Rabbits are not only meat and fluff, but also wonderful pets. They are very sweet and friendly, willingly get along with other animals, and quickly find a common language with children. Many who want to have an ornamental pet believe that the main thing is to buy the animal a cage and feed it. But in order for the eared creature to feel comfortable, grow healthy and playful, it will need proper daily care.
Animals are living beings who, in addition to the need for food, have many other physiological needs. One of these is defecation. Prospective breeders should understand that in addition to cleaning up feces, they will need to spend time training the animal to defecate in a certain place. If you don’t train rabbits, they will start crap everywhere in the apartment.
At what age can you start potty training a rabbit?
The process of training an animal must begin at the right age. It is difficult to train very young rabbits or adult rabbits who have never been to the same place before.
Decorative rabbits are easy to toilet train
It is recommended to start toilet training your pets starting at the age of 40 days, a short time after the babies are weaned from their mother. At this time, they are already independent, but they do not yet have any skills or habits.
Important! Toilet training must be completed before the animal is three months old. After this, they begin puberty, which affects the character and behavior of the pet.
Training pets at an older age is much more difficult. And as soon as the animal turns six months old, it is almost impossible to train it to go to one place.
Which tray to choose
How quickly you can train your pet to use the toilet depends on how correctly the tray is selected. It should be comfortable and convenient. The animal must not only fit completely in it, but also be able to move around.
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There are two types of trays you can purchase at a pet store:
- corner - it is best suited for cells of small size and rectangular shape;
- rectangular - for indoor fences or spacious cages.
The design of the tray should include a mesh and a removable grid. Externally, the device resembles a cat litter box. Its tasks are to provide the animal with comfort and also ensure the necessary level of hygiene.
Advice! You can use a homemade tray made from plastic containers. It is important that it has low sides that are comfortable for the pet.
The tray should first of all be spacious
Stage No. 1 - selecting the right tray
You should not look in pet stores for trays designed specifically for rabbits. An ordinary cat litter box is ideal for your pet. Believe me, a smaller tray will be uncomfortable for a rabbit to use. Therefore, if after installing the tray there is too little space left for the animal to live, then the owners were greedy and gave the furry one an insufficiently spacious home.
A cat litter box is suitable as a toilet for rabbits
There are modifications of trays in the form of corner products. They are better suited for rabbits, because they take up minimal space. However, do not buy a tiny toilet; the animal should be comfortable in it.
Toilet filler
You can purchase special litter for rabbit litter in pet stores. They are most suitable for pets as they are made of hypoallergenic materials. Such fillers absorb well, eliminating unpleasant odors and all liquid. Animals go to the toilet well if clean sawdust or small paper is poured into the container, but without color or printing. But this type of filler will have to be changed frequently, since it cannot completely absorb liquid.
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Sawdust from pine needles should not be used as a filler. They contain essential oils that are toxic to rabbits. It is also not recommended to use cat litter, as it is saturated with special chemicals that destroy odors.
For your information! Rabbits often eat their own feces and may eat chemically treated litter. This will lead to poisoning of the animal.
Selecting a tray and filler
The container that is installed in the cage must be spacious enough. After all, the animal, before squirming around there for a long time, turns over before relieving itself.
Therefore, you should choose a tray that is heavy enough so that it cannot be knocked over, then it will only go there. The poop container can be placed inside or outside the cage.
Special trays designed for rabbits have a low side on one side for the convenience of the pet. The back walls are usually higher; they prevent the filler from falling out of the structure.
Triangular-shaped plastic trays that are placed in the corner of the room are easy to use and maintain; the walls of the tray serve as a support and such a container is more difficult to turn over; however, if the walls are lattice, it is better to attach the tray to the rods.
When purchasing, they are guided by the size of an adult decorative rabbit; very soon he will not be able to use a small tray.
Today in pet stores you can find all kinds of trays for animals, but the most popular among them are only two types:
- When keeping a rabbit in a small area, the most convenient is a corner tray. It has a triangular shape, which allows you to install it in one of the corners of the cage with minimal waste of free space.
- When keeping an animal in a large cage or in a special enclosure, a small rectangular tray is optimal. Its main advantage is the ability to install anywhere.
For dwarf rabbits, corner trays with high sides are suitable. Products made from hard plastic are ideal. Natural wood filler is used as filler. Some owners do without filler, they use a lattice.
Choosing a suitable location for the toilet
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Much attention should be paid to the space for organizing the tray. Rabbits are very clean-loving pets; they will not go to the toilet where they live. To determine a suitable location, it is recommended to observe your pet to determine where he is trying to relieve himself. This is where you need to put the tray.
It’s easiest for those owners whose animal roams throughout the apartment. In such a situation, the toilet is organized in a place convenient for the rabbit itself.
It is important to choose the right place for the tray
Keeping it clean
- To eliminate odor and disinfect the space, it is recommended to use white or apple cider vinegar diluted in water.
- The tray must be cleaned frequently so that the animal gets used to the new place faster. Used areas of the filler must be removed every day, and general cleaning must be done at least once a week.
- Strong chemicals are not suitable for cleaning as they have a strong odor that will be unpleasant to the animal. Soap is also unsuitable for use. The solution is to use a product containing chlorine; you can also use soda and mustard for washing.
- You can also use special cleaning agents that are harmless to small rodents; they are sold at pet stores.
Step-by-step instructions for toilet training
Teaching a baby rabbit to go to the toilet is difficult; training may take a long time, but it is possible. The process takes longer than with cats. The easiest animals to train are rabbits that live in cages, since they have very limited space and cannot actively move around.
The procedure for training a rabbit to use a tray in a cage consists of the following steps:
- You need to place a tray in the cage for several days. This is necessary for the rabbit to get used to it. It is recommended to place bowls of food nearby, since the physiological process of defecation in these animals occurs immediately after eating.
- Once your pet gets used to the look and smell of the potty, you need to put some feces in the litter. This will enable the animal to understand what the new accessory is for. Be sure to wipe all the places where the rabbit went to the toilet before with water and vinegar.
- If your pet refuses to use the litter box on its own, you can watch it. As soon as the animal settles into the toilet, you need to carefully transfer it to the tray. It is important not to scare. It is recommended to come up with your own command, which you repeat for each action.
If the rabbit went to the toilet correctly, you need to give it something tasty and pet it. But at the same time, you need to prepare for the fact that the first time the animal will not understand that now it needs to go to the tray. The procedure will need to be repeated several times.
Advice! If the rabbit, after numerous attempts, still does not go into the intended container, you can install several of them in the cage. Due to the limited space, he will be forced to defecate in one of them. Once this happens, the rest can be removed.
If the pet lives in free conditions, without a cage, then the training process will take place differently. The animal is left in the room where the toilet is located, all exits to other rooms are blocked. Rabbit feces are placed in the tray. The remaining actions will be the same as in the case of the cell.
The pet needs to be praised if he went to the toilet in the right place
Types of trays for ferrets
If your ferret stubbornly ignores the litter box, it makes sense to try changing the litter box itself to a different configuration. Today there are several types of trays:
A regular cat cat, equipped with a net. The advantage of such a tray is that it is always dry, since urine flows into the tray. But since the ferret defecates against the corner, he may miss the edge. It is necessary to wash the tray quite often, at least once a day, since otherwise the animal may not want to go to it. The second type of tray is a litter tray. The design is a tray with a removable side into which any filler is poured. If the tray is exactly like this, but the ferret does not want to go there, you can try to change the litter itself. The problem is that regular cat litter is not very good for ferrets. Wood and clay granules can stick and cause skin irritation. It is better to do without filler altogether, washing the pot several times a day. The third type is a corner tray. Its shape is ideal for ferrets as it has high sides and a low front. You can put cat litter or paper in the base of the tray. You can put a diaper on. But paper and diapers must be changed frequently to keep the toilet always clean.
You need to wash the tray without using detergents, since it is important not to wash away the specific smell of the animal, by which it determines where its toilet is.
It is necessary to prepare the house for the ferret to stay in it. The cage should be spacious and clean. The best bedding is rags and unnecessary clothing. These rags will then be useful in teaching your ferret to go to the toilet only in the designated places. One of the trays needs to be placed directly in the cage and firmly attached to the bars - playful animals simply love to move everything from place to place.
Requirements for trays
Many novice ferret breeders don’t think that it’s not so much the sawdust, but the tray itself! Have you seen a ferret go to the litter box? He enters it with all his paws, turns his back to the wall, sits down and raises his tail. Which means:
- The tray should be the size of the ferret. The larger the ferret, the larger the tray. Based on this rule, corner trays, which are advertised by sellers, due to the small space, are suitable only for small puppies or females.
- The ideal litter box is a rectangular cat litter box with a mesh. You can sprinkle any filler under the mesh or leave nothing and wash the tray 2 times a day. NEVER place sawdust in bulk on the bottom of the cage, or in a tray without a mesh! Firstly, even in an apartment, a ferret will look for piled sawdust in the corner, or he will pee in such a tray once, and everything else will be nearby. And besides, he carries sawdust around the apartment on his paws.
- Tray height. The smaller the ferret, the shorter its legs, and the lazier it will be to climb over the high side. If you notice that the ferret gets to the toilet, and then, without getting into it, turns around and goes next to it, cut the side as low as the structure allows, making a passage for him.
- Trays in the room. Trays should be the same in design as in the cage. The ferret himself will show you the places where you need to put them. Let there be several trays in the room rather than piles in the middle of the room :)))). One of my favorite places is at the exit from the room, under the door. Ferrets do not tolerate well if they are impatient. Therefore, they quickly run to the nearest tray. 60% hits for a ferret walking around the apartment, this is normal.
- Accustom your ferret to the tray by placing him on it like a child every 5-10 minutes. after waking up, and 15-20 minutes after eating. If the ferret has done something by, blot the puddle and put the smelling piece of paper in the tray. Next, for training, you can use the technique described for litter training lapdogs. You can find a lot of materials on the Internet.
You should know that it is IMPOSSIBLE to punish a ferret for pooping in the wrong place! Only positive reinforcement. Otherwise, he will shit in such inaccessible places that you will be tortured to clean up!
Difficulties in toilet training a rabbit and ways to solve them
It is not always possible to quickly train a decorative rabbit to use the toilet; sometimes it takes many attempts.
What to do if your pet goes to sleep in a tray
A dwarf rabbit can sleep in a litter tray if its cage has dirty and caked bedding. The animal will look for a place where it is cleaner. But if he sleeps in his toilet, odors will quickly be absorbed into the fur coat, it will become dirty, and then the rabbit will spread this dirt throughout the cage.
To avoid this situation, you need to regularly change the bedding and keep the cage clean.
The animal goes to sleep in the tray
What to do if your rabbit goes to the toilet next to the litter box
You can often observe a picture when a rabbit goes not to the toilet, but next to it. If this happens, then you need to pay attention to the condition of the tray. Perhaps the rabbit's toilet is inconvenient, it may have high sides or it may have dirty litter. You should try to replace the container with a more convenient one and keep it clean.
Is it possible to shape toilet behavior in rabbits?
The life of animals is mainly determined by instincts. Wild rabbits live in burrows. These are very clean animals. Adult animals do not crap in their home. They endure, get out of their holes and move a few meters away.
Domestic rabbits behave the same way, even if they have never gone outside. This is genetic memory. Therefore, pets, as a rule, “misbehave” not out of harm or stupidity, but simply do not understand the differences between a carpet or sofa and a special tray.
However, there is no need to give up on an adult animal. The older the animal, the cleaner it is. Little rabbits do not think about self-control, but gradually, by three months, everything changes.
At the age of several months, animals begin to mark their territory. This is not just going to the toilet, but sexual behavior or a “struggle for power.”
Why did a previously trained rabbit stop going to the litter box?
Even a rabbit that has already been trained to go to the toilet can stop going to the toilet. There may be several reasons for this behavior. For example, if an animal is three to four months old, it is in the process of puberty. During this period, rabbits begin to mark their territory. This is natural behavior that the owner cannot change.
The pet will begin to mark corners even if a new animal is brought into the apartment. In this way he will show that he is the master here.
Important! Very strong stress can lead to the fact that the pet begins to shit in the corners. For example, moving or routine vaccinations. Experts do not recommend giving the animal to strangers.
You cannot scold or beat your pet for walking past the potty. This will not give the desired effect, but will only intimidate him. The animal may begin to fear the owner. The only way to correct the situation, if a trained pet has stopped accepting the tray, is to start training again. Repeatedly the effect will be achieved much faster.
Any breeder can accustom a decorative rabbit to a litter tray. The right approach, patience, and adherence to technology will help you quickly achieve results and get rid of dirt and unpleasant odors in your apartment.
Additional Tips
Some more useful tips:
- Do not hit the animal if it defecates in the wrong place.
- It is easier to litter train an older rabbit than a baby.
- Training will be easier if a clear schedule of all procedures is drawn up. You need to stick to it every day.
- Good fillers: sawdust, shavings, scraps of newspaper, straw, oats.
- Change the litter daily.
- The cage should be selected in such a size that the pot fits in it.
- To prevent the rabbit from having the desire to mark territory, let him feel like the owner of his house.
Find out how to keep decorative rabbits in an apartment.
As you can see, potty training a long-eared dog is a necessary and easy task. With patience and perseverance, a positive result can be achieved after a week of training.
