It's important for people to understand that this process can take time. A rabbit who's been perfectly box-trained for three years and has peed next to the box for three days may need three weeks of intensive training to get back to her old, good behavior.
“Rabbits are incredibly fastidious and clean animals,” which makes them easy to litter train, says Brittany Schlacter, an educator for the House Rabbit Society and director of West Michigan Critter Haven in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In fact, that they sometimes even learn how to use a rabbit litter box all by themselves.
Rabbits like to eat hay and poop at the same time. So to promote good litter box habits, place hay either directly in the box over the litter or place it in a hay box next to the litter box. If you use a hay box, position it so the rabbit must hop into the litter box in order to reach the hay.
The best way to prevent your rabbit from pooping everywhere is to get them spayed or neutered. This will reduce the territorial instincts that cause the rabbit to scatter their droppings. You should also make sure they have a welcoming and easy-to-reach litter box available at all times.
Rabbit nails should be trimmed as required. This can vary between individual rabbits, but basically, if they are getting too long they can be trimmed. Your vet can trim the nails and show you how to do it safely and what length is suitable. It's important not to trim too short as this can cause bleeding and pain.
Rabbit pee has a relatively high concentration of ammonia, and can smell pretty bad. Some rabbits are worse than others. Male rabbits will typically have more pungent pee than females. But that's not always the case.
We recommend using CareFresh (a rabbit-safe pet bedding that does not contain any pine or cedar products) and fresh hay to prepare your bunny's litter box. Spread one inch of clean CareFresh covering the bottom of the pan, then add a big handful of hay.
Average sized bunnies will make 200-300 poops per day. They should be uniform in size and shape which means rounded and pea to garbanzo sized. The size of your bunny won't always predict the size of their poops.
Is Rabbit Poop Harmful? While rabbits can carry parasites like tapeworm and roundworm, their waste is not known to transmit any diseases to humans.
' While this is a slight exaggeration, rabbits do poop more often than most other household pets. Rabbits produce more than a hundred poop pellets per day due to their high-fiber diet. Rabbits urinate between 2 and 8 times per day.
Rabbits commonly spray urine to mark their territory. If your rabbit is urinating on you, he or she may be attempting to claim you as part of their territory!
While an occasional stray poo is nothing to worry about, a sudden rejection of the rabbit litter box can be frustrating. Your rabbit's potty habits can be thrown off by a change in routine, new scenery, unfamiliar humans or animals, an issue with the litter box itself, a medical problem, or even a new life stage.
Did you know you can house train rabbits? These clever house pets will happily use a litter tray, so long as it is well set up and they have been shown how to use it. You can start litter training your rabbits as early as you like but you can litter train a rabbit at any age.
Add bedding and hay.
Remember to use rabbit-safe litters in your bunny's box. Clay and clumping litter for cats can be dangerous to bunnies, as they may ingest some of their litter while eating hay. Pine, cedar, or other aromatic wood shavings may also be harmful to your rabbit's health.
Regardless of the amount of paper you use in the litter box, most of the time you will need to change the box every two days or so. Paper pulp pellets will need to be changed less often than newspaper. Recommended by many veterinarians, especially when learning how to litter train a rabbit.
Never use a puppy pad in your rabbit's litter box! Try newspaper instead.
It's not that rabbits themselves are all that smelly, but for house bunny owners, living spaces can end up a bit stinky. An RHH (Rabbit Hole Hay) fan recently brought it to our attention that there aren't always great resources out there on the topic of reducing unwanted odors from living with rabbits.
But frequent pooping is very normal for most rabbits. In fact they can release up to 300 pellets per day! And the good news is, rabbit poop doesn't have much of a smell, nor is it very wet. In fact, it's quite dry which makes it easy to clean up.
When you see your bunny pushing his bottom and tail out, it is usually a sign he is about to urinate. If your rabbit is in the tray, wait until he has finished and give him lots of praise and a reward.
WRONG MATERIALS. It is not uncommon that litter boxes that are too large or too small play a role in accidents. Watch your rabbit using their box. If they are having a hard time turning around, digging, or are generally hanging out of the litter box then it's probably time to spring for a little bigger box for them.
Not only is it less likely a female rabbit will spray (though they do occasionally), but they also tend to have better overall litter box habits and keep themselves cleaner with their self-grooming behaviors.