Litter box potty training?

[Joao]

I have a litter box in snowflakes tank that is made out of a wallet box and a paper towel. I put some poop in there and she will not use it. Correction... she uses it to lay in and relax (ewwwww). Its been a few weeks now that I've had it in there. Fresh poops are placed in it from time to time.

When I first got her she would poop in one place, but I moved some things around and moved the hot hide forward a little where she used to poop. She does her business randomly all over the tank, and has even dropped a few nuggets in her hot hide one time.

Anyone have any tips for those stubborn leo's?

 

[Dog Shrink]

What type of substrait was she use to poo'ing on before? I was able to "train" my leo with a tie box that had high sides so he felt less exposed and some desert sand baited with his poo and he took right to it. I never see him laying in it altho sometimes he will go in and kick the sand around but no biggie there and I have never found poos anywhere else in his tank.

 

[Joao]

Your question just made me think about something.

I believe she used to drop her deuces on paper towels since that's what the breeder used as her subsrate. Maybe the paper towels trigger memories of her former home and its comfortable to her?

I guess a good next step would be to swap the paper towels for something else.

 

[M_surinamensis]

You're looking at it backwards.

It is not a behavior they learn. It is a behavior they instinctively perform.

You do not need to teach her to do it, you can't. You need to provide appropriate stimulus that allows the instinct to kick in.

If she's sleeping where you think she should be defecating, then the conditions in that spot are the ones she feels she needs; a place to hide, the temperature or humidity that she needs to be in. It means the rest of the enclosure is not meeting those needs as well as that one spot is. Fix that, provide better places to hide and bask and sleep, or a better place for leaving droppings (away from food, water and ideal places to sleep, so there is minimal contact with the feces and they can't be located by predators) and the instinct will reassert itself.

 

[Joao]

she doesnt really sleep in it... she will lay down for a few minutes a day and thats it.

 

[GothicGurrrl]

I hope you manage to get your leo to use the 'litter tray'.

I use a litter tray for mine She always pooped in the same corner of her viv soo when I changed her substrate to tiles, I placed a tray of sand where she used to poop and placed in some of her poop. She uses her litter tray everytime

This is her viv set-up. The litter tray is near the big hide

 

[Fyrii]

With my leo, he would begin to poop in one corner of the tank so I placed a square of paper towel there- eventually that became the only place he would go and I guess he connected the paper towel to the bathroom now. Perhaps place a paper towel in one area and see if the leo will go on that, if not switch it to another area?