Rabbit Care: Toilet/Litter Training Your Rabbit

Rabbits can be TOILET-TRAINED, and this is perhaps one of the best things about having a bunny as a pet - THEY ARE SO CLEAN.

So you may have adopted your bunny from rabbit rescue groups, and you were told that your new bunny was supposed to be toilet trained. But somehow after bringing the bunny home, your found your bunny peeing at every corner of the house! Eek!

Or for various reasons, you may have gotten your bunny from a pet shop and you really need to teach your bunny where to poop and pee so that you can let it out for a longer playtime, or plan your bunny a cage-free environment, but you don't know how to start training.

No worries! I'm here to give you some tips.

Here's what I did for Dou Dou's toilet training.

Training Steps

Step 1: Observe

Rabbits are habitual animals (probably most animals are), and you can try to observe where does your bunny like to do its business.

By observing its "favourite spot" would be easier than directing the bunny to your "intended spot".

Most likely it will be near to where you place the hay, because rabbits usually like to eat and poop and pee at the same time.

The first week when we brought Dou Dou home, I set up her cage in this way:

After a few days of observations, I realised Dou Dou tends to pee on the top right hand corner of the cage. I was lucky to place the potty right there. Though it's not always 100% at the same spot, it was spot that she frequently pees at.

Step 2: Training

This is where the training starts.

I would suggest to keep your bunny in the cage 24/7 during the first week (or at least 5 days depending on how fast your bunny gets it) of the new living environment.

Whenever your bunny pees at a spot, don't throw away the tissue that you have used to clean it up, put the dirty tissue in the potty so that the bunny can recognise that it's "The Spot".

During this phase, owners must really be hardworking in cleaning up, to remove the urine smell from every corners in the cage, except the potty.

Trust me, it's going to pay off.

You can also put some hay on top of the potty, so that it will help to reinforce good toilet habits.

This was Dou Dou eating hay on her old potty.
(Sorry for the bad quality photo, I had a bad phone camera)

Step 3: Double-check

After 5 days, your bunny should be pooping and peeing in the potty 80% of the time.

Dou Dou picked up good toilet habits really quickly, she got it right almost 90% of the time in 5 days' time.

You can let your bunny out for longer playtime (around 1 hour) and see if your bunny will return to the potty automatically to poop or pee.

Also, after some time, I realised my cage configuration was not the best to form good toilet habits because hay was too far from the potty. So I changed into this:

I shifted the hay bowl right next to the potty.

After changing the hay nearer to the potty, not only Dou Dou's cage became more spacious, she stopped peeing elsewhere.

Because of this, I had the confidence to turn her into a cage-less bunny. She's now a free roaming bunny and have the luxury to access my whole study room 24/7.

Now her potty look like this:

Evidence of her eating while popping.

Dou Dou on her new potty. "Yup, I like to nom nom nom and poop poop poop."

I changed the potty to a bigger one because she grew up and became bigger. Previously, I realised she kept peeing slightly out of the potty, and after changing to a bigger potty solved the problem. (I got the box from Daiso for only S$2, by the way.)

Peeing At The Wrong Spot - What Is Your Bunny Trying To Tell You

So you thought your bunny was already toilet-trained, but somehow you still find some yellow/brown spots here and there, or rabbit poop at random places, and you wonder why.

Here are some of the reasons (that I know of) that your toilet-trained bunny is doing something out of its habit:

1. Hormonal Change

There's this period where your bunny reaches sexual maturity (4~6months), yet not ready for sterilisation (best to do it after 6 months old).

During this period, your bunny will be filled with passion, ready to mate and have babies. If this burning desire is not fulfilled, your bunny will rage with frustration and become very possessive (sounds like human isn't it, haha).

Some bunnies became aggressive, and would bite you at the slightest touch, some bunnies would SPRAY its pee everywhere, including yourself, to declare that "it's MY territory".

When Dou Dou was in this period, the usually good-natured bunny turned into a urine spraying machine. She would mark her territory on walls, by jumping and urinating at the same time, or poop in a straight line while walking around the room.

It was frustrating for me as I had to keep cleaning the floor, the wall and myself.

Fortunately, this nightmare didn't last too long as she returned to her old self after her sterilisation at 7 months old.

"I'm actually just a bunny that likes to chill."

2. Fear / Unhappiness

Needless to explain more. Some bunnies express their fear or unhappiness by peeing on the spot. Find out what made your rabbit scared or unhappy, and try to give it some comforting pats and avoid it the next time.

3. Naughty Moments

I believe rabbits have their rebellious moments as well, especially if you have expressed your anger at your rabbit for doing something wrong, like biting your cables, scratching your furniture etc, your bunny might just pee out of revenge.

You'll be surprised that your bunnies actually have a good memory!

4. Territorial

Dou Dou hardly pees to mark territory after sterilisation, but I observed that she would poop around her potty or her favourite place, and I guess it was to mark her territory.

But this is different from the time when she was being hormonal, such markings are usually out of habit and accidental.

"I'm marking this place with my tail!"

I'm more concerned about where she pees than where she poops actually.

For me, pooping outside the potty is fine because rabbits' poop are so "clean", it's not smelly or watery, you can just pick it up and throw it away. Or if you have plants at home, rabbit poops are actually great fertilisers!

That is why, I think owners can relax if your bunny don't poop in the potty at times, but peeing is more serious issue.

Ultimately, I think potty training is about observing and knowing your bunny, and using some problem solving skills to find out the best way to help your bunny develop good toilet habit.

When one method doesn't work, find out the main cause of the problem and explore solutions. Be patient and don't be afraid to experiment (of course without causing harm to your little one).

That's all I'm sharing today, so let me know if there are other rabbit related topics you would like me to talk about, and good luck in toilet training your bunny!

Happy Monday!