two questions!

[Evelyn Blair]

Hi! I’ve had my netherland dwarf bun for a little over a month now (he’s about 12 or 13 weeks old) and he’s been really incredible with litter training, aside from little pellets here and there when he’s hanging outside of his pen. He never pees outside of his litterbox. However, every time I allow him on my bed he ends up peeing on something or at least trying to. I can usually catch him in the act when I see him lifting up his tail, but sometimes even if I try and scoop him up it’s a little too late. Is this a territory thing? I’d really like to correct this so he can come visit on the bed with me more.

 Second question- although it’s only been a month, we seem to be bonding very fast and during playtime or hanging out he’ll binky a bunch, hop in my lap, run around, etc. I live with two other people and sometimes have my boyfriend over to visit with him, but he shows literally zero interest in anyone but me. He isn’t aggressive at all, just acts very shy, won’t take food from them, or lays very low to the ground when they pet him and appears a little stressed. Would it help to just have him interact with others on a more consistent basis? Any other good tips for socializing him with others?

Thank you!

[JackRabbit]

It might be partly marking (your scent is on the bed and he’s claiming you) or it could just be a “soft” thing (bunnies like to pee on soft things) or a neuter thing. AndHenry — care to explain???

Our buns are not crazy about “strangers” but have opened up to people they spend time with over time.

[Evelyn Blair]

Yeah, the neuter-related/marking thing is something I was thinking about as well. Neutering will probably happen within the next few weeks (testicles haven’t descended quite yet) so hopefully that will help!

[Megabunny]

Oh yes. AndHenry has the BEST stories of Henry in bed before neutering. It’ll make you feel loads better. She should copy/paste her recent description of Henry the peeing monster. He got over it but I’ve heard some just like to pee on bedding. Good luck

[Deleted User]

Ha ha ha ha ha GREAT! Henry will never live down his ‘bad’ reputation, cause he was so BAD!  (thanks JR & MB)
The hubby and I are bugga’s for hanging out in bed and in turn so do our 3 dog’s. When our newest family addition Henry came along, we knew it would be no time before he claimed our bed as his too, and we were super cool with that, even encouraging (we love it too!) TILL……. he ‘sprayed’ us ALL!
Every time Henry jumped up onto the bed and turned his back on us we all scattered like a bomb was about to go off! In our panic we weren’t sure if we had time to push him off the bed or whether to dive for cover? Thinking we may have time to push him off, we’d catch a face full of bunny wee (we eventually learned to keep our mouths closed while doing so). If we simply dove for cover – our, bedding, walls, furniture, dog’s (even my cup of tea on the bedside table) copped it! For a day or two we put up a board to keep him out of our room, but felt just awful – Henry scratching on the board trying to get in while we were all in bed, we couldn’t do it. Henry was ‘perfectly’ toilet trained using ‘his’ toilet, and considering this behaviour only occurred on our bed we knew he was marking our bed and us as ‘his’ and his territory – we had him neutered! He NEVER sprayed us again! (and only did one ‘puddle’ wee on the bed). The hubby, dog’s, HENRY and myself have lived ‘happily ever after’ in OUR bed ever since.

Part 2 (ha ha hah ha….). MY Henry LOVES my dog’s and husband! ME? NOPE! Do you know how annoying it is to know Henry is mine and he barely tolerates a pat from me, and yet he will ‘follow’ my hubby around the house??? I reckon I know why…. My hubby is the ‘banana’/treat giver! and he doesn’t hesitate to lay on the (dirty bunny fluff) floors (I won’t – yuck!) so Henry can approach him on the same level. I ‘think’ some bunnies just connect (trust) with a particular person – how lucky (if this is the case) that your bunny chose YOU! With time and a lot of patient interaction from your boyfriend and housemates this may improve? Henry is better with me, letting me approach him, but it’s just not he same as the relationship he has with my hubby and have accepted this may always be the case? I’m just happy that Henry has one human friend.
Hope this helps a bit Evelyn Blair – it may not solve your problem, but if understanding ‘why’ it may be happening makes it more acceptable or easier to deal with, I hope I have at least helped by sharing my story….. Cheers.

[Evelyn Blair]

Bwahaha, oh geez! I feel very lucky now that my bedding and pillows got the brunt of my bun’s pee attacks. Both of your stories are actually incredibly helpful, though! After hearing your bed tale and connecting the dots with YB’s (Yung Bun, haha) behavior I have little doubt in my mind that the bed wetting is more than a marking/territory issue, which feels like a huge relief at this point!

As for the issue with connecting with other people, I’m going to try having the boyfriend and roommates hang out more with YB and see if it improves. It doesn’t feel critical to make sure he ADORES everyone, but I think we’d both feel a lot better if he were at least a little less shy with them, it’s so sad to see him look all worried when we have visitors.

Thanks so much again for the Henry stories and insight!!

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