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Forum BEHAVIOR should I allow my new rabbit to spray?

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    • Yasmin&Quozl
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           Hi everyone, I adopted my rabbit Quozl on Sunday and she is wonderful, loves attention and strokes and eating and drinking etc really well, not showing any signs of nerves after the first 24hrs. She is spraying though, and I’d like some advice on how to handle it. Here are some details of her circumstances, perhaps you experienced bunny lovers will spot the clues to solve the puzzle… 

          She is now a house rabbit, but as her previous owners kept her half inside and half outside but always in a cage/hutch, she isn’t familiar with having free reign of a room. There is a litter box in her cage and a second litter box in her pen and she uses them perfectly (aside from marking new objects which I am allowing her to do because I feel she needs the security of being able to do that, and her pee doesn’t smell). There are no other pets in the house, and there has never been any in the past so no left over smells. My partner is over sometimes but he was there the day we collected her and visits lots, she seems to like him

          I’m slowly acclimatizing her to the lounge, starting with just a 1 meter square space directly outside of her pen. I sneakily harvested a load of her poos over the first few days and before I let her out on to this section of carpet I scatter those poos all over the carpet and put two litter boxes in it (that she has chinned and already contain her poos and pee), one in the corner and one at the ‘far-point of territory’. She is so excited when she is let out and plays wonderfully for a while… Seems reassured by sniffing her own poos around, but she eventually sprays. The first time she sprayed I instinctively went “TSST!” without thinking and she zoomed back in to her cage and I closed the pen door and cleaned up, then I put a flannel I’d previously allowed her to mark over the spot where she’s sprayed so she wouldn’t feel the need to re-spray there after me cleaning. I tried again a couple hours later but again, after some time of nice sniffing strokes and play, she peed in a different place. I then sat still and clapped which she didn’t like and sent her heading back into her cage to get away from my noise – but now when I clap she doesn’t seem to care and doesn’t react. What is a better way to communicate “outside time is over” to her? Yesterday her spraying was worse (flung higher and more determined!) and she even sprayed ME, and that is not on!!

           I want to allow her to mark because it’s the same as me needing to put my things around a new flat to make it ‘mine’, but this place is rented and I’m physically disabled so constantly cleaning up pee is exhausting…. My partner had an idea the other day to get a huge cheap rug to cover the carpet – that way the flat carpet won’t get ruined, and if I ever move I can bring her marked rug with us. I found a good big rug yesterday and am planning to put it down tonight…. Shall I allow her to mark it, trusting that after a week or so she’ll stop, or will she just re-mark whenever the smell fades? Or shall I enforce a no-marking rule with her? Am I doing the right thing by putting around litter trays and the flannel that she has marked, or is this encouraging her to be more territorial?

          She isn’t spayed. Her previous owners told me she was male, and I could afford male neutering… Trying to scrounge together more cash to pay for her to be spayed as I know about the uterine cancer etc, and I know it will give Quozl a less stressful life – and perhaps reduce the marking too, aiming to do that when she is 6 months but am nervous and sad for putting her through that…

          Any advice would be much appreciated! Yasmin x


      • Mikey
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          Its bunny puberty; theres really no way to stop it until she is spayed. Youll just have to keep washing the areas she pees over and over. Even if the smell doesnt fade, she will likely still mark it (my Bombur had terrible hormones and marked everything multiple times). I do think you might be encouraging her to be territorial, though. Spreading her poop around encouraged her to poop wherever, and even if she poops in her litter box most of the time, that can quickly change as her hormones worsen. Giving her things to mark and saving things shes mark also dont sound like good ideas to me. All things marked should be washed and cleaned to the best of your ability, even if she just keeps marking them

          You said the previous owners said she is a boy; why do you think she is a girl? Has your vet gendered her for you?


        • Bam
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            I agree with Mikey, spraying is a sexually driven behavior. Her age and the fact that she’s actually spraying, not just peeing in the wrong spot, is indicative of puberty. You can only litter-box train her to a point, a powerful urge like spraying is not sth you can train a bunny not to do. Spraying normally stops 1-2 months after the bunny has been spayed, but it can even take longer for a girl.

            You don’t have to scatter poop, it’s better if you collect stray poop and put it in the litterboxes. It’s true that bunnies mark their area with poop, but it is a special type of poop, often bigger in size and shiny due to an oily, heavily odorous substance they secret just for their marking-poops.

            (Bunnies also mark their area and their things “theirs” by “chinning” – that’s harmless, because a human can’t smell it. It’s a signal to other bunnies. A bunny will chin its belongings (you and your partner might be belongings, seen from her perspective, as well as litter-boxes, legs of tables, hidey-houses and food-bowls) regardless if there are any other bunnies or not. It’s like when cats “cheek” things. )

            the best way of signalling playtime is over is imo to serve her a yummy meal in the cage. Some delicious greens, a bit of pellets – sth to entice her to go back in and that she can engage in when she’s back inside. Once she’s gotten the idea, you can add a sound, like clicking your tongue or whistle as a signal. They very soon learn sounds that means food. Then you use that sound as a command.


          • Yasmin&Quozl
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              Thanks for your advice! So we put the rug down and let her out in a small area again, with 2 litter boxes, no marked cloth, no poos…. she was worse than before! Sprayed my partner… Sigh. I know it’s hormonal and we just have to put up with it until she is spayed and her hormones ease off… but in the mean time do I just let her spray and clean up after her? Or should I send her back to her pen immediately after she sprays? I’ve read articles online that emphasise being strict and putting your rabbit back in their cage/pen when they spray or misbehave, and others that say not to… so I’m confused!

              It might be a month before we can spay her, and I want her to get exercise and be able to interact with us. In two weeks she can go outside and will have an outdoor pen to run around in, but I’m hoping for a way for her to have some access to my home without me cleaning up pee every 2 minutes…. is that possible at all? Or should I just keep her confined to her pens (indoor and out) till she’s spayed? that feels awfully mean…


            • Mikey
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                When my middle boy sprayed i would always put the bunnies back for an hour or two so i could clean without them trying to eat/lick the product i was cleaning with. I dont think they really understand being put away for bad behavior, so i just let my boys go in the living room. They would get treats for a successful, no marking day, which i think kind of helped. But Bombur started marking and spraying inside of the cage instead so he could still get his scent around while also getting his treat. He was a trouble maker


              • Yasmin&Quozl
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                  wow. this bunny of mine is just… amazing. Nothing has phased her, she hasn’t shown any sign on nerves from the moment we picked her up…

                  so last night she was spraying etc, wasnt great, but had partner and friend over last night and i was sat on the floor with her and occasionally engaged with her but was half ignoring her…. and she sprayed 3 times in 10 mins, once all over my partner. But today it’s just me in the house and I sat up on the sofa and pretty much ignored her, doing stuff on my laptop. She did some sniffing and chinning laps… one spray… and that’s it. She’s been out for an hour and no pees and no more sprays!! AMAZED. She had a mad session of zooming laps and binkies which was lovely to watch, then flopped all stretched out, and is now washing… phew.

                  Perhaps me sitting with her, at her level, the first times she was out made her feel more territorial? Maybe I should do it this way, me on the sofa leaving her alone, for some more days and then gradually introduce myself into the equation…? When she sprayed my partner it was about 30 seconds after he joined me on the floor with her last night- perhaps that was why?


                • Mikey
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                    If she seems to spray only with your partner around, it might be your partner. She might really like him lol


                  • Yasmin&Quozl
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                      she was out all day again yesterday…. No sprays!! Just 3 pees, but in 7 hours I think that’s pretty good Must have just been manic terratorial marking in her first few days? Relieved it’s not an ongoing hormonal impulse. Proud of little bunny. Partner is coming over tonight, will see if she sprays then…!

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                  Forum BEHAVIOR should I allow my new rabbit to spray?