Bunny started peeing on bed…while I’m sleeping!

[Justine]

 Hello everyone,

i really do not know what is going on with my rabbit and how to fix it, please help! My rabbits name is Bella and she is two years old. She has been completly litter box trained for the past year and a half. For the past year she has had free roam of my bedroom and a couple other rooms in the house; although, she chooses to almost never leave my bedroom. She spends most of her time either on or under my bed. About two weeks ago she started getting destructive to the carpet under the bed and to my box spring so I blocked it off so she could no longer get under. She actually has taken this harder then you would imagine and she spends a lot if time trying to get back under. Now that she cant go under the bed she sleeps on the bed with me.

A few months ago I started giving her a treat right when I wake up, she would jump on the bed when I woke up and wait for me to hand her a treat, I always thought this was cute; however, as of about a week and a half ago she started waking me up early in the morning by hopping on and off of me until I wake up and give her a treat and then she goes away. Well four days ago I woke up to find a bunny pee spot on my comforter right where my legs were. I took it as a isolated incident and washed the sheets. Well I woke up to the same thing the next day. Still I’m thinking this must be a coincidence because she has never done this before. So I wash the sheets again and go to sleep the next night only to be woken up early in the morning to her hopping off my stomach and leaving behind a puddle of pee on my sheets and stomach! This sounds funny but I’m tired of washing my sheets and comforter every day! 

 I don’t know why she has started doing this but she is literally going to wherever I’m sleeping and peeing on my comforter where I’m laying. I’ve been wondering if this could have to do with me blocking off under the bed or maybe her not being able to wake me up recently to get a treat…and yes I know that’s a bad habit that I created and I will no longer be giving her a treat in the morning. Just a few minutes ago she came up to me and started begging for a treat and I ignored her and after a few minutes she stopped and peed on the bed right in front of me! Could she actually be doing this on purpose? Im trying not to assign human emotions to her but it sure seems like she is doing this out of spite lol. She never does this when im not there and its only been over the past four or five nights. How do I fix this without making her live in a cage? Has anyone else ever had anything like this? 

Please help!!!

[bpash89]

Bunnies can be very spiteful (mine tried to piss on my compter once because I wasn’t giving her enough attention). It sounds to me like it is directly related to the recent changes. She’s annoyed that she can’t go under the bed anymore and she’s obviously noticed that peeing on you/your bed makes you spring into action like never before. In bunny logic: You get up and feed her a treat. The sooner she gets you up, the sooner she gets her treat. Peeing on your generates the quickest response. Piss = Treat.
I personally take a zero tolerance policy to the pissing on the bed thing. If my bunny peed or pooped on my bed she wasn’t allowed in the room. Period, end of story. I’d wait a week or so and I would try letting her in my bedroom again. That doesn’t seem like a possibility for you since that is the room she lives in but I would definitely kick her off the bed for the time being. Try using a spray bottle filled with water to spray her with whenever she jumps up there and keep a shower curtain or something over top of your comforter so you don’t have to keep washing your sheets (but if she only does it while you are in the bed then the shower curtain might not be helpful/necessary).
I would also try to redirect this morning treat ritual to someplace other than your bed (or get rid of it entirely – maybe a treat before bed would be better/easier). For example, she get’s a treat first thing in the morning but always in front of her litter box. That way, she might still jump all over you to wake you up but then she will go wait in the designated spot to get her treat.

The only other thing I can think of is to try clicker training.

[NewBunnyOwner123]

I think you can redirect the treat thing if you want. Like every morning when you wake up call her and say “good morning! Treat time!” And call her to where she lives and offer her treat where HER bed is. Does she have a place she can call hers? Even if she is free roam she needs a designated place just for her. I bet anything she claimed under your bed as her home and you took that away from her so she is making claims on your bed. I would get a small pen or something and place her box, food dishes, and a bed in there that she can go to for privacy. You never have to close it but its nice for a rabbit to have a house of their own too. You can cover the top of the pen with a blanket or something to mimic the privacy she had when she was under your bed.

I don’t think she is doing this out of spite. She is doing this because of change and she could be stressed about it. I would definitely strongly consider giving her some kind of place she can call “her room”

[Justine]

 She has a cage with her litter box, food, and water in it. She knows this is her space, I never shut her in but she spends a good amount of time in there. I also know she still knows where she is supposed to be going potty because she will be somewhere in the room and then just randomly dart to her litter box to pee. I think it’s a good idea to turn the treat thing into something that happens either in her cage or her litter box and I think I’ll make it more of a bedtime ritual rather than morning.  Last night I blocked her off from getting on my bed, which I really don’t want to be permanent, and there were no accidents but she kept me awake a lot of the night trying to get on the bed. I have to say that I miss her being on the bed it was a good portion of the time we spent interacting.

[Muffinluv]

I know how you feel, Muffin peed on my bed while I was reading….. He kept climbing all over me but I just patted him and said, “Just a moment baby!” and he eventually sat next to me, nipped me and hopped down. I got up startled and leaned over to get up and when I placed my hand on the bed….. It was warm…. and wet…… AHHHRRGH! So I picked him up, put him in his litter box dumped some soiled shavings I just cleaned out and said “Bad Muffin….”

Unfortunately he seemed to enjoy the attention.

I suggest trying what bpash suggested!

[Author]

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