Poo to mark territory with bonded pairs?

[Quartz]

I have a boy bun who is perfectly litter-trained and actually never leaves any poo outside his X-Pen–and he’s a free-roam bun 99% of the time!  He even sleeps right by our bed in the bedroom at night.  Not a single poo ball there to date.  I love that!  Certainly makes keeping the house clean easy.

Here’s what I wonder about.  I’ve been looking for a pair for my bun to keep him company, and is it a lot more likely for a bonded pair to start leaving poo around in different places to try to mark their territory?  I.e. is there a good chance my bun will also start dropping his poo in various places if I introduce him to his future bunwife?  Are females, who I’ve read are more territorial, more likely to mark territory (my apartment) with #2?

[Love4Bunny]

Yes, this is normal. It should subside with time, but personally, I did ensure the female bunny I chose had good litterbox habits. My rabbits will leave poop occasionally around the perimeter (I understand this to be territorial), or accidentally when they hop out of the litterbox, but for the most part, it stays inside the box. My bunnies aren’t able to be free range, but I would suggest slowly increasing a new bunny’s space instead of giving them complete freedom starightaway. When Thor was single and new to our home, backyard time always threw his litterbox habits off slightly, but cage time seemed to re-correct it. I don’t find Crysta marks more than Thor, but Thor is dominant so that may be the difference. Rabbits can learn undesirable behaviours from their partners. You never know whose gonna pass on what to the other. I had no idea Crysta was a chewer until after I’d adopted her, and now Thor has also started to destroy his cottage. Let me tell you, it was perfect before she came into his life. PERFECT. Then she demo’d a hole in the top level, and this week I’ve woken up to Thor picking up where Crysta left off. I’d heard of bunny “peer pressure” before, but I’m here to tell you it’s real, because Thor gets exercise so he has no excuse!

[Love4Bunny]

Oh, I did forget to include that Thor also had near-perfect litterbox habits before bonding, but I am of the opinion that poop is communication, so there are days when you find more… messages than you’d like. I just ensure that I don’t leave them there for long.

[Bam]

My Bam and Yohio lived separated by a gate and they always left poop alongside that gate. It was like a poop-barrier, a definite marking of territories. Otherwise they are (Bam) and were (Yohio) perfectly litter-trained. Yohio slept in my bed and there were sometimes one stray poop, but never any pee.

So yes, adding another bunny to the house hold is likely to disrupt litterbox habits, but it might not be permanent once the buns are bonded (mine never were bonded).

[Deleted User]

Mine aren’t usually too bad but the last 2 days they’re pooing everywhere! I cleaned up lastnight before I went to bed!

I’ve just taken this from the bunny cam:

[Author]

Messages