Extremely frustrated with bunnies bad behaviour !

Hey all,

I've posted this before but now its getting really bad.
My rabbit skipper is being a big bully, towards me !!
Bambi is fully litter trained and i've been watching them the past week and noticed that bambi goes in the litter boxes fine when they are there, but then skipper will come along and move them !

The worst part is he is moving the litter box, and then peeing right where it used to be... its like he just doesnt like going in them :S

I've tried velcro, screw in litter boxes, EVERYTHING and he just figures it out eventually... Yesterday i put puppy pads down and hoped at least that he would leave those there and it can absorb everything but he moved those too !!!


So confusing, anyone have any suggestions ?

You bunny isn't being bad, he is either being a bunny, or he is trying to tell you something and you're not getting it.

How often do you change the litter trays? Does it happen at a specific time? What size are the litter trays? What do you have in them?

My crunchie did this, i went right back to bascis, got rid of the tray and started litter training again from scratch!

Surely if you screw the litter tray into the bottom of the hutch her can't undo the screws!? :shock: one talented bunny he is!! :lol: My Beilidh moves the tray out the way and pees behind it too, it doesn't bother me though tbh I've never tried to stop him. :lol:

Lola does this, not everyday but every few days. I put newspaper behind the tray so that absorbs any "overflow" I change the trays twice a day so they are not unpleasant. She has always had ideas of moving a tray and just peeing in the corner. It has ruined the wooden strut in that corner of the playhouse, but I'm powerless!

I too think your rabbit is trying to tell you something. Probably he doesn't like the litter tray there or what's in it for some reason, but you need to find out what it is.

I agree you need to find out what it is your bunny doesn't like.

Some don't like hopping in to something so a solution might be to get a tray with a dipped entrance.
Some bunnies don't like certain litters - I've heard of buns emptying their boxes before using them, so changing litters might be an idea.
It might be that the boxes are too dirty for fussy bunnies who don't like to sit in any mess, so changing them more frequently may help.

My bunnies, I've realised, just hate litter trays. They've destroyed many and if they can they move them out of the way. I've finally worked out a system where the hay rack is in the box so that's where they want to go, and one box is held in place with bricks and the other with nails.

I have tried every type of litter available in my area, even tried some cat litters like yesterdays news (obviously no clay/pine/cedar though), he does it with every single one.

The only one that is somewhat successful is Carefresh. He digs it all out when its clean, and leaves it alone once bambi has gone to the bathroom in them. He would rather pee on plastic it seems... But i personally cannot deal with that because the poo scatters everywhere and my dog LOVES to eat it

I clean it out at least once a day, so i dont see how it could possibly be dirty, there are two bunnies and two litter boxes, one small and one fairly large, they can fit into both of them together so i know he fits in them perfectly fine.

What bothers me most is he DOES use it, well he used to, so i know he doesnt mind them, and what also doesnt make sense is that he's moving the litter box... just to pee where it was?!? and he doesnt go anywhere else, i've tried moving the litter boxes and he just goes in the same corner.

As for the screws, it wasnt metal screws as there is no way that i can permanently affix the litterbox in my setup, theres nothing to screw it to.... What i used, came with the litter box. Its basically a plastic washer/winged nut that you affix it with.. and then slide the litter box in after, skipper learned how to take it out by bopping it up with his nose.


I really have no clue what he could be telling me... other than he hates me? lol... he was grunting at me today too when i came in to cut their nails.. I think something may be wrong with him more than i can see externally because his behaviour REALLY has changed quite a bit lately... and within the past two months there has been little to no change in his environment.. Im worried he could be telling me he doesnt feel well. I also noticed today when i was cutting his nails that his right eye had a hair in it and when i tried to pull it out i realized that there was a tiny bit of "eye goo" along with it... could this be a sign of something?

Sorry if I go over old ground I haven't properly read the whole thread.

Have you tried newspaper? How much hay do you put in? Do you use a big enough tray? Mischa used to dig in and move his tray cos it wasn't big enough.

Could you describe or post a pic of your whole setup? Sometimes that makes it easier to suggest solutions that fit better

I would guess, that from his point of view you keep putting a tray in his toilet spot and he has to move it out the way every time he wants the loo... he's probably as frustrated as you are :lol:

I would actually suggest cleaning slightly less often, and when you clean put a bit of the dirty litter back. Sometimes the issue is that we clean too well and remove all the 'this is the toilet spot' scent.

Tamsin said:

Could you describe or post a pic of your whole setup? Sometimes that makes it easier to suggest solutions that fit better

I would guess, that from his point of view you keep putting a tray in his toilet spot and he has to move it out the way every time he wants the loo... he's probably as frustrated as you are :lol:

I would actually suggest cleaning slightly less often, and when you clean put a bit of the dirty litter back. Sometimes the issue is that we clean too well and remove all the 'this is the toilet spot' scent.

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I agree that it sounds like he thinks that you are putting the tray in the way of the toilet spot. Some rabbits really have a mind of their own and want to control their own environment. Julie redecorates and changes her space the way she wants. She for some reason early on decided that one of her litter boxes was not a toilet and really a sleeping box. She would dump out all the litter and use the box to sleep in and never toilet. I just bought another litter box so she would have 2 and let her keep the other one as a bed. She turned her bed into lunch.:lol: If they are not hurting anything or them selves it is best to let them have their own way. Bunnies are stubborn souls.

Tamsin said:

Could you describe or post a pic of your whole setup? Sometimes that makes it easier to suggest solutions that fit better

I would guess, that from his point of view you keep putting a tray in his toilet spot and he has to move it out the way every time he wants the loo... he's probably as frustrated as you are :lol:

I would actually suggest cleaning slightly less often, and when you clean put a bit of the dirty litter back. Sometimes the issue is that we clean too well and remove all the 'this is the toilet spot' scent.

Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense!! Thank you! i will post a picture tomorrow when i get home (im sleeping over at a friends house for the night, but i still felt i should reply :] )


I guess i could always secure the litter box another way, make my own makeshift thingy - does anyone have any pictures of how they keep theres secure if they have this problem too?

I think it got rotated somehow when i uploaded it, sorry

Thats just the crate part of there set up theres also a pen and cage attached for them to run in and out of.

The litter boxes are normally there, you can see he has made quite a mess ! i cleaned the cage for them about an hour and a half before this picture was taken.

:lol: yes, it looks like he's been having fun!

Best way to attach it would be to drill two holes in the back of the litter tray and then wire it to the bars.

However, I would probably replace them both with one deeper box that went along that whole back section (again you can wire it to the mesh if you need to but you might find you won't)... that would contain the mess a bit better. Rabbits are generally quite happy to hop into a box so it doesn't need a really low front lip. Something like an under bed storage box or other plastic crate would probably work well.

To stop him digging litter out you could put strong wire over the tray, poo's and wee just fall through, I'm sure someone on the forum has a litter tray like this. To stop mine moving trays I either put something heavy in them, or drill holes and use wire to attach them to the mesh of the hutch

You have no hay in your trays :wave: my buns will dig if theres no hay, I have a large underbed storage box which allows for a thick layer of hay on top. Its also harder for them to dig stuf out of it, and much harder for them to move.

i find that if i put hay in the trays they wont go there, i have a large litter box full of hay and they rarely jump in, just nibble the hay. i will post a better picture in a moment ! so you can see the whole set up

i also worry that if i put hay in the litter that they will eat it when its soiled?

I'd replace those trays with an under-bed storage box across the back. My bunnies hated those corner trays and I never had any success with them.
It took forever to find a way to fix them to the sides of the cage so the bunnies couldn't move them, and then they were so frustrated they'd try everything to get them out of the way; I saw them boxing them on more than one occasion and eventually they managed to snap the trays themselves :shock:

They're now much happier with their storage tubs, even though they do try and move them, and have broken a chunk out of one of them :lol:

Heres a few pictues of what the whole set up looks like, hopefully you can see what i mean with the hay thing..

Do they toilet in the cage?

What I would do is I would either remove the cage top and leave the base as a litter tray and then remove the corner trays and put blankets in the dog crate, or I would cover the cage lid with some board.

Mine too never liked those trays, they just don't seem big enough for them.