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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum BEHAVIOR Outsmarted by rabbit! (now pic heavy!) (now peeing out of litterbox!)

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    • KytKattin
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         I have been trying to have Nova be free range. She is really perfect about not pooping outside her cage (after over a week I have only found 3 stray poos), she only chews her toys, and she has sort of stopped lunging at my feet when I walk across the room (that last one I think has to do with trusting me more, but she also might have just accepted I am not going to leave). My biggest problem is that she has this obsession with getting behind my desk. It is insane. She will seriously go around the perimeter looking for the weakness. Well the night before last I thought I had finally solved it. She was out all night and then all day, and there were no problems at all. Fast forward to 4am this morning. I hear her make a loud banging noise and she is once again behind the divider. After taking it appart to get her out, I put it back together, trying to figure out how in the heck she got through this time! Turns out she jumped it because she did it again! I get her out, again, and lock her up because I want to sleep. Of course by this time I can’t sleep, so about an hour later I get up and zip-tie two more half panels on top of the structure and let her back out. At one point she ended up moving it away from the desk after digging enough, but she hasn’t been able to jump it. She has looked and thought about it, in fact, she just went and looked again, but I don’t think she could do it now with the extra pannels. My question was, why is she doing this? What is her reason for being so obsessed with getting behind my desk? While I originally thought it wasn’t because of the hay, I am now wondering if it is. She only has hay in her cage. Same for her litterbox, and all other food. I would prefer to keep it that way because I don’t have my own vacuum, and I am afraid she will start peeing and pooing more outside of the cage of she has hay available out of it. Thoughts? I think I have finally solved it, but I have yet to go a full night without her waking me up as she gets through the barrier. I have thought about simply locking her up at night to make sure she eats, but then she has trust issues with me. 

        And FYI, my room is very well lit at night, so she has no problem finding her cage and going in and out of it. Pictures of the whole set up to come after I clean my room. 


      • FrankieFlash
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          well first, i read your title and thought, “that happens everyday!” (like how if we don’t shut door completely to his room(our bedroom), he knows how to open the door and makes a run for it. My newest project will probably getting the whole house bun proofed.
          second, my bunjamin is very similar. In fact we ran out of ideas of how to keep him from trying to get behind my computer tower so now its on top of the desk along with all the cords. Its not my favorite situation but it’s way less annoying. Bunjamin likes to have all the sides of the walls clear and no hanging cords even if protected (I read somewhere that they instinctively clear a path of vines (cords) and stuff for an emergency escape plan.

          So I have a few suggestions that may or may not help. One, add another litter box, outside of the cage. Bunjamin has one near his favorite napping spot and it cuts down on stray poos and he has not yet had a pee accident at this house. Also, he likes it near his napping spot because he wakes up mid-nap for a snack and its convenient. He’ll sit in it anytime though. And theres no extra hay on the ground because it’s all in the litter box. If you don’t wanna use a litter box you could also put a cardboard box, big enough for her to jump into with hay in it.

          I’m going to stop rambling but it sounds like boredom/bunny ways. As in, they rule the house.


        • Stickerbunny
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            Powder has an obsession with getting behind the TV, he just likes it back there. After he figured out he really couldn’t get behind it though, he stopped after a few days and just looks at it every now and then. Bunnies love dark spaces like that to get behind.

            As for the hay and litter box in other rooms.. I keep hay in the middle of my living room and it doesn’t cause any problems, I keep it in a box so it stays contained, hasn’t caused any litter accidents, even with crazy Stickers who won’t use her litter box most the time. lol


          • Silly Sungura
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              I agree with Stickerbunny about bunnies liking tight, dark spaces. My bunny gets behind the furniture all the time, every single day. She just likes to feel snug and secure. We also have hay available to her outside of her cage on all occasions; she has never peed or pooped outside of her cage. Not even once. The hay does get messy, though, because my bunny likes to toss it and dig in it for the tastiest morsels. Lol.


            • KytKattin
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                And she just peed outside of her cage… She is going to be on lock-down for a little while. Back to 100% supervision. I am quite upset. Her litterbox was cleaned last night, and she had just been in her cage less than 10 minutes before. There is no reason for her behavior. While I agree that another litterbox might be required, this almost seemed to be a territorial marking, or protest to not getting what she wants. Well, now I guess she doesn’t even get out time until the evenings any more, and so much for showing my parents what a good bunny she can be. >


              • Silly Sungura
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                  It’s usually recommended that any time you expand your bunny’s living space you should add more litter boxes. Rabbits are often compelled to mark new territory with urine or droppings, so if you provide another box and take your bunny to it right away when you let her out, she will hopefully learn to mark the box instead of your floors. It just might take some patience.


                • KytKattin
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                    She has been here with daily out time for 3 weeks and had free run for almost 4 days now with hardly a poo out of place. I would have understood if this was the first day, or even the first week, but she got over her “chinning” everything 2 weeks ago. I honestly think this was a pee of defiance! I will get pictures. My room is very small, and she peed close enough to her cage that I am not sure another litterbox would solve my problem. I would add one if she had peed further from the cage, but this just seems as though she did it because she was either lazy or angry.


                  • KytKattin
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                      Photobucket
                      My door. She isn’t allowed in the rest of the dorm, and I sometimes need air. lol. So far she respects the low barrier and only tries to go out when I go out, and if my other roomie’s doors are shut I let her follow me to the sorry excuse for a kitchen to get her veggies.

                      Photobucket|
                      Please excuse my messy closet!

                      Photobucket
                      Again, messy closet… Her box and some toys.

                      Photobucket
                      The thing I had to build…

                      Photobucket
                      Sorry this pic is really washed out… She peed right in front of that drawer. You can kind of see it is a little darker because it is wet. I already cleaned it, her pee was much smaller than the dark spot you can see now. And then in the darkest bit, there was already a stain. Honestly, I almost wonder if she peed there because something else did at some point now… I don’t know what that stain is, it was here the day I moved in.

                      Photobucket
                      Her cage, which is under my bed. She is obviously not very happy… And please note, the cord is only down because she is locked up, and when it accidentally fell I was lazy. It is always up otherwise.

                      Photobucket
                      Her hay stash. What that thing is preventing her from getting at.


                    • FrankieFlash
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                        what if you stored hay in a different room. even the bathroom maybe? It might be the smell of it that’s driving her nuts. If you can’t move hay and if I was you, I’d just cord protect those two cords in that corner and unblock it.

                        On a side note, I like the pink barrier things you have. They’re pretty!! And she doesn’t try to jump them?


                      • Stickerbunny
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                          The hay is easy to fix, just get one of those plastic storage containers they sell at department stores and put it in that corner instead, with the hay in it, the lid not snapped shut, hay will stay good and it will be confined a bit and not drive her to seek it. I wouldn’t count her out by just one accident, could you maybe cover the stained area with something? If it was cause she was mad, as long as it was cleaned, once she settles to the idea of she can’t get back there she shouldn’t keep doing it.


                        • SirThumpsey
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                            I think it might be worth it to just unblock it and protect the cords…

                            I’m impressed that you are allowed to have a bunny in your dorm…We were only allowed to have fish…not even a frog or turtle…Although some RAs would let ya have Hermit crabs…


                          • KytKattin
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                              My roomies toke up in the bathroom, haha, so that is probably a no. And like I said before about the kitchen, it is a pathetically small area, just like the rest of the “suite”. Part of the reason I don’t want her back there is that I don’t want her going to the bathroom back in the corner. It just doesn’t make sense to me that it would be the smell because she has all varieties in her cage and it is refilled at least once a day. Plus I wouldn’t know what to do with the hay. If she is that driven to it get to it, she would chew the bags. There isn’t room for a storage container back in that corner. Hopefully I am wrong about her wanting the hay and maybe she just wants to be back there. All animals can be trained, right?! haha. We will see how tonight goes if I have her out while I sleep.

                              She is really funny about the door. If I open it, she wants out, and if she sees me going towards the door, she will follow me, but when the barrier is up, she seems to ignore the door completely (for now). She def could jump it, as you can see in front of my desk I had to build higher because she did. She probably doesn’t want to go out there because I am not out there. If I actually spent time out there and she was left alone in my room she would probably try to find me after a while.


                            • KytKattin
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                                Nova is totally not allowed, btw. But our RA never comes into the suite. I don’t think she is really allowed to come in without prior notice. Some people have cats, and just about every other pocket pet you can imagine. I also have 2 fish tanks, though I don’t think anyone would ever bother me about that. The funny thing is that I actually support the ban on pets as I think there would be a lot more abandoned at the end of term if they were allowed. I would rather be breaking the rules than try to change them. I figure too many (even one would be too many) would be abandoned the same way I happened to find my destructive little Supernova!

                                Edit: one, ten gallon fish tank is allowed. I have two, one five gallon and one two gallon. Hence why I don’t think anyone would bother me about it.


                              • FrankieFlash
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                                  hmm. I would try it again and reinforce good behavior and use the spray bottle to (un-inforce? de-force?) the bad. I’ll keep thinking though.

                                  and lol about roomates toking up in the bathroom. I wouldn’t put the hay in there either, they might confuse it for the other type of grass and smoke it!


                                • KytKattin
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                                    Yeah, I let her back out already. She just looked so miffed. She has been sleeping in her box pretty much all day since I did that. I am torn between leaving her out tomorrow and locking her up. I will be gone from my dorm from about 9:30 until 4:30, and the same on Sunday. No class on Monday though. I just hate to leave her locked up during the day like that, even though I know she will probably just sleep until I get back…

                                    And then when they try that they will set the smoke detectors off! The first night that happened, Nova was soooo angry when I got back to my dorm (I wasn’t in when it happened) and I gave her a ton of treats to make her feel better. Not that my roomies had set it off, it was just a drill. Well it went off again last night (don’t know why, and again I wasn’t in), and when I came back she didn’t seem as upset. I gave her a treat as soon as I saw her. So maybe she is associating that gosh awful noise with eventually getting a treat.


                                  • FrankieFlash
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                                      LOL if I was you I’d leave her locked up. For her safety. If she’s out and a roomate or something comes in she might escape or get stepped on. I get better piece of mine when mine is locked up but maybe that’s me.


                                    • KytKattin
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                                        I did leave her locked up because once again, at about 5 or 6 this morning she started digging at the barrier and I still wanted to sleep! She hasn’t managed to get back there again, but it isn’t strong enough for me to feel comfortable leaving her for more than a few hours (though she only seems to try to dig in the early morning hours… I will probably fix it up tonight. Though when I do leave her out, she is locked in my room, where only I have access. I actually was especially glad for that last semester when one of my roommates was looking at my bettas and asked if I ever fought them before telling me how she and some friends tried to fight some and when they wouldn’t fight, flushed them down the toilet. 😮 I wouldn’t feel comfortable having my precious fish here knowing there is a fish murderer.


                                      • KytKattin
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                                          And she peed again last night… Grr. It was in a different spot this time. I went to buy another litterbox, but the Petsmart near me is very limited. She will only have supervised out time until my boyfriend can bring me another litterbox from home.


                                        • Stickerbunny
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                                            Hmm. Wonder if there is some smell that is getting on your carpet that she thinks she has to cover up.


                                          • KytKattin
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                                              I am almost wondering if someone had a pet here before and she is peeing where they peed? Well, like I said, I am going to have another litterbox by Friday. Thankfully there are no visible stains from her marks. The carpet is really thin and easy to clean. I need to get some Natures Miracle, as I think that will do the trick even better than the stuff I am borrowing.

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                                          Forum BEHAVIOR Outsmarted by rabbit! (now pic heavy!) (now peeing out of litterbox!)