Litter Training a Bunny?! Help.

[ChristieDB]

We recently were given a little bunny. She is growing fast... I would like to keep her inside as a house bunny, but know that being confined to a box all day is not good for her nor fair, but putting her in a Hutch outside seems equally not fair. If I can litter box train her she can live inside... We keep trying but she will go beside it an flay in the litter. So we flipped it, same thing. I know people successfully house train bunnies all the time... Any and all pointers, tips, tricks, secrets wanted.. Share, share, share.

Thank you

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I believe you are supposed to feed them in the box since they poop while eating. That's what I read at least. I'm glad my bunnies are outside. Their pee sure can stink at times and they make a lot of poops.

Hopefully someone is more helpful than me.

 

[Chickassan]

Ok, get a litter pan big enough to sit her crate into she will pick a poop corner. In a few days remove her crate but leave the litter pan she should now go to that corner to poop. Biggest advice start the training exactly where the litter pan is going to be forever, if you move the pan bunny will poop where the pan was.

 

[Killer Tomato]

Getting her spayed will also help, though it is very expensive where I live. Look around for vets who offer deals on bunny spay/neuters.

We had to use puppy pee pads lining the entire bunny room (we had our bun free range in a spare bedroom), and figure out the favorite "pee/poop corner" then put a litter box in all of those spots. We would do:

clean litter box
with a pee pad on the bottom and a paper towel
then a thin layer of feline pine pellets (or untreated stove pellets)
then fresh Timothy hay on top

Clean it a lot, but leave the some of the paper towel with their pee scent and a few poops in it each time you clean.

Expect your bun to kick everything out on the floor the minute you put it in clean and fresh -- they like to rearrange things.

 

[Killer Tomato]

Oh, and if they are sick, hormonal, territorial, or scared/worried, litter training goes out the window.

We had a geriatric Dutch rabbit with chronic tooth issues -- he was on daily pain meds, and needed yearly tooth surgeries. When his teeth were getting very badly overgrown, (and obviously causing him more pain) he was understandably not very tidy. It's very hard to assess a rabbit's pain level, because being a prey animal they will "mask" their symptoms, but this was always an indicator that he needed his teeth worked on.

That rabbit had better dental care than anyone in our entire household. Spoiled old guy -- he lived to be about 10.