When you first bring your rabbit home allow a couple of days for them to get used to their cage and accustomed to their surrounds.
This will also give you an opportunity to see where they decide to go to the toilet so you are able to set up their litter box in a spot of their choosing.
Allowing your rabbit to run unsupervised is not a good idea, especially when they are new to your home.
Remember to keep your eye on your rabbit for all out of cage time, if they pee or poo out of their litter box, do not yell or get angry with them, just soak or pick it up with a tissue and place the feces or urine and rabbit back into their litter box immediately, they will catch on soon enough.
Do not rush your rabbit, allow therm to explore and go about their business and learn to use their litter box in their own time, like people all rabbits are different, some will catch on faster than others.
Selecting a suitable rabbit litter box, will help make the litter training process easier for both you and your rabbit.
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What to Consider When Buying a Rabbit Litter Box
The Size of your Rabbit – Rabbits tend to use their litter box to play, eat and even sleep at times, so when it comes to selecting a litter box, bigger is always better.
Cage Size – will the litter tray fit inside the cage door and the litter box allow enough space in the rest of the cage for your rabbit.
Recommended Rabbit Litter Boxes
High Corner Litter Box
Great for small rabbits that have a cage as a base, they offer some privacy and help to keep the cage and surrounds clean.
Square hi-back Litter Box
This work well for rabbits especially if they are old, have arthritis or other mobility medical conditions that make hopping into a box difficult.
Plastic Cat Litter Trays
They come in several sizes can be cleaned with vinegar.You cut down one side of a cat litter box and cover the edges with split plastic tubing to make it safe.
Large Dog Litter Trays
These type of trays are heavy duty, easy to clean, have a low entry site, provide plenty of room and are great for large or rabbits with mobility issues.
Wire Bottom Litter Boxes
Wire in Litter Boxes – Tend to be favoured as a way to stop your rabbit from digging through their litter, to reduce mess, make cleaning easier.
Some rabbits will simply refuse to use them.
As it is designed for the dropping to fall through, it is crucial that your rabbit is able to access to their cecotropes, a softer ball type dropping that a rabbits need to eat in order to extract residual nutrients from their food.
Remember no matter what type of Rabbit Litter Box you select as long as you factor in the size of your rabbit and space available you are off to a good start.
How to Litter Train a Rabbit
For the rabbit litter training you have to get several litter boxes, which should filled, with a rabbit safe product. For rabbit, litter items like paper-based litter are preferred most. Free wood stove chips can also used.
Before placing the litter box just watch the rabbit in which position it does the litter. If you can noticed the favourite place of your rabbit then put the litter box in that place. This is the easiest process to convey the message of littering to the rabbit.
If you find that, the rabbit is doing the litter outside the litter box then just startle the rabbit towards the litter box. Do not try to reprimand your rabbit after the litter.
Use white vinegar for cleaning the rabbit litter. You can also clean the rabbit litter boxes using this white vinegar. Remove the smell of the rabbit litter so that the smell cannot affect the rabbit.
Clean the rabbit litter once in a day and the litter box once in a week.
Once the rabbit starts using the rabbit litter, you can change the position of the litter boxes. You can also change the number of rabbit litter boxes if your rabbit is habituated using the rabbit litter box.
Rabbit Urinating Everywhere
If your rabbit is litter trained and starts to change their toilet behaviour there are a few reasons and signs to look out for.
Dribbling urine over their cage instead of using the litter box.
In most cases dribbles (especially if your rabbit is litter trained) are an indication of a bladder infection.
Get your rabbit to a vet asap, they will probably prescribe antibiotics. If the dribbling stops, you know that that was the problem.
What if the Dribles do not stop after antibiotics?
Consider if your rabbit is feeling afraid, has there been a change in routine or cage location, they may be any factors that may be making your bunny feel insecure and can cause a rabbit to mark their new territory.
Also check back with the Vet just in case.
Why Do Rabbits Pee Outside The Litter Box?
The most common reasons why a litter trained rabbit reverts to bad habits are:
Behavior Related – there can be many changes that can cause your rabbit to act up such as change of routine, stress, visitors, children home for the holidays, extremely bad weather
If it is a one of fright from a sudden loud noise while in their litter box can trigger a fear of using it in the future.
Regardless of what triggered the bad behaviour, the goal is to rebuild their confidence by placing their urine/droppings into their box while using praise, treats and positive reinforcement to reassure them that it is a safe.
Once they realize that nothing bad is going to happen they should forget about what happened and get back to their old litter routine.
Remember that litter box retraining can more time than the first time, patience, consistency and positive reinforcement are the key.
Territory Related – This can start when your baby rabbit turns into a teenager, in which case spaying or neutering can help. Adding another rabbit to the family can trigger the need for your rabbit to mark it’s territory, once your rabbit feels that it has sufficiently marked it’s territory, they should start using their litter box again.
Urinary Tract Infections – If you notice out of the ordinary explainable urinating, take your rabbit to see the Vet immediately. Often times once treated your rabbit will resume using their litter box again.
If somebody has rabbits in the house then the first thing to learn is rabbit litter training. However, the process of training is quite simple because the rabbits have tends to go to the corner of the rabbit hutch for toilet and stick to it.
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