my bunny is driving me insane

[HulknEllie]

I have two bunnies, Hulk and Ellie. 

Hulk is a tiny little pain in my butt, and that’s putting it nicely. He is a year and a three months old, and neutered. When we got him, he was insanely destructive, pooped and peed everywhere (could not litter box train), and just overall very hard to handle. Ellie, our female, is spayed and 3 years old and the sweetest bunny on earth (just for comparison- just always wants to cuddle and lick my face, extremely litter-box trained to a T, doesn’t eat or chew anything, etc.).

We got Hulk neutered because the vet said that would help with his behaviours about 6 months ago. It did not help AT ALL. Hulk and Ellie’s cage are separate (tried to bond once, unsuccessful, currently waiting period to try again), but are in one room. Our big 2nd master bedroom is split down the middle with 2 fences with little bricks in between. Hulk has 2 hidey houses, lots of different toys, toilet paper rolls, huge litter box, a tunnel, and his cage is HUGE. He comes out for an hour and a half every morning while I get ready for work, and about 2 hours every night once I get home, and here he gets to play in our master bedroom (we set up little tunnels and boxes on the floor, but he just always wants to come on our bed). Keep in mind- I do this for Ellie too, so I am spending an INSANE amount of my personal time sitting with my bunnies (like 6 hours a day). 

1) Hulk will not stop peeing and pooping on our bed. Nowhere else in our room, just our bed. We have tried pushing him off, but that’s only a short-term fix and it is driving me absolutely insane.

2) Hulk tears apart his cage. EVERY MORNING when I go to see them, he tears apart his litter box, tears apart the tiles on his floor (we tried carpet- he ate it, we tried hard wood- he peed on it, now he has those little blue, red and yellow tiles that fit together). 

3) Lastly, the newest sweet little behaviour, he has started pooping outside his litter box. His pee is still in the litter box, thank goodness, but the majority of his poop is scattered around his cage when it never used to be.

PLEASE PLEASE, help. I am desperate for a fix. I don’t have the time or energy to be dealing with this everyday. Cleaning his cage, especially, before work always has me stressed out with how much time it takes. 

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By HulknEllie on 11/30/2016 10:01 AM

I have two bunnies, Hulk and Ellie. 

Hulk is a tiny little pain in my butt, and that’s putting it nicely. He is a year and a three months old, and neutered. When we got him, he was insanely destructive, pooped and peed everywhere (could not litter box train), and just overall very hard to handle. Ellie, our female, is spayed and 3 years old and the sweetest bunny on earth (just for comparison- just always wants to cuddle and lick my face, extremely litter-box trained to a T, doesn’t eat or chew anything, etc.).

We got Hulk neutered because the vet said that would help with his behaviours about 6 months ago. It did not help AT ALL. Hulk and Ellie’s cage are separate (tried to bond once, unsuccessful, currently waiting period to try again), but are in one room. Our big 2nd master bedroom is split down the middle with 2 fences with little bricks in between. Hulk has 2 hidey houses, lots of different toys, toilet paper rolls, huge litter box, a tunnel, and his cage is HUGE. He comes out for an hour and a half every morning while I get ready for work, and about 2 hours every night once I get home, and here he gets to play in our master bedroom (we set up little tunnels and boxes on the floor, but he just always wants to come on our bed). Keep in mind- I do this for Ellie too, so I am spending an INSANE amount of my personal time sitting with my bunnies (like 6 hours a day). 

1) Hulk will not stop peeing and pooping on our bed. Nowhere else in our room, just our bed. We have tried pushing him off, but that’s only a short-term fix and it is driving me absolutely insane.

2) Hulk tears apart his cage. EVERY MORNING when I go to see them, he tears apart his litter box, tears apart the tiles on his floor (we tried carpet- he ate it, we tried hard wood- he peed on it, now he has those little blue, red and yellow tiles that fit together). 

3) Lastly, the newest sweet little behaviour, he has started pooping outside his litter box. His pee is still in the litter box, thank goodness, but the majority of his poop is scattered around his cage when it never used to be.

PLEASE PLEASE, help. I am desperate for a fix. I don’t have the time or energy to be dealing with this everyday. Cleaning his cage, especially, before work always has me stressed out with how much time it takes. 

So each bun gets 3 and a half hours out per day? I hate to say it but that really isn’t enough. I understand you have two buns so have to split your time but they need more time out of their cage. That couldbe the cause of the destructive behaviour – boredom. As for bed peeing, a lot of bubs like to pee on anything soft so best bet is just keep him off the bed. 

[HulknEllie]

Yes, each bun gets around 3 and a half hours out of their cage per day. Their cage is not a cage though. It’s literally a huge bedroom split in half. Some days we switch their cages so they can explore the other’s cage and they seem to love that. It is just way too much to be able to take them out any longer than that. You have to understand we also have a dog, my fiance works 11 hour days, and I am a teacher and come home and need to have time to clean, cook, and lesson plan. 

That is why we gave them an entire room, instead of a small cage. 

[Hex]

Hulk is still very young, in rabbit terms. My Pudge was a handful…and I used to feel much in the same way you do now. She has calmed down considerably. Every now and then she flicks a poo outside of her litter, or decides to teach me a lesson by peeing (in her cage ONLY) outside her litter box…but overall, she’s learned very well. Sassy bun…

Hulk may feel his cage is “too clean”. A lot of rabbits, especially males, mark their cages after them having been cleaned because they need to restore their scent. If he’s pooping outside of his cage, perhaps clean these every other day. Allow him to establish that the cage is “his” in his own mind.

Do not let him on your bed. Considering his marking behavior in his cage, I’m thinking he’ll continue looking for more territory to claim. Human beds smell strongly of us and this can be very tempting for a rabbit to mark.

How does he tear apart his litter box? He may be doing what Pudge does: if there’s too much litter in the box, she would dig it out all over the floor. I found the solution to this was a larger / deeper litter box with a more defined edge so that Pudge had to hop into it. If the box is deeper, you can still make sure there’s an adequate amount of litter to soak up urine without the box seeming “too full” to the bun. The edge made it more difficult to have a dig party, as well.

Would you be willing to show us photos of your cage setup? It sounds absolutely wonderful, and I’d like to see, but it would also help us understand what we’re working with here.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By HulknEllie on 11/30/2016 10:19 AM

Yes, each bun gets around 3 and a half hours out of their cage per day. Their cage is not a cage though. It’s literally a huge bedroom split in half. Some days we switch their cages so they can explore the other’s cage and they seem to love that. It is just way too much to be able to take them out any longer than that. You have to understand we also have a dog, my fiance works 11 hour days, and I am a teacher and come home and need to have time to clean, cook, and lesson plan. 

That is why we gave them an entire room, instead of a small cage. 

That sounds pretty impressive! I’d also love to see pictures  I must have missed that part in your original post so apologies for that. I second that it could be a territorial thing then regarding the stray poops. When you clean, do you completely remove (or try) the scent?

Some bunnies don’t like having a tray that’s too clean whilst others are the opposite. My buns rebelled a little when I stopped changing theirs daily but since going back to doing that there’s no more problems  (with wee anyway, they still poop everywhere)

[Mikey]

1. Rabbits like to pee and poo on soft things. Beds are often very soft, so they are often targets for bunny bathroom habits Either dont allow him on the bed at all, or get a plastic covering (many here use shower curtains) to cover the bed and make it less appealing to pee on

2. Only when he sees you? It sounds like either aggression if youve ever done anything to anger or scare him. Or hes incredibly excited and needs more human attention from you or your partner

3. Has anything in his diet changed? In his cage? In your home? If its cold where you live, have people started to have fires in their fire places, or bonfires outside? Changes in sight, smell, and diet can cause a rabbit to feel like they are someplace new which would cause territory poops. Some rabbits also go through hormone phases on and off until they are old, even after being neutered/spayed. These phases usually stop after about a week to two weeks

I hate to say it, but this is part of what having a bunny is. Bunnies need a lot of time to socialize, play, and sometimes take a long time to clean and need to be cleaned up after often

[HulknEllie]

Can someone tell me how to add pictures to this post? I took a bunch I want to spam you all with haha!

[Hex]

If you click the “Reply” button on a post, it’ll take you to a more robust text entry.

At the bottom of that page, there’s an attachment area.

Hope that helps.

[HulknEllie]

Okay, here are some photos!
The first pic is their entire bedroom. The second is just an example to show how Hulk loves to destroy his room (tears apart the tiles, poops everywhere, moves his stuff around, etc.). The next pic is his room once I cleaned it, and the last is Hulk saying, “FEED ME HUMAN!”. 

Perhaps you guys are right, I should stop picking up the scattered poops. Maybe he doesn’t like his cage so clean… it just sucks because sometimes he steps in them and makes a nice mess for me to clean. 

Also, I will definitely be using the shower curtain idea. Thanks, Mikey!! 

[HulknEllie]

|Here are the photos (hoping this works because it didn’t the first time) 

[HulknEllie]

[boeing]

Any chance the proximity of your other rabbit is frustrating him? He can smell her but not touch her? Did he want to be with her, but she rejected him? I wonder if it’s that simple?

[HulknEllie]

I’ve wondered this too. My only thought about why it might not be that is simply because Hulk has been this way since we first got him. We only got Ellie in March of this year. I think it’s just been so much so for long that I just now started to get really annoyed. Hulk really seems to love Ellie though. When we tried bonding, Ellie was vicious and bit Hulk and didn’t want anything to do with him, and we felt really bad. We’ve had some great advice about taking a few months off and trying again with some new strategies so maybe if we can successfully bond them, then the behaviour would stop (maybe if it’s boredom/attention, having a mate will help him??). If you have any tips about how to move forward with bonding, I welcome all the advice!!!! I have another thread I started on here about our rough experience.

[sarahthegemini]

Could it be a case of the litter box not being large enough?

[HulknEllie]

It could be! I already got Hulk a litter box twice the size of Ellie’s about four weeks ago and it still isn’t doing the trick. We put just newspapers on the bottom last night, instead of hay or shavings on top because he always kicked them out and there were no poops. Should I keep doing that? Or is there something else I could put on the bottom of his litter box?

[Hex]

The cage setup looks awesome! What lucky buns to have so much space all day!

You may have yourself a bit of a fuss-bun. It can take as much as a year for all hormonal behavior to fade, especially if it has become habit. A lot of what he’s doing is fairly normal: rearranging his cage to his liking, making a mess so it smells like him, tearing up foam tiles.

Pudge also took an unfortunate liking to her foam mats, and I had to get rid of them. I initially got her a mat like THIS at first, but she eventually decided to chew the little nubs off. The next mat I bought her was more like THIS and I haven’t had a problem since. These mats won’t allow any accidents to leak through either, and are much easier to clean. The latter mat has a better sealed surface, so it’s become my favorite. Pudge has rex fur, so she’s prone to sore hocks, and this is something I always consider when picking flooring for my bunny cages. These mats haven’t bothered her whatsoever.

 
When I get home, I’ll try to get a picture of the size different between Pudge and her litter box…it’s laughable. She has a large, corner litter pan like THIS.

[HulknEllie]

Aw that was such a nice, detailed reply!! Thank you so much!
I will definitely look into that mat. I hate that when Hulk tips his water dish or the food spills a bit it gets all stuck between the tiles and is just super gross lol.
I’ll also consider a new litter box. The last one I bought was quite pricey so I’m not super impressed it still isn’t doing the trick but I also hate cleaning the mess so… Guess I’m stuck! :p

[chipnroo]

My buns also pee on the bed. I didn’t like the shower curtain look so I got this instead https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01D5FY3V8/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . I put the fleece side down and the blue side up. It’s somewhat soft for the buns to play on and waterproof just in case they pee (which they haven’t so far *crosses fingers).

For the spillage of water problem get them one of those water feeders. Buns have really strong teeth! My buns can move a heavy piece of plywood if I block of their secret hiding place. I got this one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003EV7F64/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The water makes it top heavy so they shouldn’t be able to flip it over. I fill it half way so I don’t waste water and so it remains fresh.

And for the litter box petsmart has a cheap cat litter box from grreat choice which is $5. I don’t use the soft bedding or shavings since it’s messy. I would recommend wood pellets since they’re very absorbent and good for the buns. I put a cat litter liner around the litter box, fill it with yesterday’s news (brand of wood pellets), put a basket with holes in it that’s almost the same size as the litter box to catch the poop but let’s the pee go through and then fill the box with hay to encourage them to poop and pee there. Makes it easy to clean because you can dump out the poop and soiled hay. You can scoop out the litter that’s been peed on (usually in one corner) and just fill as necessary. Here’s a litter box from petco that’s similar to what I was explaining since my explanation is somewhat confusing http://m.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/cat/cat-litter-boxes-and-accessories/lift-n-sift-cat-litter-pan.

Good luck with bonding the buns. It’s not easy. You can try some supervised together time. A little bit at a time.

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