[mrstewart]

My daughter loves rabbits and has a friend who has one as a pet. My daughter keeps trying to convince me that rabbits can be trained to use a litter box. This is her big "selling point" for getting a rabbit. Has anyone else heard of this or better yet, trained a rabbit to use a litter box?

I am a dog and cat person myself and would prefer not having a rabbit if it has to live in a cage outdoors. If it can be trained, it might not be too bad.

[109*]

Yeah my friend had a rabbit that lived in their house and would use a litter box. I have a rabbit as a pet its in a cage in my room but it has a huge cage. My rabbit always poops in one spot even if i let him out he goes back in the cage to use the bathroom.

[Janecj]

I had a rabbit for 8 years. Yes, I trained my rabbit for the litter box. Not too hard to do. I did not keep my rabbit in a cage. I had a designated area ( a dormer window area) that I put a gate. I put an additional rug on the floor to protect the existing floor. My rabbit (Blossom) would just skirt around (I have a dog & 2 cats also) and they would play with the rabbit. Don't let them bite the rabbit though. Their urine really stinks..so you have to make sure you clean the little box often. If you get it on the floor or funiture it is very hard to get the smell out. They are very good animals, but just don't leave them in a cage. They need exercise. I let mine out a lot and put them in the yard on nice days in a confined area.

One more thing. Rabbits may need their teeth trimmed. Mine did. It's awful to have to take them to the vet as they continuously grow. It is horrible to watch. They say it is like cutting finger nails, but somehow the way my rabbit would flinch, I didn't think so. They will die if you do not do this. They typically live around 8 years if healthy. I had a dwarf rabbit. Good luck.

[RRBC]

Yes, we have a pair of rabbits (both neutered, and are siblings) when we got them they were small and both fit in 1 large cage (now we have 2 cages side to side so it's a long bunny cage with 1 of the smaller walls of each taken out so they can move between them when they "need" to be in the cage and not in their sectioned off room), we put the bedding/litter down all across the cage and saw where they chose to pee (back corner) put the litterbox with the bedding in that area and they immediately took to only using that area to use the bathroom. To clean the litterbox just use white vinegar, no chemicals, and use the more (for lack of a better term) puffy litter stuff, not cat litter or pine shavings as those can hurt their lungs.

If you let them run around your house make sure there are no cords in reach/not blocked as they'll chew through them. As for cutting the nails, the scissor type nail cutters (like these but a bit bigger, we got ours at walmart for a couple dollars) or large toenail type cutters work best for ours, to make things really easy we give them a short bath before hand (just a few inches of water and while they aren't in love with the baths, they don't really mind, especially if it's warm or dry out) to soften the nails. Keep in mind they don't make noises (they'll thump a back leg once or twice if they're angry/scared, and grind their teeth if you're petting them as their way of purring) so can be a tad difficult to find if they go under furniture.

And they really seem to like it if you change their surroundings periodically, we use concrete form tubes (they sell them in various sizes at home depot and similar stores we get the 8 inch diameter for about 9 dollars they're like 4 feet long) and cardboard boxes with "doors" and "windows" cut in to change a 5x7 foot area sectioned off by those wire cube/shelf parts they are always able to run around in, so they have a lot of different elevations and area to play around in.

We love ours, and can't imagine living without them again

[dreamhunter65]

We had one paper trained so not leave paper laying around got used.
We also had a rabbit in house and used a litter pan in cage but she had free run during day when home and was funny seeing a mini rex chasse a hound around house. Only thing I disliked is she ran upstairs and hid not able to find but bed time she come down go in cage to be locked up for night. She acted more like a cat than a rabbit as jump on couch get on lap want to be pet and all.
Only problem I had was not fixed and when came in heat attacked me and me only.Go to feed she grab me bite and claw. Kids and wife feed she was nice.
Just make sure have pen with area to for dropping to go in litter box, have twigs and such to chew,give a good diet, and in spring summer can make portable pen so can eat grass and enjoy the great outdoors.