Pooping in the Wrong Compartment

Hi,
Our 2 does were re-homed in a new, larger hutch a couple of weeks ago.
The hutch is long, with the 'bedding' compartment to the right hand side. I would have thought that this would be the bed compartment because there is no mesh, just a wooden door so more privacy and less draught.
However, they seem to use this compartment for the toilet and sleep out in the draughtier, more open part of the hutch.
We made sure that the bedding part had lots of fluffyness and the other part had the more absorbent bedding so I've no idea why they do this!
Any ideas from anyone about how I can get them to sleep (and not poop) in their proper bedroom?

Hi there,

Thankfully I haven't really had too many problems with my buns doing their business in the 'wrong' place (thank goodness, as mine are in the house :lol. It sounds like your two have decided that what we'd think of as a nice comfy, warm bed is actually their bathroom. In some respects, I guess this is up to them, however if you wanted to encourage them to do their poos in the other bit, you could take out some soiled bedding and poos from the bed part and put it into the other bit of the hutch (perhaps into a litter tray made up with newspaper and hay). This might encourage them to do their business there instead.

This might not work immediately, but you could give it a go for a while, and see what happens.

My bunnies have a litter tray (actually an old washing up bowl, as the sides on the trays you buy from pet-shops are often not high enough for buns in my experience) with newspaper and hay inside. They seem to associate this with a toilet, as when I've changed a litter tray for a new one, it doesn't seem to matter to them, as long as the 'recipe ' (newspaper with hay on the top) is the same! Also, my buns seem to like their litter tray to be in a corner - if your poo area isn't currently in the corner, could you move it there?

Maybe someone else has better ideas about why they might be doing this!

x

This is normal rabbit behavior, they don't have sleeping areas. In fact they don't really sleep at all, just rest and nap. I would start putting the litter tray in the covered area, this is the place most rabbits will chose to do their 'business'. Trying to move the toilet area is very unlikely to work, so I wouldn't bother

Thanks for the replies.
I wouldn't normally worry but in their old hutch, they definitely went to the toilet in one area and 'slept' in the other. As it's pretty cold in the nights too, I'm just worried that they are not spending the nights in the warm and cosy bit.
I think i'll try using their litter try (we normally only use it indoors) inside the hutch to see what happens.

I think bunnies seem to like to poo in privacy, while they prefer sleeping in the open so they can get a better view of what's around them and keep an eye out for danger.

As long as they can go into the bedroom area to snuggle if need be, I wouldn't worry too much about them getting cold - Alfie and Bubbles spend the whole winter sleeping out in the open run, rather than tucked up in the cosy shed. :roll: :lol:

KarenM said:

I think bunnies seem to like to poo in privacy, while they prefer sleeping in the open so they can get a better view of what's around them and keep an eye out for danger.

Click to expand...

This. Imagine if you had to go to the loo in the open

Schuette said:

This. Imagine if you had to go to the loo in the open

Click to expand...

:lol::lol:

Similar problems.

Eventually got two litter trays; one in the 'bedroom' and one in the open part which had to be moved round to different corners 'til they and I agreed on a permanent place to keep it!

In the end the bedroom one fell out of use but they still prefer to sleep in the 'open' bit even though its covered up at night so they wouldn't be able to see out.

Its a big hutch so I use three separate snuggles to keep all areas warm, especially as Ollie's been on his own for a few weeks without someone to snuggle up to.

It's a tricky business! My buns don't sleep in the 'bedroom' bit either but I still provide lots of shredded newspaper just in case and thankfully they don't poo and wee in there so it is cosy if they want to use it.

When mine are hutched they ALWAYS choose the enclosed bit as a toilet. I put a litter tray in there and voila - easy cleaning!!

Mine sleep/rest in the litter tray, in the open part.... and use it for the toilet, I don't think they ever go in the "sleeping compartment" :roll:

I put the litter tray with auboise in the bed bit and a litter tray with hay in the open section. All mine prefer to sleep in that part so at least this way they have hay to snuggle in.