Rabbit will no longer use liter box????

Hello,

Wayland my harlequin Holland lop will no longer use his liter box. He pees on the coroplast cage bottom/the area rugs that i use as his cage bedding. He always use to use it, and i recently changed his liter box and put the newspaper in and hay and such. The next morning he didn't touch his liter box. No hay eaten (many people know he doesn't eat hay as much) and no poop or pee. I cleaned his cage and found he had been using the rug that the liter box was next to. So even after i cleaned it he still wouldn't touch it. So i have added a second liter box as he just peed at the back of his cage rather than in his liter box, so i put it around the new area that he just peed in since i moved the rug out. So my question is, is this due to this.... It took me a bit longer to clean his liter box, ergo I didn't clean it as often due to many people coming into the house i am renting as they are selling it. I am thinking that he just didn't want to pee in his dirty liter box, and now that i have cleaned it he has made a new liter box as in the area around his liter box. So my solution i have added another liter box, and i soaked his pee and picked his poop up and put it in both liter boxes so his smell is in them. Will this work??? Any other suggestions??? I am kinda upset about this and i hope he will continue to use his liter box as i do not want to have him peeing everywhere. But in the beginning when i potty trained him he only liked his original liter box and would only use that, so i hope he will go back to it or use the new one. But any help and wisdom or similar issues that any of you have experienced and found solutions to would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


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So as the day progressed he still wont use the liter box..... Found a pile of pee and poop by the liter box, so i put the liter box over the pee area.. i will post updates if anyone is willing to help me or give advice thanks for caring...

Is the rug he was using as his 'new' litter box still there? Even if it is cleaned he may be still be able to smell his pee on it and will probably keep using it. If you can I would take it away.

Is he acting normally otherwise? A sudden change in litter habits can indicate health issues such as a urinary infection or even the start of arthritis (which can make jumping into the box painful)

Do you know why he doesn't eat much hay? It is a very important part of his diet and is the most useful thing in litter training I find!

It's not easy to give advice, all I can think of is can you go back to ther original litter tray which he used? Is he neutered as if not this would possibly help, but there is no sure way of getting a bunny to go in a litter tray. Some just never get the hang of it, maybe due to past circumstances like being born to a doe who isn't litter trained etc. Some are litter trained at a certain time then suddenly change their habits, for no obvious reason. A change in his environment can undo good habits. But it isn't that he is being naughty.

Thanks for answering, no the rug has been taken out and i have taken out all the other things he has peed on and replaced them with clean fresh rugs and fleece. Yes, he is acting normal and no he is not neutered yet my vet is away at the moment so i have to wait a few more months as there isn't any other vets who do rabbit neuters around here. He is only a year or will be on the 26th can they get arthritis at that young of an age?

As for the hay thing, i have talked about it in another forum post, but what i am suspecting is that since the breeder i got him from free fed him pellets i think he didn't monitor how much hay he was eating and i think Buns just likes pellets over hay. Another assumption is that he dislikes the hay i currently have and i am in progress to order some timothy hay from small pet select or find a local feed store that carries it. I have orchard grass hay, i have guinea pigs as well so they liked that brand and i have been buying it for years then i got Buns and well i am going to try some other brands. He nibbles a few pieces here and there and i am taking peoples advice from my other post and reducing his pellets slowly and making him wait longer for them between morning and evening pellets. I was feeding him 1 cup a day half in the morning an half at night. and i am guilty for giving extra, but he is coming along. Thank you again.

Well i changed the other rug that i replaced the original rug with and i put in a fresh piece of fleece and he peed in the same spot but on the new clean fleece that i literally just replaced 2 minutes ago... ugh its a bit frustrating, but i will change this piece of fleece and replace it, it looks like he peed once in his liter box last night but now he won't...... so frustrating.. but i will push on.

Have you tried disinfecting and neutralising everything with white vinegar?..

If you out a little soiled smelly fleece or used hay in the litter tray, he might just start using it,,

For what ots worth.. I had to remove my mats and fleeces as the boys always peed on them.. As soon as i did, they used the litter tray and became very very good boys indeed!,,

Good luck

I do not have vinegar at the moment all i have is like soap and water. he pees on a pretty good size fleece, but i have put a smaller liter box in with a shallower side to see if that's what is bothering him. If he doesn't use it i will place a towel i do not care about over his pee spot and catch his pee on and place it in his liter box rather than the newspaper, and then gradually switch to newspaper. i am hoping this works as well. I wanted to remove all fleece and rugs from his cage , but he will not walk on a large area of coroplast bottom, he has like a few inches on one side of his cage so he can cool off. Should i just remove all the fleece and rugs and only put in his liter box with the newspaper and hay? I would be worried that he wouldn't leave it to go eat and drink though. he is a total spaz. I will try anything at this point, i have been doing so much laundry due to this.... oh i don't know if this could be related as it was a bit before he stopped using his liter box, but when i was cutting his nails i cut the quick on one as he flinched. Could that cause him to not want to jump in his liter box?

I would remove the fleecy and soft things, at least for now, and use something non slip but easy to clean for the bottom of his area. Non slip vinyl or rubber floor is good. Until he is neutered it will/may be difficult to train him. And it's very important to clean and neutralise the area he has used as a toilet that you don't want him to use, otherwise he will keep using the same area.

I would make it a priority to get him some hay he likes as it's so important that he is eating hay.

I am getting his hay. So no worries, its just a matter if he'll even eat it. Thanks for the advice. I will have to try and find some things for his cage bottom. Thanks

So i have completely striped his cage of fleece and rugs. I washed his cage super well and i have placed 4 liter boxes in his cage... So lets hope. He is digging the coroplast bottom right now and well i am hoping he will use any of these liter boxes.

So he pretty much never moved not even to drink or eat pellets. So i put rugs back in. I am worried that he is doing this out of anger.... I am at a loss as of right now. I feel like should just deal with him peeing on everything so he will eat and things... Ugh so frustrating. I swear the breeder ruined him. Ugh....... so upset and sad right now. I am hoping he will act normal now that i have put in his things.

Did you put something else non slip in the bottom when you removed the rugs? Maybe he was worried about slipping.

I put the rugs back in and he finally moved around and things. Yeah i put yoga mats down, but still no moving. Ugh. Anyway i pit everything back and he still has 4 liter boxes and as soon as i added some rugs he ran to one and let out a **** ton of poop it was as if he was holding in his pee and poop. So still no uses out of the liter boxes i am going to let him pee on this rug tonight then put it in his shallow liter box and see if that's better. So frustrating though.

So I believe he has started to pee in his liter box. i was gone all day yesterday and when i came home there was poop on top of the hay like normal. so i am hoping.

Woohoo.... Sounds promising!! Good luck. X

He is only peeing in his liter box now !!!!!! Yesterday was his birthday maybe he decided to grow up...hahhaha

Try to be a bit more relaxed about his toilet habits as you could stress him out, then he could get ill, as stress can lead to illness.

Thanks for the advice