Bedding/toilet training

Fudge is a four month old male bun. He's pretty good at using the litter tray but tends to still poo all over the place. Is this normal? He's in a cage at the moment which has shavings all over including the litter tray. Is there anything I should change or will he get better as he gets older?
Thank you

My doe was exceptional at litter training and has never once had an accident. My new boy on the other hand is not picking it up as quickly. I'm sure males are harder to litter train especially if the aren't neutered. My boy is also 4 months and pooping all over the cage. He currently has 2 trays and pees in them both but still manages to get the odd poop on the cage floor. I use sheets or towels as bedding and only a small amount of shaving in the litter trays with newspaper. Hay yo munch in the litter tray helps as they go when they eat. He may not be able to tell the difference between litter and cage if it's both shavings.

My girls will still leave poo's around the house. (In their room & downstairs under the piano).

Neutering reduced it a lot and providing an extra tray helped. It's worth providing a pile of hay in the tray you want them to use as they like to eat while they do their business. If you can, provide a hay rack above the tray so it stays clean & fresh for longer.

Rabbits are territorial so like to mark all the territory they use with their droppings. Some do learn to go back to their litter tray all the time. As regards wood shavings, I am afraid this is not a very good substrate to use as it can cause respiratory problems in the rabbit due to the dust as they have very intricate nasal passages. I use newspaper in the litter trays with a topping of hay as munching the hay encourages them to do their toilet in the tray. The tray will need to be cleaned out daily and fresh hay applied. You could also try another litter tray for when he is free ranging somewhere in the room and I find boys can be very clean, more so than girls. Neutering also can help to make them cleaner.

Is he neutered? If he isn't, that would improve things a lot. Territorial marking can account for a lot of stray poops. Is the tray large enough for him to sit in comfortably? I like the underbed storage boxes for trays as they are larger and have higher sides than cat litter trays and stops them from spraying over the edge. I use wood pellet cat litter in the trays, with hay on top, as they like to eat and poop at the same time. I use plain non slip vinyl for the floor which enables them to differentiate from the litter area. You may need to provide more than one tray. Sweeping up poos regularly and putting them into the tray would help too :thumb:

I can wait til my boy is neutered. He's soooooo messy. :roll: He's in a temp cage until I can bond him with my lily once he's all healed after op.

He had a corner style litter tray but would use it once or twice and then would pee to the side of it. So he now has a small cat litter tray. He's not neutered yet. I've moved his hay ball closer to the litter tray and removed the shavings from the rest of his cage. Hopefully that will help. He will be an outside bun once we get his run sorted out. Once he's neutered I'll hopefully get him a friend.

I think you will have to wait until Spring now before you can put him out, unless he was born outdoors. If not he won't have a proper winter coat.

He has been in a cage in a shed since he was born. Once his run is sorted I will probably put him out for a few hours during the day and back inside the rest of the time.

Loulou8425 said:

My doe was exceptional at litter training and has never once had an accident. My new boy on the other hand is not picking it up as quickly. I'm sure males are harder to litter train especially if the aren't neutered. My boy is also 4 months and pooping all over the cage. He currently has 2 trays and pees in them both but still manages to get the odd poop on the cage floor. I use sheets or towels as bedding and only a small amount of shaving in the litter trays with newspaper. Hay yo munch in the litter tray helps as they go when they eat. He may not be able to tell the difference between litter and cage if it's both shavings.

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Couldn't be more the other way round for me haha, my boy is the tidiest bunny you could meet, always poo's in his tray and only pee's in his tray and only in one corner!

My girl on the other hand will pooh anywhere but does pee in the tray. When I first got her, she pee'd on the floor so I soaked it up with kitchen towel and put it in the tray - she took to it immediately and no further issues.


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Since making the changes everything is in the litter tray! Thanks for all the advice.