How to house train rabbits

2011

Hi All,

4 weeks ago recently acquired 2 female "lion head" rabbits.
They are now 12 weeks old.

I have them loose in the down stairs of my house (no carpets).

I where identified where they like to "perform" (kitchen beside oven) and placed a litter tray there with earth in it.
Success rate is about 20% at best.

I clean up at least twice a day, but they don't seem to get the hint!
I have another litter tray in their cage at the opposite end from their food.
Occasionally I lock them in the cage overnight. During the day if they get a fright or are bored they like to hop into their cage (always fresh clean bedding).

They seem very happy as they race around the house and allow themselves to be picked up and patted.
Despite this, my forgiving nature when various items were nibbled (I never even brought the subject up as they are quite sensitive to criticism), and many long conversations the toilet training is not going as well as hoped!
As you may have guessed I am not an experienced rabbit owner, although I am experienced with dogs and cats.

Any suggestions??

Thanks in advance!

Sigma Force

First of all it's great to hear of a rabbit owner allowing their rabbits space to run indoors so many are locked in hutches (bunny coffins) at the end of the garden.

What I would suggest ..just for now until they get the hang of it..is confining them to a smaller area maybe using an indoor rabbit pen and keeping the litter box in the corner they're likely to pee in. You need to rub some of their pee the inside of the litter tray any time you clean it so always keep a bit back.

I used plain newspaper in the rabbit litter trays, I never bought any litter etc. found it too messy and expensive, I used a small brick to weigh it down so they couldn't move the tray around and kept it in the corner where they had already peed on other occasions. I used newspaper and hay in their beds and they didn't get mixed up between peeing on the newspaper in the tray and peeing in the beds which I thought they might at first.

It will take some time them being young, when they hit 6 months it's a good idea to get them spayed I found this helped a lot with toilet training.

Once the rabbits have gotten the hang of using the litter tray then you can make the pen larger or start giving them more freedom. Use cheap white vinegar to clean up any accidents..it's great for removing their pee esp. when the pee dries it's like limescale.

Keep a second litter tray hand, you might need more than one it's handy to have a spare one when the other one is being cleaned and dried.

Hope this helps.

2011

Sigma Force wrote: »

First of all it's great to hear of a rabbit owner allowing their rabbits space to run indoors so many are locked in hutches (bunny coffins) at the end of the garden.

What I would suggest ..just for now until they get the hang of it..is confining them to a smaller area maybe using an indoor rabbit pen and keeping the litter box in the corner they're likely to pee in. You need to rub some of their pee the inside of the litter tray any time you clean it so always keep a bit back.

I used plain newspaper in the rabbit litter trays, I never bought any litter etc. found it too messy and expensive, I used a small brick to weigh it down so they couldn't move the tray around and kept it in the corner where they had already peed on other occasions. I used newspaper and hay in their beds and they didn't get mixed up between peeing on the newspaper in the tray and peeing in the beds which I thought they might at first.

It will take some time them being young, when they hit 6 months it's a good idea to get them spayed I found this helped a lot with toilet training.

Once the rabbits have gotten the hang of using the litter tray then you can make the pen larger or start giving them more freedom. Use cheap white vinegar to clean up any accidents..it's great for removing their pee esp. when the pee dries it's like limescale.

Keep a second litter tray hand, you might need more than one it's handy to have a spare one when the other one is being cleaned and dried.

Hope this helps.

Many thanks for the advice.

I plan to get they spayed. I will build an outdoor run over christmas and keep the outdoors when the weather suits.