If I move the litter trays, will they forget litter training?

[narkut]

Hi, I have two bunnies, Lady and Duke. They are cage free house bunnies and are 98% litter trained.

I am rearranging my living room and want to move the locations of their litter trays (and possibly decrease the amount of trays from 4 to 3). However I am worried they will continue to wee in the areas their trays used to be, rather than wee in their trays in the new locations. I don’t know if I’m worrying over nothing but I remember reading that you shouldn’t make sudden changes to rabbits litter trays or they forget their training. Is this correct?

Have any of you decreased the amount of trays or moved them around the room? Has this negatively effected the rabbits litter habits?

I’d really appreciate your advice. Thank you!

[Bam]

Bunnies do have a tendency to keep peeing in the spots they think suitable for peeing in rather than in a litter-box. The method most likely to be successful is to move the litter-boxes little by little until they are where you want them to be.

I haven’t decreased the nr of litter-boxes for my buns, but I did substitute a broken one for a smaller one and that made my Bam use his big box exclusively. I didn’t know then that rabbits tend to dislike small litter-boxes. The new (not so new anymore) litter-box is still there, but I never have to clean it because it doesn’t get used.

[beebun]

Seconding bam! We moved chito’s litterbox slowly over the course of a week to the other side of the corridor. It was a short distance, though, so he figured it out quickly. The bigger the shift, the slower it would be!

Good luck!

[Azerane]

I agree with the others, shift the litter box slowly over the course of a week or more if neeeded. In terms of removing one of the boxes, I wouldn’t remove and shift boxes at the same time, but get them used to one change first, and then do the other. Just to minimise accidents. When removing the extra box, I would thoroughly clean the area with a 50/50 vinegar water mix just to neutralise any smells. When you’re shifting the box too, whenever you change it’s position a little more, make sure it’s dirty. That way their smell is nice and strong in it and they should be more inclined to keep using it rather than to go where it was.

[narkut]

Thank you for your advice! ‘Move litter tray operation’ has began, although I suspect it will take me a year to move the tray from one side of the room to the other..!

[Author]

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