Kindling does that use litter boxes

[BlueLove16]

So I know a few of you might use litter boxes with your rabbits. I do because they are in kennels and the litter boxes makes it sooo much easier to clean up.

So I have a doe I is due in a couple weeks, so I am starting to wonder if the litter box was a bad idea. She is in a 3x4 pen and really nearly perfect with the litter box, which is great for making the cage easy to clean. But now i am worried she will kindle in the litter box.

I dont have any official nestboxes, but i planned to give her a storage tub to kindle in to keep the kits warm...in a couple weeks it will be freezing out . cant keep their bowls unfrozen for longer than a few hours as is.

Does anyone have any ideas? Other than removing the litter box...its a wooden cage with tile bottom, so it would ruin it if she just peed and pood on the ground and dont have the money for the wire cages nor the setup atm

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I don't use litter boxes since I have wire cages, but I think it is the location more than the box itself that is important. The reason rabbits litter train easily is because they tend to use one corner of their cage to potty in anyway.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The storage tub will likely be deeper than the litter tray, and as long as you put it in a different corner of the cage she should do just fine.

I would try to wait until you see a "hay mustache" to put the nest box in so she doesn't start using it as a litter box, but if that is not feasible, just clean the box out as necessary if she does make any mistakes.

Good luck with the impending popples!

 

[Harpoon]

I have a setup similar to yours for one of my rabbits and she has done just fine differentiating between the litter box and the nest box after the kits were born. She had a little trouble when I put the nest box in early, but like MamaSheepdog said, we just cleaned it out and waited to put it in again.

 

[Bad Habit]

Mine have always used the litter box properly, even after kindling. I find that they want me to keep it very clean though - they will start going outside the box if I've left it for more than 24hrs without cleaning. I did have on issue with Hannah using her litter box to nest, and her nest box to potty, but she delivered me 8 healthy babies in the litter box... She knew she had more than would be comfortable in the nest box! I simply replaced the nest box with another litter box, and everything is back to hunky dory.

 

[BlueLove16]

Great Thanks, I could just picture her having them in the box and peeing on them -.- shes a digger, too, which took me a few tries to find a litter box suitable for her lol. hoping she is smart enough, but not sure if she took. we shall see. she is crankier lately. she boxes me until she realizes its me

 

[ladysown]

Biscuit is litter box trained. When she digs in her litter box (about half way through pregnancy) I give her a nestbox. she fiddles with it and then ignores it until the day before she's due. So litter boxes and nestboxes can work just fine.