litter taining?!?!

I know it's been mentioned in many posts before but I guess my question is how clean is a litter trained rabbit ?

the two we adopted do not at all seem to differentiate between beds and litter and food etc (possibly kept in a very confined space before?).
they pee predominantly in their under-bed storage litter box, but they also use that box as a bed, they don't use what was intend to be their bed boxes much (except for to pee and poop in ) and they also always pee and poop on the feeding hay we put down separately (away from litter and bedding hay boxes) .
They currently have a free run of the upstairs and have only peed on the carpet a few times (mostly in beds / litter tray/ on food / on bathroom floor) but they poop everywhere as in EVERYWHERE, in individual little droppings scattered all over the place for maximum effect . They leave trails hopping about (hop/plop, hop/plop/ ...) and within 40 min the floor is covered.

They will eventually move out into a big shed, I understand it's best to put their litter tray where they instinctively go to pee, but with them peeing and pooping everywhere this might be hard to achieve, also because with their current "training" they will go on top of all hay we put down to feed them (incl bowls with curly kale etc) and inevitably they will be using their beds as litter trays also.. however we will obviously have to put bedding hay in their beds and feeding hay down too, so I don't even know where to start ...

How litter trained is a litter trained bunny ? do they usually differentiate between beds and litter trays and what about their feeding hay? will a "pee trained" bunny also be "poop trained" or do they tend to poop everywhere anyways ?

sorry if this is silly, but I don't even know what is "normal" when it comes to bunnies

I am interested to see what the replies are here. I have been incredibly lucky with my two (from a rescue just over 2 weeks ago). Both are around 9 months, and they have the run of the lower floor of the house but since coming here, aside from one or two pellet-poops, they always hop back to their litter in their house to go the toilet. We did have several litter trays prepared, but they always just ate the hay in them, then ignored them for their main housing tray. We're still keeping a close eye on them, especially in corners, but I've been really impressed by the two of them so far!

I think they are very trainable and will do as you require - if you show them how - if that makes sense.

My girls have 1 underbed storage box with litter. I usually use a wire cube and fill it with hay - and put that inside. Although they tend to drag it out and it makes a mess so I'm trying just hay in the box now.

They get 95% of their poo's in the box. The other 5% I think are from the box and just get pulled out occassionally as they are in the area of their box.

With time and lots of vinegar, you will get there with them. My friend has a big rabbit who will literally run across the house to make it to his litter tray for a poo!

SamanthaJane said:

I think they are very trainable and will do as you require - if you show them how - if that makes sense.

My girls have 1 underbed storage box with litter. I usually use a wire cube and fill it with hay - and put that inside. Although they tend to drag it out and it makes a mess so I'm trying just hay in the box now.

They get 95% of their poo's in the box. The other 5% I think are from the box and just get pulled out occassionally as they are in the area of their box.

With time and lots of vinegar, you will get there with them. My friend has a big rabbit who will literally run across the house to make it to his litter tray for a poo!

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haha, one of our cat's once accidentally got locked outside for an hour and the first thing he did when we let him in was speed to the litter tray for a wee didn't occur to him that he could have went in the garden as for teaching /showing them I suppose i really don't know how or where to start ... their toileting behaviuor is so random ... good to hear that other rabbits have got the hang of it though although i do worry that they'll learn to tie a bow around their droppings before they will drop them in a tray

:lol: ! My friends dog does that! He's a puppy still so had puppy pads before he was vaccinated etc. now he won't go outside - he holds it in until he gets inside :lol:

What I did was get their tray - put it where they went most and put their hay in it.

Rabbits often poo and eat at the same time - so you're making it easier to begin with that way - they will sit in the tray and eat and poo. Or hang the hay above the tray.

Any stray poos - pick up and put in the tray.

Any stray wee's - clean up with white vinegar - this completely gets rid of the smell so they won't want to go in the same place again.

Also, for the first few days, I took my rabbits and put them in the tray evry 15 mins or so. To remind them it's there etc.

It took some doing, but they got there!

H

SamanthaJane said:

:lol: ! My friends dog does that! He's a puppy still so had puppy pads before he was vaccinated etc. now he won't go outside - he holds it in until he gets inside :lol:

What I did was get their tray - put it where they went most and put their hay in it.

Rabbits often poo and eat at the same time - so you're making it easier to begin with that way - they will sit in the tray and eat and poo. Or hang the hay above the tray.

Any stray poos - pick up and put in the tray.

Any stray wee's - clean up with white vinegar - this completely gets rid of the smell so they won't want to go in the same place again.

Also, for the first few days, I took my rabbits and put them in the tray evry 15 mins or so. To remind them it's there etc.

It took some doing, but they got there!

H

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good little puppy !

we'll be more rigorous with picking up after them, we thought that if it was to mark we'd encourage them to go mark again by picking it up every time so we only swipe it up twice a day (our upstairs is a minefield!!!). also hoping the spaying will help
Can't pick them up unfortunately, they FREAK out in sheer panic! we are allowed to stroke them now ( in fact they love strokes) but any attempt to pick them up / hold them between two hands and they panic, so we are leavingthem alone so they can build up some trust.

:lol: aww they will get there.

Spaying will help enormously.

It's strange litter training. I recall despairing with my girls - then suddenly - they got it.

It was strange!

SamanthaJane said:

Spaying will help enormously.

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Yes! Made a huge difference. A couple of weeks after spaying she was much tidier.

SamanthaJane said:

:lol: aww they will get there.

Spaying will help enormously.

It's strange litter training. I recall despairing with my girls - then suddenly - they got it.

It was strange!

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good to hear we aren't despairing yet but we are constantly tossing out bedding and food as it's all being weed and pooped on ... just to double check a litter trained rabbit will distinguish between his bed (with bedding) and a litter tray (which has got hay in it also ) ? don't get me wrong if they never change than that's fine too, we'll love them just the same, I just want to know whats "normal" so we know what goals are achievable ( I don't even know if a wild bunny poops where it sleeps or if they keep this separated by nature...)