Newbie needs advice on hutch bathroom problem

Hi everyone.
I am new to having pet rabbits and I have been doing a lot of reading but my two new bunnies have me a bit stumped.
The bunnies are about 11 weeks old and we have had them for a week.
I bought them a nice hutch with an upstairs sleeping and living room area and a downstairs floor.

The problem is that they basically **** and pee in their bedroom area as well as downstairs in the play area. They picked those two places from day one, and they don't want to limit themselves to the downstairs area.

I tried placing some of their urinated material and droppings in the downstairs corner that they use, but they still use their bedroom.
I can't relocate the bedroom area because the hutch is not designed to do that, and I notice that they don't use the bedroom to sleep much since they are always out in the open areas of the hutch even very late into the night.

Is there any solution to the problem, or will they always want to use both sites in the hutch as a bathroom?
If I drape some fabric over the bedroom door so that it is very dark inside, will that influence their actions?
The droppings are no problem, even though they seem to just do it anywhere in the hutch, but the urine in the bedroom can't be a good thing since it means that the area will be damp as well as smelly.

My followup question is whether there is any sort of varnish I could use on the inside of the hutch where they go to the bathroom in order to protect it from rotting away in time?
Would some sort of acrylic coat be ok?

Thanks a lot for any advice.

I would get two plastic litter trays for both areas they are going in... that way you can line it with newspaper and add hay on top so they will poop and eat at the same time as that is what they like to do best.

Most bunnies choose the "bedroom" to poop.. think they like privacy :lol:

Try different size trays until you find the one that fits your hutch best.. I use underbed storage boxes as my bunnies like big litter trays... but I did start off using cat litter trays when I got my first hutch which was a bit smaller than what they have now.

My bunny ONLY pees in his bedroom, and as far as I can tell NEVER sleeps there! :roll::roll: Sleeping at the door of his living quarters in the summer is all very well, but don't know about the winter. I've tried making him a nice bed of hay at one side of the living quarters, but he invariably pushes it out of the way and settles on the bare wood. :roll::roll: I doubt there are any magic answers, but I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. :wave:

Thanks, susie bun and fluffiebunnie.
Someone told me that they may become better at it as they get older, but right now their poop is all over the hutch floor and they are urinating in two places only.
I worry about them sleeping on wet bedding in their bedroom, especially when winter comes.

Having their pockets picked generally helps....but having said that I have a picked pocketed BB and he does it everywhere......:roll:

Hi there :wave:

Neutering could well help.

As Fluffiebunnie has said, litter training should really help and is usually very easy. Get a washing up bowl (or similar), line it with a good wad of newspaper and fill with hay, then put this inside the bedroom area. Buns like to chew while they're on the loo so they SHOULD automatically do everything in the one place. You'll need to empty it at least once a day but twice (or more often) is best, especially with two buns. Top up with fresh hay each time & give it a really good scrub out 1-2 times a week using hot water & a suitable disinfectant (vinegar works well ). As they are also pooping downstairs I would put another one there. You can buy special high backed corner ones for buns which are quite good and take up less space than a square or oblong one. One of my foster buns sleeps AND poops in his litter bowl inside his bedroom area :roll:

If your hutch isn't already lined I would suggest using lino as a floor covering. This is easy to wipe clean and will make the floor last much longer. You can put an old towel down, fleece or a piece of carpet for somewhere for them to lie on but remove if either start to chew as this could be ingested.

Be careful to only put hay where you want them to toilet though or they'll get confused

yvette said:

Having their pockets picked generally helps

Click to expand...

I don't understand what this means.:?

Luis Ortega said:

I don't understand what this means.:?

Click to expand...

Neutering.De-plummed.Speyed.
Its a nice word I think!!!!:roll::lol:

Luis Ortega said:

I don't understand what this means.:?

Click to expand...

I didn't get it either. Haven't had my lad done as he's single and shows no signs of hormonal urges, eg. wrist humping. I've had him 3 months and he's never once looked like a potential daddy. He's a tidy boy - only pees in his bedroom and just the odd poo pops out elsewhere.

yvette said:

Neutering.De-plummed.Speyed.
Its a nice word I think!!!!:roll::lol:

Click to expand...

Oh, Ok. Thanks.
We got two females so that they can live together in harmony.
I don't want to neuter them for the time being since my son wants to see them have a litter and we might put them in with a male rabbit someday and let them have some kids.

Luis Ortega said:

Oh, Ok. Thanks.
We got two females so that they can live together in harmony.
I don't want to neuter them for the time being since my son wants to see them have a litter and we might put them in with a male rabbit someday and let them have some kids.

Click to expand...

:shock::shock:

For some reason I think we all assumed you had two boys. You will find that this is a very pro rescue site and therefore not very supportive of breeding (particularly informal/inexperienced).

Please please don't breed more rabbits. 33,000 end up in rescues each year, many are PTS because they cannot be re-homed or because they have physical problems due to poor breeding. Female buns should be speyed as soon as they are old enough to remove the risk of uterine cancer which kills 85% of female rabbits before the age of 3

I also understand that you should have details of the bun going back at least 3 generations before considering breeding. Many female rabbits die giving birth or shortly after because of complications as a result of inexperience

Fluffers said:

Hi there :wave:

Neutering could well help.

As Fluffiebunnie has said, litter training should really help and is usually very easy. Get a washing up bowl (or similar), line it with a good wad of newspaper and fill with hay, then put this inside the bedroom area. Buns like to chew while they're on the loo so they SHOULD automatically do everything in the one place. You'll need to empty it at least once a day but twice (or more often) is best, especially with two buns. Top up with fresh hay each time & give it a really good scrub out 1-2 times a week using hot water & a suitable disinfectant (vinegar works well ). As they are also pooping downstairs I would put another one there. You can buy special high backed corner ones for buns which are quite good and take up less space than a square or oblong one. One of my foster buns sleeps AND poops in his litter bowl inside his bedroom area :roll:

If your hutch isn't already lined I would suggest using lino as a floor covering. This is easy to wipe clean and will make the floor last much longer. You can put an old towel down, fleece or a piece of carpet for somewhere for them to lie on but remove if either start to chew as this could be ingested.

Be careful to only put hay where you want them to toilet though or they'll get confused

Click to expand...

Totally my advice, follow this and they should get the hang, change the hay regularly throughout as buns like it fresh

Fluffers said:

:shock::shock:

For some reason I think we all assumed you had two boys. You will find that this is a very pro rescue site and therefore not very supportive of breeding (particularly informal/inexperienced).

Please please don't breed more rabbits. 33,000 end up in rescues each year, many are PTS because they cannot be re-homed or because they have physical problems due to poor breeding. Female buns should be speyed as soon as they are old enough to remove the risk of uterine cancer which kills 85% of female rabbits before the age of 3

I also understand that you should have details of the bun going back at least 3 generations before considering breeding. Many female rabbits die giving birth or shortly after because of complications as a result of inexperience

Click to expand...

Thanks for the good advice, Fluffers.

Fluffers said:

:shock::shock:

For some reason I think we all assumed you had two boys. You will find that this is a very pro rescue site and therefore not very supportive of breeding (particularly informal/inexperienced).

Please please don't breed more rabbits. 33,000 end up in rescues each year, many are PTS because they cannot be re-homed or because they have physical problems due to poor breeding. Female buns should be speyed as soon as they are old enough to remove the risk of uterine cancer which kills 85% of female rabbits before the age of 3

I also understand that you should have details of the bun going back at least 3 generations before considering breeding. Many female rabbits die giving birth or shortly after because of complications as a result of inexperience

Click to expand...

I was about to agree. I think rabbits lead a much happier life after being fixed too.

I joined the fixed bunny boat today.

I am glad you have taken on board the advice about breeding rabbits.

We would never want to breed rabbits (ours are both male anyway), but reading this forum just over the time I have been a member would completely put me off. Hardly a day goes by without a thread along the lines of, "Why has my rabbit has killed it's babies?" or "Rabbit had 8 babies what shall I do with them?" or "Just had a litter, pregnant again" or regularly, "Doe has died, how do I hand-rear 5 babies?".

Maybe everyday is an exaggeration, but there are lots of threads along those lines. The cute baby rabbit phase is short-lived, but the litter could live 8 or 9 years. That's a long time in a rescue or worse in a 2x2ft hutch as a neglected pet who is unwanted when the cuteness passes.

We bought our rabbits at Pets at Home - we love them of course, but I regret this now. I so wish we had gone to a rescue and got a bonded pair. Have a look on the Rabbits in Need section - I know you wouldn't want to think that a couple of years down the line, your rabbit's offspring were in rescues desparate for adoption. I wish I had joined this forum before getting rabbits.

Every single person who comments on our lovely rabbits gets the, "Yes, but next time I will go to a rescue..." speech because I have seen how many unwanted litters there are in rescues.