Rabbit "unlearned" litter training.

As the title says, my rabbit completely forgot about his litter tray, it really rare for him to pee or poop in the litter tray. His cage setup is a thick layer of news paper on the bottom and on top is a lot of hay. I wouldn't mind if there wasn't hay on top but a lot of hay gets wasted. In the corner he has his litter tray, but he pees right beside it. He is one year old and he is neutered.
I have tried: Moving the litter tray in where he pees now. No effect, he just goes back to where the litter tray was placed before. Putting two litter trays in the cage.
How can I get him to pee in the litter tray again?

I suspect this might be because he's going as he eats the hay. Could you put his hay in his litter tray to encourage him to go in his tray instead, and leave his hutch as just a layer of newspaper? Unfortunately, even this way hay gets wasted, as they're usually fussy bunnies and will turn up their nose once they've weed on it a couple of times (which I suppose is understandable really!) but you can keep it to smaller amounts that are changed a couple of times a day. We're down to about 10% wastage by only putting in slightly more than is needed (to compensate for the "wastage") and changing it twice a day.

I agree with Monty's Human that having a litter tray with hay in might be the best solution as rabbits tend to use the trays for eating and going to the loo at the same time. Unfortunately some wasteage of hay is inevitable but you can mitigate this by topping up the hay little and often so your bun has more of the fresh stuff to eat. You could also fix a hay rack above the litter tray which would not get soiled.


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Hi,

Hope you don't mind me asking, but how big is his housing? like others have said, if you can add hay on top of his litter tray with some of his poops, this might encourage him to go there? Rabbits are very clean animals, and do normally tend to go in one spot! but there are always exceptions when bunnies are concerned! :lol:

Also, has he previously used the litter tray at all?

Ruthyjones89 said:

Hi,

Hope you don't mind me asking, but how big is his housing? like others have said, if you can add hay on top of his litter tray with some of his poops, this might encourage him to go there? Rabbits are very clean animals, and do normally tend to go in one spot! but there are always exceptions when bunnies are concerned! :lol:

Also, has he previously used the litter tray at all?

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His cage is 5ft by 2ft but he is a free roam bunny. I got rid of the hay on top and put a couple layers of newspaper followed by a thin layer of Back 2 Nature Small Animal Bedding. I've tried putting some of his poops in the litter tray but no effect, same with some of his pee. I've put two litter trays in his cage, one where the tray was originally and the other one is where he pees now. I've got a hayrack above the main litter tray, and put some hay in the main one too but he still uses that one spot.
I was gone for two weeks and my mom was looking after my bunny. She said she let him outside everyday for a whole day, which is what I normally do if its hot. Could that have anything to do with it?