get into. He’s already done some of his business there, so let’s see.

                                             


                                          • Skeeter
                                            Participant
                                            4 posts Send Private Message

                                              So I’ll honestly say I haven’t been through this entire thread as its 11 hours into my 12 hour night shift and I just can’t brain right now.

                                              I’m no expert, however if I may make a suggestion. One thing I’ve noticed with all of our bunnies is they tend to poo while eating. So what I’ve always done is put their food in such all spot in the cage where they are forced to be sitting in the litter box to reach the food. Any little pellets outside the box can be easily picked up and put in the litter box for the time being. With all lol of our rabbits it’s only taken a couple of weeks and they have it down! Even our new netherland dwarf, who was only 8 weeks old when we got him, is no using his litter box, with no accidents while roaming out in the house. It only took him about a week to get the hang of it.

                                          Viewing 19 reply threads
                                          • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                                          Forum DIET & CARE Will I ever get my 4-year old bun to use a litter pan?