New Bun... few questions

hi all,

can say this is the first time i've ever been on one of these forums but it looks very resourceful and hope you guys can help!

we got a new rabbit on friday and after hiding in his house bit on friday night he has been out pretty much ever since! he always comes up to us already and has tried to escape into the rest of the house a few times :lol:

we have given him free run of the kitchen after bunny proofing it and blocking off the entrance to it with his hutch so he can pee/poo in there... however sometimes he 'nuggets' as we have come to call it outside of the hutch?!

what can we do about this? he is only 8 weeks at the moment bless him, and he does primarily pee in one corner but hes also going in other parts of his cage too, and pooping mostly everywhere!

is this normal for his age or am i doing something wrong here? i don't want to mess this up!

i've also decided he needs an asbo - constantly trying to escape, crawling all over me while im trying to clean him, trying to escape some more, it's funny as anything! and as for the tree thing we bought for him, it's half trashed in 48hours :shock:

any help and advice, all of that, is welcome guys!

and heres a pic of him ^_^



thanks guys!!

He's a cutie

For now just pick up all of his poos and put them in his litter tray. Hopefully he will get the idea. He might just be marking his territory at the moment but once he feels that he has done this he might stop doing it.

Once he has become a man bunny you should get him neutered so that he doesn't start other behaviours like spraying.

thanks stator!

we don't have a litter tray at the moment - do you reckon we should get one?

my girlf's mum who got her bun a few weeks ago refuses point blank to go in it :lol: so we didn't know if we should?

we are definately planning to get him neutered so there will be none of that behaviour, and we're going to reg him at the vets on monday and get him checked up to make sure everything is cushtee! and when he's old enough, myxie jabs and neutering!

Definitely get a litter tray, he'll learn to use it really quickly and it'll be so much easier for you to clean each day - it will only take a couple of minutes to tip out the litter, wash out the tray, dry and refill. So much cleaner for him and for you.

A tip though, while he's getting used to it, when he uses it don't clean it out for a couple of days while he gets the idea.

Buns are so easy to toilet train, I've got 4 and all of them are 100% reliable.

Good luck!

ok aussiebun i'll get one!

how do i get him to use it consistently, like train him to use it? he's nuggeted in the kitchen again >_<

It will be hard to get him completely litter trained until he is nuetered, even then there may be the odd "nugget" around. Just pop them in the litter tray and he should get the idea.

They can scatter their droppings around to mark territory I think, so that's probably what he's doing at the moment since the area is so new.
Moving all the 'nuggets' in the area where he usually goes (or litter tray) should help, as others have said.

He's a cutie though!

great!! thanks guys! i will try and get a litterbox today if not it will have to be tomorrow!

i've just been sat in the kitchen with him and he loves my dressing gown, trying to burrow into me!! :lol:

how do you stop bad behaviour?

and he likes to lick my hands aswell! my rabbit is quality

Aww, Welcome to RU, thats a lovely little bun youve got there. :wave:

Im not sure if you know this already but when they lick you it means that they have accepted you and they are grooming you. Isnt it great. All the best with your little man.

This is a great site, I have only been a member for a short time and I have learned so many things

Awwwhh! That's a cute little bun! Does he have a name?

I recommend a litter tray too. It takes a little while to train them but once they use it, it makes cleaning out soooooo much easier! And you'll find the rest of the hutch stays cleaner and drier too. They will nearly always pee in the same corner so put the tray there. Poops are a bit harder - they do mark territory with them so sometimes they'll leave a few in the wrong place. :lol: He should practically stop that once he's neutered though.

Right, I'm off to 'awwwhhhhhhhh' at your photo a little bit more!

thanks guys, if he could read this he'd be very pleased to know everybody apart from us thinks hes a cutie

his name is bart, and boy is he living up to it! he took to chewing my clothes last night, is going "NO!" and pushing him away from what hes doing/picking him off it the right thing? we're going to get a water spray to spray when we say NO! so that he gets the right idea (read that somewhere on here!!)

just finished cleaning him out and now he's running about the kitchen and cage like a loony :lol:

guys,

just a question. it appears our bart had a bit of a binge during the night of the treat that's been in his cage for a week, his tree made of straw grass, pellets, hay and his mineral rock.

the end result is inevitable he has an upset gut and has soft (not runny) poos (and his bottom is clean)

my course of action is to take the tree away, along with the treat, but leave him with a few pellets for the rest of the day and a healthy supply of hay and water? is this the right action to do?

cheers peeps

I'd keep the pellet amounts really low, & let him binge on his hay to harden things up

brilliant angie! glad i had the right idea!

He's young AND unneutered, I doubt he will fully use a litter tray till he's older and neutered

He sounds like such a lovely, cheeky little chappie, Merry Christmas

cheeky he... or she is!

i'm beginning to doubt he is a he! he.. she is always burrowing! my girlf's mums rabbit doesn't do any of this!

just a young thing or a girl thing?

Homer said:

cheeky he... or she is!

i'm beginning to doubt he is a he! he.. she is always burrowing! my girlf's mums rabbit doesn't do any of this!

just a young thing or a girl thing?

Click to expand...

When we had Bungle, he used to burrow and dig against everything, walls, carpet, clothes, anything except the garden.

Bruce also does this too, I think burrowing is both a male and remale thing.

How is Bart getting on?

he's getting on just great thanks! he is a very social bunny and always comes to the cage to see what we're upto if we are up and about, and if we let him out he tends to follow us everywhere!

very affectionate and its very cool the way he just sniffs everything all the time! :lol:

he has made himself a nice little bed in his house bit too, i stuffed it full of meadow hay which he has made into a nice rabbit shaped hole :lol: