Wasn't sure where to put this (housing, bonding and behaviour related!)

Hi all, i have some questions for you all, I've been mulling over a few ideas in my head and i wondered what you thought. To give you some background info, until recently I had a bonded pair of sisters outside, a single neutered housebun and a trio of neutered boys outside. Sadly we lost our two elderly men months apart towards the end of 2010 and the start of 2011 leaving Dugan alone. I acted quite quickly and Dugan is an indoor bun sharing with elton the cage they have is, well I've no idea but they're like giant indoor bunny cages, i think often on some kind of stand but mine isn't. It's on the floor in the hallway and they have access to the hallway at all times during the day. I can always get some pictures if that might help at all? Anyway, the first thing I need to sort out is litter training Dugan. Elton has always been perfect but no matter where I move the tray to, Dugan avoids it . Might he want one of his own? The current tray is a normal cat one... Elton was always fine using that but I'm wondering if something with higher sides might be best to avoid dugans spillage accidents, can anyone recommend good litter trays?

Next my two does are hopefully being spayed quite soon. I was wondering if it would be madness to try to bond the two pairs and have them as a quartet of housebuns? I could provide them access to upstairs and a few other rooms once they're bunny proofed, and they technically could have the cage open at night to have access to the hallway if the cage would be too small for the four to be in there all night (fairly sure it would be)

Eek! I'm ever so sorry I was meant to finish with thankyou in advance!:wave: but I'm on my phone and it wouldn't let me add to the bottom of my post!

So sorry you lost two of your buns

Re the litter tray - I find whatever square tray I use there are ALWAYS spillages! They squeeze their little butts right in the corner and there is always a gap it trickles down!:roll::lol: High sided corner trays are certainly the best but are hard to get hold of I find. Most high street pet shops only seem to stock small corner trays at high prices. I have one large tray but have had it ages and cant remember where it was from :? I'd recommend looking on Ebay though - they always have them on there.

As Dugan has effectively "moved in" to Elton's home, yes it might be that he smells Elton's scent on the tray and won't use it.

Interestingly, last summer before my boys moved into their shed, I'd had to fill their run with hay because Pickle had sore hocks. As it meant they then pooped and wee'd in the run while eating, I put a tray in the corner of the run. Pickle used it but Timmy never did - I wondered whether in their own little way Pickle had "claimed" it as his own and "told" Timmy not to use it?:?:lol:

I don't have any experience of bonding groups but it sounds like a good idea. You would need neutral territory though, so maybe a rescue local to you could help bond them in return for a donation?

Good luck :wave: (and sorry for my looooong reply!)

I can recoomend under bed storage boxes. they are higher than normal trays so you avoid spillage!

Kittykat23uk said:

I can recoomend under bed storage boxes. they are higher than normal trays so you avoid spillage!

Click to expand...

Yes that's a very good idea actually, hadn't thought of that one!

I tried all sorts of trays, cat litter trays, corner ones, huge corner ones. Nothing works as well as underbed storage boxes.



Just checking, is Dugan neutered? Also is it a new environment for him? It can take a while for them to accept a new space as theirs and stop marking it even when neutered.

Brilliant, thankyou all - I never thought of underbed storage boxes I'll get one of those for them Hopefully since it won't belong to Elton, neither bun will claim it and both might use it - i'll see how we get on

Yep, Dugan is neutered, but it is a new environment for him as he was an outside bunny with Rocky and Syd before. He seems to be accepting things slowly and follows Elton out of the cage to run around a bit now, whereas at first he was content with watching Elton from the safety of the cage, bless him.

Thanks again

It may just take some time then. Nutmeg took ages to get settled in new accommodation and pooped around for quite some time.

my suggestions;

there have been lots of advice already given but i figured id post a reply anyways haa,
i have two buns. and they both took to litter training within days, i use pets at home corner litter trays there £5.99 for the medium and there is a large. i also use pets at home 'wood pellet litter'.
to litter train what i do is, take the wood pellet litter and place it into the litter tray covering the floor. i then take some hay and place it in one corner. (this will make your bun want to come sit in it, and usually bunnies poop and eat at the same time). when it comes to more tricky buns, what i do is take some of there poop or wee and place it into the litter tray. so they can smell their own scent and usually that works!

and regards to bonding all the buns, i say go for it! it can be done, you will just have to monitor them as they get older ect. but i don't see why they can't all be bonded and live together happily!

hope this helped xo

Sadly my Mischa just dug in those corner trays sending hay and wood pellet dust everywhere. It's good if you don't have a digger though

My guys can easily empty underbed storage boxes so we use ones like this



They are deep, but work fab!