Litter Training

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Songbird12

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Jul 28, 2013
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Hi Everyone,

In desperate need of advice. We adopted two baby bunnies who are 6 weeks old. We would love to have them as indoor pets but have no idea where to start with toilet training. They seem to think we are their potties at the moment which is not an ideal situation for us. We really need help from people who have successfully toilet trained before.

Ciara
 
:welcomewagon:

Hi Songbird! Welcome to RT. :)

I had a house rabbit about twenty years ago, and just put her litter box in her "potty corner". She would always go back to her cage to use it when she was running free in the house.

I have no idea about them pottying on you- if it is just one or two poops at a time, that is normal- rabbits randomly scatter one or two as they move around.

I'm sure some of our more experienced pet rabbit owners will be able to give you better insight soon. :)
 
MSD is right, they will scatter random poops pretty much everywhere, which are pretty dry and easy to sweep up. If they are urinating on you, though, that's another matter.

You can mop up some of the urine with a paper towel, and put it into their litter box. Then you should probably keep them in their cage or whatever enclosure the litter box is in for a few days, while they learn that THAT is the litter box, and that's where the pee goes. :)

Clean the urine from everything else -- floors, clothing, etc. You can use Borax on the clothes to remove urine smell. Borax or a weak Pine Sol solution for floors. You want to kill the urine smell, so that the only thing that smells like bunny pee is the litter box.

Welcome to RabbitTalk! :welcomewagon:
 
Hi MSD and MISS M,

Thanks for the advice, any other advice would be greatly appreciated. These are our first rabbits and we're a bit lost. They are urinating on us as well. We will try keeping them in their cage with the litter box and see how that goes. Are they too young do you think? They are very small...
 
They are pretty young, and they don't have a litter-trained mama around to teach them. They will probably need a lot of patience! Just keep removing/cleaning anything that gets urine on it besides the litter box.

You can try to get them to the litter box if they start to urinate on you. Maybe keep a rag on your lap, and if they start to urinate, pick the rabbit up with the rag on the back end to try to keep the mess as small as possible, take the rabbit quickly to the litter box, and put it in the litter box. That might help.

You may need to try different kinds of litter. Make sure they do not have clay or clumping litter. Rabbits must have litter that will not hurt them if they eat it, so paper litter, pine litter, pine shavings, wood stove pellets (wood only, no accelerant), horse stall bedding... those would be safe for rabbits.

Hopefully, you'll get some suggestions from other members. I have litter trained only a few rabbits myself. :)

They should get it eventually, but especially with their age, it may be a while.
 
Welcome to the forum!!!!! :)

6 weeks is awfully young...in some states it's illegally young to sell/adopt out/rehome bunnies that young. I think they are probably so little and immature they may not be able to control their bladder yet. My two-week-olds just pee whenever the urge strikes; last night I had one sleeping in my pocket and got drenched by sleepy-pee. :lol: I'd give them some time...and maybe try to get them to eliminate before you snuggle them. My babies will pee if I am holding them in my hands and massage their tummies, don't know if that would work for your little fellows.

Give it time and be patient, they are just wee little babies right now! :)
 
Suppose it probably won't do any harm to get them used to the idea of the litter box anyways. Going to buy them an indoor run so they can have some freedom in the house because I feel bad when they're in their cage too much. They love to run about and jump.

Illegal? Really? Not sure if there's a law on it here in Ireland to be honest. When we brought them to be vaccinated the vet did seem surprised at their age.

Anyways thanks for all the help. I'll definitely try out all your suggestions and really appreciate it :)
 
I might look into it. Saw alot of young rabbits for sale (less than 7 weeks) when searching for these ones. Anyways our bunnies are finally beginning to realise they can't go to the bathroom wherever, whenever which is nice. They seem to be sticking to one or two places now so going to start with the litter trays in the morning. Wish me luck! :)
 
Songbird12":4f30h93f said:
Anyways our bunnies are finally beginning to realise they can't go to the bathroom wherever, whenever which is nice.
Click to expand...

Yay! Progress! :D

I think it is mostly because they are so young. Older rabbits generally pick a corner of their cage to use as a "potty spot", which is why rabbits are generally easy to litter train. :)

By the way, what kind of rabbits are they? We would love to see some pictures of them and their housing! :)
 
I know. We weren't expecting improvement so quickly......Now to stop them trying to eat the furniture....

Here's a pic of the two of them. They're incredibly sweet little rabbits, love to be handled but also love running around and playing. We're just in love with them and of course the have totally taken over our lives.

Harvey & Oscar (2).jpg
 
Oh, they're adorable! :p

Furniture I can't help you with, except to try to make sure they have other things to chew on. It may make no difference, though.

They will often go for wires, and a lot of owners run wires through PVC pipe or other things.
 
Yeah we put all the wires through plastic tubes to stop them going for them, was so afraid something would happen to them. Currently researching things to give them to chew other than my coffee table!

Thanks for all the nice words :)
 
My current litter of French Angoras are potty trained without my intention! I moved them to their own cage as they were getting too big to be with their mom and take them to their mom once in the morning and once in the evening for milk. I put a box with hay in the corner for them to rest in, and they have all successfully been using it as a potty! Guess I can't complain - I like less work! :D
 
Blossomacres":1rd267cj said:
I put a box with hay in the corner for them to rest in, and they have all successfully been using it as a potty!
Click to expand...

That reminds me! We had a member that would litter train by putting the hay rack above the litter box- the rabbits would munch hay and potty at the same time.
 

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