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Help with litter trained buns pooing in grass

Confused_bun

Warren Scout
My buns were housebuns and have always been perfect with regards to their litter tray (not a drooping out of the litter tray since they were very young - 3 years ago). This summer I acclimatised them to outdoors (we moved and I didn't have space for a proper indoor setup and have a toddler - so to stay indoors they would have had to have been confined to a 'rabbit cage' that was a 4x2ft double for most of the time- :( not fair on them). So they have a hutch, which originally was connected directly to the run but is now connected by an 8ft Runaround. There is a litter tray in the hutch, which for the first two months or so they carried on using perfectly. Then they started using mainly the one corner in the run (which is on grass and moved around the lawn).

I've tried putting a litter tray inside a box lying on its side, so that the rain doesn't get to the litter, but they wont use it. Whatever corner I put it in they just use a different corner of the run as a toilet :roll: .

I don't know what else to do. I don't want them pooping in the grass as its difficult to clean up and the run is moved around the lawn and my son plays out there (he's 18 months), so I don't think its very hygienic.

Any ideas??
 
Rabbit poo is mostly hay to begin with, so I tend not to worry about it in that sense. The issue is that poo for rabbits can be used to mark territory - they knew the house was theirs and they didn't feel the need. However, outside and particularly when the run gets moved around your buns won't feel like the area is their own and will deposit wherever they feel like it. Also buns automatically poo as they graze, and don't have a huge deal of control over that as new food pushes old stuff through. If they eat the grass they will poo.

Droppings are good fertiliser though! I would just make sure your son doesn't put any in his mouth but other than that I can't imagine them being a risk. My little brother ate worms and dirt when he was little and he's fine.
 
The thing is its not all over the run, they always use a specific corner like they are trying to be clean and tidy still. Its just if i put a litter try in the corner they are using they wont use it and use another corner. :?

Plus i should probably say that their run only fits in my garden 6 times (its a modern house), so although the run moves its not exactly far and my garden is still a bare rectangle (literally a lawn, a path to the back gate and solid fences - im not much of a gardener so havent bothered putting in flower boarders or anything), so i think they are happy enough that the run is their territory, whereever it is in the garden. Plus little Sirius sleeps flat out on his side, in the centre of the run - so he must feel like its 'his' place and poppy tends to sleep under the wooden bridge in the run too.

I just can understand why they refuse to use a litter tray in the run but still only use a corner as a toilet, especially when they have always been so good.

Oh and the poop in the grass and my son worries me because a) he might try eating it and b) on nice days i keep the backdoor open so he goes in and out as he pleases but that means hes barefoot! Plus because its in "mounds", i have to get it up.
 
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If they're not urinating in the grass then it's still likely that they're either scenting the grass or just doing it as they eat. Even if they're doing it on one spot the fact that this one spot has to be on the grass suggests that they are marking the grass as theirs to me. In a run the corners are the boundary of the territory so it's the closest any other animals with a scent can get at a time so it does make sense that they would do it there. If its in piles I don't really understand the issue, dustpan and brush dedicated for that use, scoop, bin once you've moved the run, and the stuff inside the run shouldn't be an issue.

I'm a massive hygiene freak and bunny poop just doesn't phase me to be honest.
 
Not sure if they are urinating in the grass - I suppose I haven't seen any evidence to suggest they are.

The problem with the piles is - the top of the mound is easy to get up but the poops on the bottom of the pile are really hard to get up (they tend not to eat the grass right in the corners, so its longer and therefore harder to get poops up out of it). I know I'm probably being too fussy :oops: but it really bothers me (you wouldn't think I have 4 ponies and it doesn't bother me poo-picking their field would you!).

I think maybe my buns were just too perfect in the house :lol: and I'm just used to everything, always being properly contained in a litter tray.
 
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