Territorial Marking or Incontinence?

[RoxMad]

Hi all!

I recently adopted a new Holland Lop mix. She is going to be spayed (to make the adoption official!) within the next month, once I can get the time off of work to stay home with her. I recently noticed her litter habits going awry, and I’m not sure what’s going on. Here is the back story:

She came into rescue very underweight and, after about a week, gave birth to 5 kits, none of which survived. She had been a stray and it took the neighborhood 3 months to catch her. My vet estimated her age roughly from 6 months-1 year, but clearly she is sexually mature. She definitely acts very young, binkying, running bunny 500s, and just playing with me constantly (she loves to play ball, oddly enough!).

I brought her into my home almost a month ago. I began by keeping her in a large wire dog crate for 2 days to allow her to settle in and develop good litter box habits. She was very fearful at first, but has calmed down and is incredibly friendly. I gradually gave her a little more space, all supervised, with a small animal exercise pen (small annex onto the kennel). She did pee a small amount outside of the kennel on the first time we tried this, but I assumed I’d just waited too long before placing her back inside. The next few times, she was fine. I have a large screened in patio where I wanted to transition her to for most of the day to give her lots of space (it has a fan, marble slabs for cooling, and metal panels along the bottom to prevent scratching out). I supervised her 100% of the time the first few days and gradually decreased the time I watched her. At first, I brought her back inside every 30 minutes or so to put her in her kennel so she would pee in the litter box and not on the porch. I gradually increased the time she was out there and watched her use the litter box religiously.

I began to notice that every once in a while, I would find small pee spots in the kennel. I got a bigger litter box. I started to change it more frequently. I was also noticing what appeared to be small wet spots, but when I would try to wipe them up, they’d be sticky rather than wet, so I figured they may have just been residue from the veggies, but I’m wondering whether that is the case. I also have seen larger urine spots, and even noticed her appear to be laying in it (hind end only), which I thought was odd. I have never seen spraying, it is always on the floor. The urine is sometimes different colors-rusty red (not blood, just poryphorins), sometimes clear, and sometimes more yellow-opaque. My question is, do different colors indicate different “reasons?” Would a more yellow spot indicate marking whereas clear or red be just needing to pee? She mostly uses the box for pooping, but will drop a pellet here and there (maybe 1 in the kennel and 3 on the large patio).

I have a larger ex-pen that I would like to use to replace the kennel, but I want to get this kennel urination under control before I give her more space. I have urine test strips that I am going to try and use once I get a fresher sample, but she got an otherwise clean bill of health a few weeks ago. She does have a sharp point on one of her molars, which will be filed when she gets spayed. In my experience, bunnies tend to be incontinent when they aren’t feeling well, and that’s the only health issue I’m aware of. I’m hopeful that spaying will help, but I’ve always had intact males and never had this issue, so I’m not totally convinced hormones are the issue here.

Any and all help is appreciated!!

[Luna]

Different urine colors are normal, and the variety of colors are influenced by diet. As an unspayed doe, I’m inclined to think that her litter habits are attributed to the fact that she isn’t spayed yet.

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