Why Does He Keep Wrecking His Litter Tray?

Dylan is being a right scamp lately. Ever since he started moulting a couple of months ago (it now looks to be nearly finished) he's started moving his tray and then digging out all of the litter (megazorb/straw) from it - he then toilets in the empty tray!! :roll: It is driving me nuts!
I changed his square tray to a corner one yesterday in the hope it might bamboozle him a bit but it didn't - he just does the same. So not only is the tray getting wet but I'm having double the amount of mess to clean up because of all the poos that he digs out and mixes in with his other bedding.

Does anyone know why his behaviour has changed - it does seem a to coincide with the moulting starting?
Has anyone else's bun done this and then one day just stopped doing it (I live in hope!)?
Help!! Destructive bun alert!

YES!

Dolly went through a stage of doing this, the tray had her hay in it though, but she still made a right mess and wasted so much hay!

I bought a hay rack in the end, left the shavings in the litter tray and attached the hay rack just above it. Now shes moved on to sitting in the hay rack!! :roll: and digging out her food bowl. :lol:

Nutty bunny!!

Mischa used to do this when I had a small litter tray. Since I got nice big and deep ones he's stopped and is far more interested in eating the yummy hay since I can get lots of hay in these ones.

George does this too. I put news paper and aubiose in their litter trays. George will tip it upside down and rip the paper to shreds. I just let him get on with it as he looks as if he is enjoying his self. It does do my head in though and makes cleaning out a nightmare.
He also digs all of the straw out of the bedding area. I don`t think he likes to live in a nice clean tidy house.:roll:

Mr Fluff is doing this lately too. Not fun given that he is a house rabbit :roll:

I sympathise hun but haven't worked out how to stop him yet- distracting with toys doesn't seem to work!

Mine go through stages of doing this too, which is why i stopped putting hay in the trays because i couldn't afford to be throwing most of it away every day when it was all mixed up with megazorb :roll: I put straw on top now and just let them get on with it, it does make cleaning up a bit of a pain but i've learned you just cannot tell a rabbit how to organise their house, they will move whatever it is to wherever they want it, even if it is silly, like i always put their hay and nuggets at the back of the run underneath the hutch if it looks like raining, but i'll come home to find two miffed bunnies and both bowls at the front with soggy nuggets and hay, what can you do?!

pennypoos said:

George does this too. I put news paper and aubiose in their litter trays. George will tip it upside down and rip the paper to shreds. I just let him get on with it as he looks as if he is enjoying his self. It does do my head in though and makes cleaning out a nightmare.
He also digs all of the straw out of the bedding area. I don`t think he likes to live in a nice clean tidy house.:roll:

Click to expand...

Mine have done that in the past with newspaper too so now I don't bother with it. Also we no longer get free papers so we never have any newspaper!!

Yeah, Julie went through that. I think it might be because rabbits just like to dig. Julie would dig and eat the litter in one litter box. I put a grate covering the litter/bedding so she can't eat it. It looks like pellets and she was eating it like pellets. She would dump the other litter box out and sleep in it. I stopped putting anything in that one and she seems happy to sleep in it and use the covered one as a toilet. To help with the digging I fill a small cage with lots of clean hay for her to eat and I hide treats in the hay. She digs tunnels in the hay to find the treats. Julie is a free range house bun so the cage is just to house her hay and provide digging ventures for her. This has seem to work for Julie. I just learned over the years with her what works and what makes her the happiest.

Schuette said:

Mine have done that in the past with newspaper too so now I don't bother with it. Also we no longer get free papers so we never have any newspaper!!

Click to expand...

I`v just been out to change the litter tray and just put aubiose in there no news paper. I`m going to have to cleane them out AGAIN tomorrow. It looks as though a tornadoe has ripped through the hutch.:roll:

My Savannah and Rose are doing this too. They have very deep litter trays (toy box size) with megazorb and a layer of hay in it but they always dig it all up and even move the entire trays around the crate!! I tried using hay racks above the trays but they both pulled the trays down!

I don't know why they are doing it but they insist on mixing up all the hay with the megazorb

Would a digging box of some nature help maybe? Or a towel or fleece to dig at?