Litter Training Your Pet Rabbit

Rabbits usually choose one or a few places (usually corners) to deposit their urine and feces. Urine-training involves little more than putting a litter box where the rabbit chooses to go. Feces training is a bit harder as some rabbits simply drop their “pills” as they hop around. Others make it a point of depositing their poops at certain locations to give everyone notice that this area belongs to them. Rabbit urine varies in color from clear or cloudy and may be yellow, brown, or red in color. Yes, red can be a normal color for rabbit urine, but if seen should be analyzed by your veterinarian to make sure this is pigment and not blood. Normally, there is no cause for alarm unless the rabbit strains to urinate, loses his/her appetite, or has a temperature (103 degrees is a normal rabbit temperature). If you are in doubt as to the normalcy of your rabbit’s urine, call your veterinarian and have his/her urine tested.

Safe litter

•Care Fresh
•Cat Country
•Critter Country
•Yesterday’s News
•Papurr
•Hay
•Shredded newspaper (do not use the slick color advertisement sheets)

Unsafe litter

•Stay away from litters made from softwoods, like pine or cedar shavings or chips (these products may be irritating and unhealthy for rabbits to use)
•Swheat Scoop Litter should be avoided, because rabbits will often eat it. Because it is comprised of wheat, it is very high in carbohydrates and can cause obesity, excessive cecal production, diarrhea, bacterial imbalance, and other health issues
•Clay litter is dusty and the deodorant crystals in some clay litters are irritating
•Corn cob litter isn’t absorbent and doesn’t control odor, and has the risk of being eaten, potentially causing a lethal blockage

Cleaning the litter box

Clean litter boxes often. Use white vinegar to rinse boxes out but for tough stains, let the pans soak. Accidents outside of the cage can be cleaned up with white vinegar or club soda. If the urine has already dried, you can try products like “Nature’s Miracle” or “Urine Off” for small mammals to remove the stain and odor. Organic litters can be used as mulch or can be composted. Rabbit feces can be directly applied to plants as fertilizer.

Training method

Place a litter box in the cage and one or more boxes in the rabbit’s running space. If she urinates in a corner of the cage not containing the box, move the box to that corner until she gets it right. Don’t be concerned if your bunny curls up in the litter box–this is normal. Once she’s using the box in the cage, open her door and allow her into her running space. Watch her go in and out on her own. If she heads to a corner where there’s no box or lifts up her tail, cry “no” in a single, sharp burst of sound. Gently herd her back to her cage and to her litter box, or into one of the boxes in her running area. Be careful; you don’t want to make the cage or the litter box seem like punishment. Placing a handful of hay into the litter box makes it a more welcoming place. After she first uses the box, praise her and give her a treat.

As she becomes better at using the box you can begin to increase her free roam space. Don’t hurry this process. If the area becomes big or includes a second floor, be sure to include more litter boxes so as not to confuse her. Remember, as she becomes more confident and uses fewer boxes, you can start to remove some of her early “training” boxes. Get your rabbit into a daily routine and try not to vary it. Rabbits are not a big fan of change!

Common problems

•Urinating over the edge of the box – try either a larger litter box or one with higher sides
•Urinating in a different location – Place a litter box in the spot where the rabbit wants to urinate. You may be able to eventually move the box to another location at a later date.
•Dribbling – this may indicate a bladder infection. If seen, take your rabbit to an exotics veterinarian for a check-up. Note: sometimes the addition of a new rabbit or pet to the house will cause the rabbit to mark its territory with urine and poops and this is different from dribbling which will result in a soiled behind.
•Kicking litter out of the box – try either a covered litter box or one with higher sides.