Hello, We have three 1/2 Flemish giant 1/2 continental giant siblings. One male (Soze) and two females (Caern and Keyser). We dont have any trouble with fighting, they are all really close, and snuggle up together. They were all neutered /spayed about 3 weeks ago and have a clean bill of health from the vets. They are about 6 months old. The girls use their litter tray almost perfectly, with no poos on the floor and no mess.
The boy, Soze however... he was getting better, and starting to use his box but the last week hes gone right back to square one! He is pooping all over the pen, and although he generally wees in the tray still, I have noticed a puddle this morning where there shouldnt be one, and Im worried he is going to start doing that again too.
I am trying to think if I might have done something thats caused this - They had a new pen a couple of weeks before, but they were fine all that week. I also cleaned the floor with cleaner, but I think I have done this before since we had them, and he needs to get used to 'kitchen smells' like that as I will need to clean sometimes! They sometimes 'miss' the tray (bottoms over the edge!) so I have always used cleaner to clean this anyway.
To train them initially (which took a good few months of mess!), we tried all the 'put urine soaked paper in the box', put the box where they usually go, usher them in if they look like they are going on the floor, put hay in the box etc, but they picked it up themselves eventually. I have tried putting hay in the tray, putting his poops back in the tray etc, but nothing seems to be working. I am still sure it is just him, the girls even get up from bed to use the box.
We dont enter the pen very often, except for the odd sweep and to put food down, and are very respectful of the carrier they sleep in, we dont 'invade' that box, so they feel it is their safe space.
Any ideas for how I can get him to start using his tray again, or is it maybe a result of his hormones still being unsettled? Has anyone else had this problem? He is making a right mess, and Im worried he will lead the girls to bad habits and we'll be back to square one again!
I have considered temporarily separating him to try and train him on his own again, but they really dont like being apart, even in adjacent pens (we had a nightmare when they were spayed/neutered and had to be apart!).
Help!
The boy, Soze however... he was getting better, and starting to use his box but the last week hes gone right back to square one! He is pooping all over the pen, and although he generally wees in the tray still, I have noticed a puddle this morning where there shouldnt be one, and Im worried he is going to start doing that again too.
I am trying to think if I might have done something thats caused this - They had a new pen a couple of weeks before, but they were fine all that week. I also cleaned the floor with cleaner, but I think I have done this before since we had them, and he needs to get used to 'kitchen smells' like that as I will need to clean sometimes! They sometimes 'miss' the tray (bottoms over the edge!) so I have always used cleaner to clean this anyway.
To train them initially (which took a good few months of mess!), we tried all the 'put urine soaked paper in the box', put the box where they usually go, usher them in if they look like they are going on the floor, put hay in the box etc, but they picked it up themselves eventually. I have tried putting hay in the tray, putting his poops back in the tray etc, but nothing seems to be working. I am still sure it is just him, the girls even get up from bed to use the box.
We dont enter the pen very often, except for the odd sweep and to put food down, and are very respectful of the carrier they sleep in, we dont 'invade' that box, so they feel it is their safe space.
Any ideas for how I can get him to start using his tray again, or is it maybe a result of his hormones still being unsettled? Has anyone else had this problem? He is making a right mess, and Im worried he will lead the girls to bad habits and we'll be back to square one again!
I have considered temporarily separating him to try and train him on his own again, but they really dont like being apart, even in adjacent pens (we had a nightmare when they were spayed/neutered and had to be apart!).
Help!
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