Pills vs Urine
All rabbits will drop pills around their cages to mark it as their own. This is not failure to be litter-trained. It is very important for your rabbit to identify the cage as her property so that when she leaves the cage for the bigger world of your house, she will distinguish the family’s area from her own and avoid marking it. To encourage this, make the rabbit the king of his cage. Try not to force him in or out of it. Coax him. Do not do things to his cage that he doesn’t like or things to him that he doesn’t like while he’s in the cage.
The trick to getting the rabbit to keep his pills in the cage is to give him ownership of his cage..respect the cage as HIS:
- Don’t reach into the cage to take him out; open the door and let him come out if and when HE wants to come;
- Don’t catch him and put him back in the cage or it will be his prison, not his home. Herd him back gently, and let him choose to go in to get away from you (I walk behind my buns, clap my hands, and say “bedtime.” They know that I’ll not stop harassing them with this until they go into their cage, so they run in except when they feel they haven’t gotten their fair share of time outside the cage.)
- It’s a bit like a child going home and closing the door, because someone is calling her names. They may make the playground an unpleasant place for her, but they can’t bother her in her own home.
- If the rabbit has been snuggling with you, it’s okay to carry him to the door of the cage and let him go in-just don’t put him directly into the cage, and never chase and trap him and put him in the cage.
- Don’t reach into the cage to get food dishes…anchor them near the door of the cage so they can be filled with a minimum of trespassing into the cage, or wait until the rabbit is out to fill them.
- Don’t clean the cage while the rabbit is in it…wait until he comes out. He’ll come over and supervise you, even help you move things around that you’ve set down outside the cage, but as long as he isn’t in the cage, he won’t see your cleaning as an invasion of his territory.
The same technique can be used if a rabbit doesn’t live in a cage, but in a particular part of a room. Mark the territory with a rug, tape, whatever, and don’t trespass over that.
Can the rabbit have a running space?
Even if your goal is to let your rabbit have full run of the house, you must start small. Start with a cage and a small running space, and when your rabbit is sufficiently well trained in that space, gradually give her more space. But do so gradually! If you overwhelm her with too much freedom before she’s ready, she will forget where her box is and will lose her good habits.
So what’s the actual method?
Start with a 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 his litter box…this is natural.
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 in the characteristic fashion, cry “no” in a single, sharp burst of sound. Gently herd her back to her cage and her litter box, or into one of the boxes in her room. Be careful, however. You don’t want to make the cage or the litter box seem like punishment.
A handful of hay in the box makes it a more welcoming place. After she first uses the box, praise her and give her her favorite treat. Once she uses the box in her room a couple of times, you’re well on your way, as her habits will be on their way to forming. As she gets better trained in her first room, you can increase her space. Don’t hurry this process. And if the area becomes very 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 very habitual and once a routine is established, they usually prefer to stick with it.
