What’s the deal?

[Court]

Hello fellow bunny friends!    

I have read a lot of the previous posts regarding similar situations to this however I haven’t found a total resolution to my problem. Here’s a quick background: I have two female (not spayed) bunnies that I got as babies, that live together in the same cage. They will be two years old in the Spring. They share a huge three story custom built cage with two litter boxes and have free roam of the house when we are home. Both are litter box trained and I have never had any problems. Nothing in the cage has been changed, no weird scents, no new stressers, no litter changes…

So it all started a month ago one of the bunnies peed outside of the cage, I wasn’t sure which one did it and just let it go. Then I noticed Avalanche sitting in her food bowl on a regular basis. I thought this was adorable but it turns out she was peeing in her food bowl! Then during their weekly cage cleaning I noticed pee on the floor! This continued to happen weekly and has gotten worse, now pee is on the first and second level and sometimes I’m cleaning it up every other day. I got frustrated so I gave them a smaller food bowl so she couldn’t pee in her food bowl. This hasn’t stopped her though! They normally spend a lot of time cuddling together however Avalanche has just been staying in her litter box and not being very social. I don’t know what to do! I’m so frustrated smelling and cleaning rabbit pee on a daily basis so that their fur doesn’t get urine in it….did I mention they are Lionheads so they have A LOT of fur!  What do you think?

Any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much!

Courtney, Chris, Avalanche and Ralphie

(The photo below is Avalanche being “cute” sitting in her food bowl..not so cute now!)

[Hazel]

This could be hormonal behavior or a medical issue. Is there a specific reason why they aren’t spayed? It’s very important to have females fixed as their chance of developing reproductive cancer rises to above 85% by age 3-4. Pee accidents could be related to that, or as I already mentioned, hormonal marking. Although that normally starts when they reach puberty.

I would have them checked by a vet to make sure there’s no medical issue, and then have them spayed ASAP.

Problems aside, that picture is adorable…

[Stickerbunny]

Sounds like they had a slight disagreement over territory (perhaps food related) and started marking, hormonal behavior most likely. But, a checkup is not a bad idea either, to rule out UTI or anything else that may be causing it.

[LBJ10]

I agree. They are probably having a dispute. This can happen “out of the blue” for seemingly no reason. There usually is a reason, but that would require getting into their little bunny heads. I would have them checked out just to make sure nothing is physically wrong.

[tanlover14]

I second Hazels opinion on the spaying. Vet check to rule out any UTI issues and then book them for a spay! If they ARE territorial marking, the spay will help with that also. My girls all had impeccable litter habits after their spays.

[Court]

Thanks everyone,

Sounds like a vet visit is in the near future. Hazel, I haven’t spayed them yet because the vet I had for them and my previous rabbit moved out of state so I’m having a hard time finding a good but reasonably priced bunny vet. I called around this morning and the cheapest I could find to spay ONE rabbit was $350.00! It wasn’t that much to neuter my last bunny(although that was 8+ years ago). Is that the going rate to spay bunnies? Anyone in Colorado know a good rabbit vet?

Thanks you,

Courtney  

[tanlover14]

I paid that much to spay my female bun – BUT you can search around for low-cost spay/neuter programs. Sometimes it can be difficult to find good adequate ones for rabbits though, so it typically takes a lot of extra work. Do you have any rescues/shelters in your area? They can probably help point you in the direction of an experienced vet that does low-cost.

[Court]

I found one that’s a little far away but it’s ran by “SpayToday” and they do rabbits. Sent an email request and I guess we will go from there! I’m going to do some research on the web to see if there are any bad comments regarding their facility. I hope not! Thanks for your help! During cage cleaning today I washed their cage and litter boxes pretty thoroughly and replaced all their toys. They seem to be getting along a lot better now! Still going to get them spayed though, this website has so much great information and awesome people! I really appreciate everyone’s help!

Courtney

[Hazel]

$350, yikes… We paid $75 to have our boy neutered. Unfortunately spaying a female is always more expensive since the surgery is much more invasive than a neuter. Prices change a lot depending on where you live as well. I hope you will get a better deal from SpayToday! I’m glad they are getting along better now.

[tanlover14]

Spaying a female IS more expensive but the place I paid $350 for my girl was also about $250-300 for a neuter. So considering just how invasive it is based on the boys price it wasn’t too bad. Of course, those prices really suck when you’re the one who has to pay them! LOL.

You could always ask if you can get a discount based on getting multiple buns done. Some places may take this into consider, some may not. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. I know when I took all four of mine for a wellness check-up this year we were waiting for the hefty bill. And we actually got quite a large discount from bringing in so many! hahahaha! We weren’t expecting it but it definitely helped out!

[LBJ10]

If I bring both buns in for a check-up at the same time, the vet typically only charges me for “one” visit. Don’t know about spaying/neutering at the same time though.

[tanlover14]

Really??? LUCKY, LBJ. Although I guess I’d would be asking too much to get SIX bunnies done for one price now! It’s so much easier to bring them in together though so I just schedule all at the same time.

[LBJ10]

Yeah, they just charge it as one visit instead of two since it doesn’t take much effort to look at both of them. Six rabbit though, I can see that not going over very well.

[Court]

I’ll have to ask if they give discounts. I’m okay with $150.00 for both bunnies ($75.00 each) is a lot more reasonable than $350.00 each! I did some research on this place that I’m considering and it has all positive reviews and testimonies on several review websites! There was even a review regarding a lady who took her Lionhead there to get spayed and said the care and staff was excellent so I feel a lot better about this place!! Tanlover13 I can see how they don’t do a 6 for 1 deal! lol. Man that’s a lot of buns!

[tanlover14]

Hahahaha, yeah.. I think when we had our last wellness check-up we paid regular price for one and they discounted the other three (at the time, we only had four that needed a check-up). This coming year they will all go together.

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