Bunnies acting out of spite?

[SamC]

Has anyone else suspected this? In the last few months my buns Healy (4yr old neutered) and Oakley (2yr old spayed) have been driving me insane. I adopted Healy first, back in June. Then I brought Oaks home and sent them to a rescue for 6 days to be bonded in August. Since then Healy’s good litter box skills have gone out the window. As for Oakley, I don’t know if she ever really picked them up.

They have a gigantic litterbox. I use wood stove pellets with hay on top. I would guesstimate that they use the box about 75% of the time. But that 25% is killing me. lol. They have a large bunny condo where I keep their litter box, food, and water, but the cage is never closed and they have free range over an entire floor of my house. I am constantly finding 3 poos here, 6 poos there, around the rug in my room, and sometimes just in the middle of the floor. These incidents I accept as normal bunny behavior and I don’t mind them too much. However, when I find massive piles of poos 2-3 times a day right in front of the litterbox I get peeved. Why wont they take the extra hop to do it in the box?! Also, a good portion of their condo is carpeted. It has to be that way because they need traction to hop from level to level (plus they seem to think it’s quite comfy). I have to put the carpet through the washing machine at least once a week because they pee on it! Ew! I’ve seen Healy do it, but I’m pretty sure that Oaks does it too.

Okay, so even that’s not too bad. But here’s where the SPITE comes in. I find myself having to spot clean their condo for poos up to 4 times a day. I just toss it all into their litter box. I try not to do it when they’re in the cage, but kicking them out seems to piss them off just as much. Occasionally Healy will watch me tidy up the cage, wait until I’ve finished, and then he literally hops right in front of me and pees! We’re not talking about in the litterbox here people, he just goes to wherever I am looking, be it on the carpet, middle of the condo, or in the middle of my hard wood floors AND PEES. The look in his eye while he does it is pure evil. I swear he’s thinking “yeah? think you can just touch my sh*t? na-uh lady”.

One of Healy’s most spiteful displays was during their monthly scrub down, where I take the condo apart and give it a good and thorough cleaning. When the carpet is in the washing machine I have to keep the buns out of the cage, because if they tried to jump to a higher level they would slip on the vinyl tiles of the condo. So Healy, being the curious devil he is would NOT leave me alone to clean. He was forcing his way back into the cage each time I removed him. Well finally he’d had enough and I didn’t see him for about 5 minutes while I finished cleaning. I go into my bedroom to look for him and he’s sitting in the middle of my bed… “That’s funny” I thought to myself, as he’s never gone up there before. I sit down next to him to pet him and tell him how neat it is that he got up there and I find my hand in a freaking PUDDLE. Just so that we’re clear, Healy didn’t like what I was doing, so he jumped onto my bed, and PEED on it. At least that’s how I’m interpretting it.

There was another time that I was out of town for 24 hours. I left on a Sunday night and returned Monday evening. I came home to find no less than 4 pee stains on my comforter, in addition to a lovely new lace pattern chewed into the fabric curtesy of Oakley (she’s my chewwer). They worked together on this one! Baahh!

Okay, so this is realy more of a rant than anything. I obviously see the humor in all of it and I can’t stay mad for very long. I would, however, appreciate some advice about improving their litterbox skills. I’d love to have less clean up time

 

[SamC]

[Huckleberry]

Wow, what did you do to tick them off so much! teehe
I always feel like with Huckles. She enjoys running up to chew on the couch and when i shoo her away, she just comes back, gives me that “you cant control me” look and goes right back to it. I took her to the vet and it stopped briefly, so I started to think that she had been chewing because she was in pain. Nope. It started maybe 3 days after she got back from the vet, again.
Maybe your buns are still trying to work out whose territory is whose. Maybe the cleanser you use upsets them?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I can see how that would be frustrating! I really think I’d dismiss the spite thing, I don’t think they have the mental faculties for an emotion and planning revenge. So….the question is how to improve litter habits. First make their annual exam appoitment early and mention to the vet that about the litter troubles so he/she can check for anything. Certainly a UTI or other illness can cause trouble with litter training.

After and only after a vet all clear, you’ll want to start training -pretend from scratch. Add litterboxes so they have lots of options, and reduce the amount of room they have. With decreased room they’ll be more choosy. It also sounds like they get a bit amped when you are cleaning their pen, so perhaps lure them out with treats, and clean when they are visiting another part of the house.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Sounds like they need a refresher, remove the carpets and fabric materials, and make their living area smaller, 1 room or something, until they master that. I don’t find that random piles or peeing outside the box is normal behavior, at least my lionhead doesn’t do that.

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