How Long Does it Take to Litter Train a Rabbit?

There are lots of misconceptions whirling around regarding one of the cutest pets, which is a rabbit. Some people consider them dirty animals, and some think they aren’t easily tamable, especially when it comes to litter training.

For your information, all of these are misleading information. Bunny is one such pet that loves to stay neat and can be easily litter trained. But it entirely depends on its age. Younger rabbits are quite challenging to litter train than adults. And the litter train time also varies from rabbit to rabbit.

Thus, right now, you may be thinking, how long does it take to litter train a rabbit? It depends on the rabbit’s age and how it behaves. Some bunnies need one or two weeks, and some even require one month. Some rabbits are so stubborn that they take over three months, while others get trained within one or two days. That means you have to keep patience and keep trying perpetually to litter train your pet.

In this article, we’re going to describe briefly how you should train them. Apart from that, we’ll talk about the necessity of choosing the right litter, going with a heavy litter box, and diving into litter training. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Handy Hint: To read more about rabbits, visit our other article about rabbits as pet’s pros and cons [Click here] and what to feed baby rabbits without a mother [Click here]

Choose the Right Litter

First, you have to choose the right kind of litter. As you know, the bunny mostly prefers to lay in the litter box. Thus, you need to select something safe and absorbent. Also, make sure the litter absorbs odor as the rabbit’s urine tends to have a strong odor. We recommend you not to use clay, cedar, or pine. Instead, try to use something organic or paper-based pellets. The benefits of using them as litter are that they are safe and budget-friendly. However, ensure that your rabbit doesn’t eat pellets from the litter box.

Go with a Heavy Litter Box

For baby rabbits, small litter boxes work pretty well. You can try smaller pans like cake pans for such rabbits. If your pet often tends to come outside the litter box, you should use something with higher sides, such as a covered cat box or a dishpan. In short, try to ensure that the box features larger corners so that bunnies can’t back right up to the edge. And if your rabbit tends to kick the pan, you should go with a heavy litter box.

Dive into Litter Training

Supervision and confinement are the keys when it is about litter training the rabbit. It will be pretty tough to train if your rabbit tends to urinate wherever it likes.

First, you need to keep your pet in its small cage and place the litter box on the cage’s corner. It is because rabbits mostly choose the corner side to urinate and defecate. If you place the litter box at the corner of the cage, your rabbit will slowly start using it as a toilet. If it doesn’t help you, try to place the box in the area your rabbit prefers.

Once the rabbit starts using the litter pan, apply the tactic with your rabbit when it is out of the cage. Place the litter pan in a limited area and make it alluring by keeping your rabbit’s favorite toy in the box.

Now, you need to wait for the time when your bunny is going to urinate. If it uses the litter box, you should treat your pet with food, toy, or petting. And if it doesn’t, put the litter box where your rabbit heads to do its business.

Over time, your bunny will get used to the litter box. If it doesn’t, spend more playful time training the rabbit, place more boxes in its territory. You should work with what your bunny wants to do. If it prefers an inconvenient location as toile, try to place a bowl of food there.

The training process may seem to you daunting, but it will go smoothly as long as you work with the bunny’s natural tendencies. At the beginning of the taming, you need to pay a lot more attention to the rabbit.

Anyway, if your rabbit is previously trained, sometimes it may get a bit careless. In such a case, you should continue training your bunny. You won’t have to work so hard if you have adult rabbits. These rabbits tend to stay clean, and so they easily adapt to the litter training.

However, rabbits have a common bad-behavior, which is territorial marking. Their territorial marking behavior becomes noticeable when they hit puberty. They start spraying urine here and there, and sometimes they mark the territory with feces.

But this situation isn’t permanent; they mark their territory, mainly when they feel stressed, experience change in routine, or notice another additional rabbit.

Our Recommendations

Once the bunny overcomes the situations mentioned above, it will stop marking. If it continues marking the territory, here are few tips you may follow:

You need to spay or neuter your rabbit when it is four to six months old. Spaying or neutering early has lots of advantages; it will make litter training easier, and with that, help reduce marking behavior.
Next, ensure that your rabbit feels secure in its area. You shouldn’t reach into its cage and pick it up; it will make the bunny feel threatened. As a result, it will be more prone to mark its territory.
Lastly, rabbits are more likely to suffer from health problems, especially with the urinary tract. Thus, if you notice any change like the urine color, amount of urine, etc., you need to take the bunny to the veterinarian.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can you use cat litter to train a rabbit?

Answer: Just like cats, rabbits can be litter box trained. So, you can provide your pet rabbit a cat litter box that has no top and low sides. You shouldn’t give your rabbit any clay-made litter because it can be harmful to your rabbit’s respiratory system.

2. Is rabbit poop toxic to humans?

Answer: Although rabbits usually carry parasites, like roundworm and tapeworm, rabbit poop is not toxic to humans. This is because it doesn’t transmit diseases to human beings. However, it can make you unpleasant.

3. Do rabbits smell if kept indoors?

Answer: Rabbits don’t smell bad while indoors. Their body and fur are pretty odorless, but their urine smells. Clean the area where your beloved rabbit lives every couple of days or at least once a week. If you always keep the area clean, you shouldn’t have any problem.

Conclusion

Rabbits are wonderful, fun-loving, and intelligent companion. In terms of personality, each bunny is different. They behave differently from each other and teach their owner a new way of looking at the world.

But sometimes, they become irritable and messy. And it is one of the reasons for many people failing at training their bunnies.

Some people believe that rabbits are more like other pets such as cats, dogs, etc. They think that their rabbits will start using the litter box after certain training days and won’t spay urine or feces around the home.

But it isn’t true, sometimes, some well-trained rabbits urinate outside the litter box, and they continue doing this for several days. Thus, we recommend you to have patience and pay close attention to your rabbit’s nature. Give it more time, never stop training.