I've had my Rabbits (2 males, Chilli and Pepper) for nearly a month now, and I'm finding that their litter training is not going to plan. There's a lot of advice around about how to get them to do it, but I cant find a sort of time frame to expect results or any specific advice to break a bad habit. Basicly my 2 boys have decided that the sleeping compartment of their hutch is the ideal toilet, and the litter tray is more of a bed!

I've been cleaning out both the tray and the hutch on an almost daily basis, disinfecting and deodorising the sleeping compartment and putting their urine soaked sawdust/hay into the litter tray to no effect, they simply continue to urinate and poo in the sleeping area and laze/sleep in the litter tray!

Is this just a case of being patient and continuously doing what I'm doing until they learn? or should I give up and let them do what they want?

I was also wondering if there was a spray, similar to what you can buy for dogs, that you spray on things you don't want them to chew which when bitten gives them a bad taste, as to discourage chewing? I only ask because I have one room (the kitchen) totally rabbit proofed (Anything chewable is replaceable or out of reach) but I would like to give them free reign of the study (the next room) which has a bookcase that they have taken a liking to!

Any advice appreciated,
Paul

Don't have too much advice about litter training as my rabbit learned it pretty quickly, but I do have a couple things...Are your two rabbits neutered? My own male rabbit liked to leave a lot of droppings around my room to mark it as his territory before I got him neutered, but now I never find any. His litter habits are pretty much perfect since he was done. (This isn't the case for all neutered rabbits, but I was lucky with mine I guess. I also just have one rabbit for now, until I can get him a friend. I suppose two rabbits may be more difficult to train. )

I've also heard that having two litter boxes or even three can help when there's more than one rabbit involved. Also putting the hay in the box because rabbits like to eat where they go to the bathroom and use the bathroom where they eat There are other people on here who are more help with litter training stuff, though, and may have more to say.

As for the chewing...my rabbit had a specific bookshelf he loved to chew on, and I finally just had to block it off with some metal fence-type thing. It doesn't look that pretty, but it does the job while he's in that room. There were a couple other furniture pieces he used to chew on, but with enough shooing away and loud clapping, he's stopped bothering with them. I guess just also trying to provide other toys/objects that are interesting for your rabbits. Look some rabbit toy ideas up, experiment, and see what they like.

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Firstly, are they neutured?

If they are still intact they are usually harder to litter train as bucks spray urine.

Unfortunately, it seems like they have their chosen 'toilet' area so getting them to go somewhere else is going to be quite difficult. I would suggest putting the litter tray in the area they are used to going in as then they should use the tray

Also what substrate do you use? I find with indoor rabbits its much easier to just use substrate in the litter tray and just have blankets/rugs for them to sleep on otherwise. That way it saves woodshavings etc being dragged all over the place. I've always used wood pellet cat litter in my litter trays, with a layer of hay on top and the hay racks overhanging the litter tray (rabbits like to toilet when they are munching so placing food in the litter tray often encourages its use)

Using a big enough litter tray also helps, depending on the size of your rabbits a large cat litter tray may be a good size, otherwise, underbed plastic storage boxes, or even the base of those indoor rabbit/guinea pig cages can be used. Too small a tray and you will find bunny sticking its bum over the side and leaving you a nice puddle

If they live indoors why not remove the divide to the bedding compartment and put the litter tray in that part and attatch a hay rack to the side above/by it? It will make the hutch more open plan and give you more space to put a tray. If you use woodshavings or another bedding i'd say scrap that and just use plain newspaper or a blanket or vetbed on the bottom. You don't have to of course but using different substrates will help them differentiate between litter tray and cage

As for the chewing, you can't really stop it as its part of their natural behaviour. You could try a Bitter Apple spray but they are a bit hit and miss and don't always work. I'd suggest providing other elements to distract them, so other things they can chew like cardboard boxes/tubes. If that fails then i'd suggest investing in some NIC grids or a playpen so you barrier the bookcase off to prevent further damage

Hope this helps

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Their not Neutered, yet. We were advised to wait until they were 6 months old before we had that done, so another month yet!

I'll try the extra litter trays with the hay in, I suppose I could always wean them off and back down to 1 tray once they get used to it?

As for the bookcase, would chicken wire on the base work? or would that be too rough for them and hurt them?

Thanks again
Paul


Edit in reply to Pinkchi:
Not neutered yet, as detailed above.

We use wood shavings all over at the moment, perhaps I should change this, I'll purchase some wood litter pellets later on today and try that, I'll also reposition their hay feeder to the tray! The try I use is for a small dog BTW, its about 2ft x 1ft, so it should be more than big enough, they can both sprawl out in it anyway!

Where would I get a bitter Apple spray from? and do you know of a rabbit safe brand? I'm worried about traditions sprays as i know rabbits have quite sensitive digestive tracts, and a cheap bookcase is easily replaceable where a dead rabbit due to a toxic spray isn't quite so easy to deal with!

Also, what is a NIC pen?

Thansk
Paul.

You are going to find it pretty impossible to litter train them whilst they are still entire, I have managed to litter train 2 entire bucks before but it wasn't easy.
For 2 rabbits it is actually better to have 3 litter trays (I find with groups it is always better to have 1 more tray than rabbits, don't ask why it works, it just does ).

Chicken wire will be fine for indoors as it doesn't need to be predator proof, but keep in mind that rabbits can actually chomp through chicken wire

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Take a look here: Your Indoor Setups
At indoor set-ups to get the idea of what I mean about not using bedding all over the floor. My rabbits live in shed but still havenothing on the floor, only the litter tray with boxes etc to rest in. I find it much easier, cleaner and cheaper to do it that way.

These: WIRE CUBE STORAGE UNIT SHOE CLOTHES STORE RACK NEW UK | eBay
Are NIC grids/cubes and you can build them however you want and put them up against furniture or around the room to cover skirting boards etc to help bunny proof

Bitter Apple spray can be bought from many petshops, I got mind from pets at home. Its not toxic to them, just supposed to taste nasty, but it didn't stop my rabbits ripping wallpaper off the walls or the hamster chewing her cage!

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