help!

[BruceBruce9]

Hi we have just got our first little bunny and have been doing ok, so far… but have come across a stumbling block!! his need to wee, but only in the living room!! il talk you through our process and the set up and would appreciate any help and comments to try to get this issue resolved! Many Thanks in advance!

SO…..

We got Bruce 8 weeks ago at 11 weeks old and he lives in our kitchen, where he is shut in his pen during the day when we are at work and at night when we are in bed… but when we are home he has the run of a large kitchen.  He has been excellent with pooing and only has a few accidents outside of his pen, but generally on his mat just outside his pen… initially was scattering his poos around his pen quite a lot, but we managed to curb that by putting a hay feeding station over his litter tray (which he also loves to sleep in) but his weeing was all over the place in his pen but NEVER any outside of his pen in the kitchen…we got him castrated around 10 days ago and took any bedding off the flooring of the pen so were able to see where he was weeing, clean it up and put it into another litter tray in his pen…. this is doing a great job and he is now almost always weeing only in his wee litter tray and has only 1-2 accidents outside of the litter tray per day when he is in the kitchen….. 

all good so far…

but this all changes when he goes into the living room…. where we have cordened off a large area for him to be when we are in the living room…. we put the both litter trays in there with him along with his mat and his carry case… he seems to settle but when in there he poos EVERYWHERE… with no pattern and wees about 2-3 times within the hour that he is in the living room in various different places…. we clear it up and put the soiled towels in the litter tray as we have done for the previous wees to litter train him in the kitchen, but he just doesn’t seem to get it…. today we took his pen from the kitchen into the cordened off area in the living room and set it up exactly as he has it in the kitchen hoping that this would work….. and to our great disappointment he continued to poo and wee everywhere outside his pen and litter trays!

what are we doing wrong – how can he be litter trained in one room and not another… we were wondering if it is because it is cordoned off that he is marking his territory, but in the kitchen he shares his territory with us and thus doesn’t mark it…. would it be better that we took away the cordons and bunny proofed room??

any help would be appreciated.

[Azerane]

This sounds more like territorial marking than simply not being litter trained. Given he was only neutered 10 days ago it’s likely that there’s still plenty of hormones in his system, some people even report that their rabbits become worse with hormones for a week or so after neuter before improving. For him, the lounge room is new territory, I imagine he’s marking it because he doesn’t have constant access, so every time he’s there, it’s like a new location that he has to put his scent on.

I see a couple of options, the first is to just wait a few more weeks and don’t allow him access to that playpen until his hormones have settled more, and then try again with putting him in that area. The other option is to simply give him constant access to that area when he is out. I don’t know the layout of your house so I’m not sure if it’s practical, but he may be less likely to mark if he considers it part of his territory. That being said, I probably wouldn’t risk doing that for a few more weeks either just in case he ends up peeing everywhere in the room. It is certainly quite possible to bunny proof a room though. The main aspect of course being hiding all electrical cables and putting protective covers over them. If you have bookshelves you’ll likely either need to fence them off, or remove all books from the lower shelves. In terms of the ultimate bunny life, having the whole room to run and play and lounge in is the best solution, but it has to suit you as well. Rabbits are troublesome creatures when it comes to allowing access to places, once they have tasted the greener grass, so to speak, they always want to be able to get there again.

[Daisy]

I agree with Azerane, it sounds like territorial marking. Daisy used to do that a lot before she was spayed. She still does it if she is on the couch or bed. For awhile, I was having issues with her peeing outside her litter box in the living room. She had perfect litter habits in every other area of the house. Eventually I tried moving her litter box to a different corner just to see if it would make a difference. She hasn’t peed on the carpet ever since. Maybe try different litter box placements?

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