Pooping in her bed...

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blwn350

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So, Monday I set my bunny up in a new hutch (indoor)... It's a 2 story hutch (50" long, 26" wide and each story is 20" tall). I have it set up with the litter box on the ground floor in the rear left corner with her hay cage right above it, her water bottle in the front left corner and her pellet bowl next to that...Upstairs I have a fleece blanket on the floor and in her enclosed area I have her bed. The bed is like a fluffy cotton. So anyway, there's plenty of poop and pee in her litter box, a few, maybe 4-5 poop balls on the ground floor carpet, but then in her bed, she pooped and peed yesterday and then again this morning she pooped in her bed. Her original cage was a 36" standard metal cage with Kaytee clean and cozy bedding covering the whole floor. In there she only pooped and peed in one corner, the rear left corner, when she came out she never pooped on the carpet in the room I let her out in, she always went back in her cage. In her new hutch I figured i'd try litter in her litter box, so I put Kaytee critter litter in it... After her bed was washed, I put it in and she immediately went upstairs and pooped/peed in it, so... I took the bed out, put bedding in the same area her bed was in and she poops/pees in the bedding. She eats her hay downstairs in her litter box and runs upstairs to poop/pee.. Oh well, I guess i'll live with that, lol. We've had Coco for 2 weeks, the first week and a half she would come out of her cage and play and never poop on the carpet in the living room. Since I changed her cage to a much nicer and bigger hutch, she now poops on the living room carpet... I guess I really did screw her up.
 
I'm experiencing the same thing. In your case, be patient. When you change a bunny's cage, they will poop and pie all over to mark their new territory. This can happen just from moving the cage too.

She will tell you where she wants her litter box. Put it where she chooses to poop and pee most of the time.

Her marking behavior should settle down after a while.
 
I can deal with a few messes in the hutch for a while, its the pooping on the living room carpet 2 days in a row that bothers me more, lol.
 
blwn350":2bvfqlja said:
I can deal with a few messes in the hutch for a while, its the pooping on the living room carpet 2 days in a row that bothers me more, lol.

;) I wouldn't stress too much over pooping on the carpet. As she re-establishes her space that should get better. Peeing on the carpet is much more annoying. :p (White vinegar helps to clean that up)
 
Syberchick70":2w9mqocf said:
blwn350":2w9mqocf said:
I can deal with a few messes in the hutch for a while, its the pooping on the living room carpet 2 days in a row that bothers me more, lol.

;) I wouldn't stress too much over pooping on the carpet. As she re-establishes her space that should get better. Peeing on the carpet is much more annoying. :p (White vinegar helps to clean that up)

She has peed on the carpet twice and pooped 3 times since 4pm, so thats 2 times in 4 1/2 hrs...
 
You can expect marking behavior to last a few days, at least, before she settles in again. If it really bothers you that much, you can try putting a diaper on her while out of the cage, but don't leave it on to long, it will keep her from eating her cecals.

It might also be a good idea to just leave her in her cage for a few days to acclimate.

Btw, you cannot actually TRAIN a rabbit to use a litter box. You have to work with the rabbit's natural instincts and it should, after a while, choose to go in a specific place. Simple changes can throw this off though. It just requires patience.
 
A couple people told me it may be smart to put another litterbox outside the cage where she peed twice, what do you think about this? If I do this should I put hay in that one also or just some litter/bedding? I'm sorry to be a pain in the butt, but I just want to make the house happy for all of us, lol.
 
blwn350":pklnkyla said:
A couple people told me it may be smart to put another litterbox outside the cage where she peed twice, what do you think about this? If I do this should I put hay in that one also or just some litter/bedding? I'm sorry to be a pain in the butt, but I just want to make the house happy for all of us, lol.

If she has a certain spot in the house where she wants to pee, you can put a litter box there (with litter, no hay) just to make your life a little easier. In my experience, when I did that, they never used that spot again, which was fine with me. I wouldn't put hay there because you don't want to encourage her to use that spot. She should go back to her cage for her food, water and potty area (ideally).
 
Sounds good. Thank you!!

-- Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:36 pm --

Well, I put a litter box where she peed and pooped yesterday. I put some of her pee and poop in the box. Did no good, she peed and pooped on either side of the litter box twice again today. I'm at my wits end, i'm seriously contemplating just leaving her in her hutch, i'm getting sick of cleaning pee up on the carpet. <br /><br /> -- Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:10 pm -- <br /><br /> Here's her litter box with hay in it, she don't pee or poop in here.



Here's her bedroom, that she uses as a litter box...



And here is the room I let her free range in... You can see the litter box I set up, but all she does is sit in it, she pees and poops outside it..

 
That looks like a very nice hutch.

First of all, you have to be patient. This behavior isn't going to change in a day, or maybe even a few days. I would leave her in her hutch for now. Let her establish a place where she potties. You can't force her to choose a certain spot. I also don't recommend putting hay IN her potty box. You don't want her to pee all over it and cause it to mold. You should hang the hay above the litter box. I recommend a cat litter tray for a litter box.

Take the bedding out of her 'bed' area for now. It's cute, but rabbits don't necessarily want bedding material unless they are making a nest and then they want to make it themselves. It might be too warm for her. The only place you should put any sort of litter is in the litter box. If that hutch does not have a bottom, it needs one.

What kind of litter box did you put outside the hutch? It looks like an aluminum baking pan, not something a rabbit would want to pottie in. As I said before, I would not even put a litter box outside of the hutch. What kind of litter do you put in it? I use a mixture of a little bit of pine pellets (horse bedding from Tractor Supply) and Fresh News cat litter (made from recycled newspaper, unscented).

Never try to punish a rabbit for pottying in the wrong place. The rabbit will not understand what you are trying to do and you could injure it. Just be patient, keep putting her poop in the right place and also watch to see where she wants to go and work with her.

Best of luck
 
I think that was one of the mistakes that I have been making, I have been letting her out before she is litter trained. The hay in her litter box on the first floor, she put there, I have it hung in a hay cage and she pulls it all out and puts it in there. I have been using the bedding as litter, I guess I will change that, its Oxbow Pure Comfort Bedding. The reason I have it in her bed area is because that's the only place, other than outside the hutch, that she pees and poops and if that's where she feels the most comfortable going, that's fine with me. Outside the hutch I just used an aluminum pan, just to see if she'd use it, if she did I was going to buy an actual litter box. I really don't want a litter box outside the hutch, but I figured I'd try it. I never punished her for using my carpet. The second floor of the hutch has a bottom, the first floor doesn't, I put a big door mat on the floor, she never used that for potty.
 
You say she's putting hay in her litter box.... are you certain she is not pregnant? Some rabbits do build nests when they are not pregnant, but pregnancy is the most common reason for nest building behavior.
 
Pregnant?? I have no idea.. As far as I know she is only 2 1/2-3 months old, that's what I was told when I bought her 2 weeks ago. She pulls the hay out of the hay cage as she's eating it, the she also eats it out of the litter box. Also, I think yesterday instead of putting hay in the hay cage my daughter put it directly into the litter box.
 
blwn350":2npcldgi said:
Pregnant?? I have no idea.. As far as I know she is only 2 1/2-3 months old, that's what I was told when I bought her 2 weeks ago. She pulls the hay out of the hay cage as she's eating it, the she also eats it out of the litter box. Also, I think yesterday instead of putting hay in the hay cage my daughter put it directly into the litter box.

It's not impossible that she could be pregnant, but if she's eating the hay in her litterbox, it makes it less likely. If she's carrying hay to the litterbox and stuffing it in there, it's called 'haystaching' and is nest making behavior, usually meaning a rabbit is pregnant, but as I said before, not always.

This also makes more sense as to why she would not want to potty in her 'nest' area.

Just keep doing what you're doing and watch her. How long have you had her? (Never mind, I went back to your original post) - You've had her about 2 weeks, so IF she's pregnant, you will definitely know within the next 2 weeks. If she doesn't produce a litter within that time, you're in the clear as far as that goes.
 
She isn't carrying the hay to the box, the hay cage is right above her litter box, and as she picks through it, it falls into her litter box and she eats it out of there. Yeah, we had her 2 weeks now, she's great, aside from pottying the carpet, lol.. I'm going to try and keep her in her hutch for a few days and see what happens. Thank you so much for all you're help.
 
blwn350":1lbc9oyu said:
She isn't carrying the hay to the box, the hay cage is right above her litter box, and as she picks through it, it falls into her litter box and she eats it out of there.

Oh! Well, you're probably good then :) Keep her in the hutch for about a week (take her out to cuddle her, of course, but then just put her back - don't let her run around in the floor). Hope things improve!
 

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