no longer litter trained

[michelle_marie]

Hi guys, so I got my first bunny, Buttercup, in June of last year. I took her to the vet soon after and she told me Buttercup was about 6 months old. So, assuming she was right, Buttercup is about 14 months old. I had her completely litter trained up until about a month ago. Over Christmas I stayed at my parent’s house for 2 weeks and took Buttercup along with me. She did surprisingly really good with the transition. Not a single drop of pee or poop on my parent’s carpet and became A LOT more social and let everyone play with her and pet her (before this, she wouldn’t allow anyone that wasn’t me in a 10 foot radius of her). The problem is, as soon as we got back home she started pooping and peeing EVERYWHERE. I thought that maybe she was just thrown off from going back and forth, but it’s been a month and it’s only gotten worse. You’d also think that if this was the problem she would have been doing the same thing at my parent’s house. So the only other reason I can think of is it’s because she’s not spayed? I thought I read that rabbit’s reached their sexual maturity around 6-9 months and that’s the time they would start marking there territory, but since she’s 14 months I would think that she would be passed that seeing as she never did that before? I haven’t had her spayed because she’s extremely well behaved and was litter trained. I was also holding off on it because I called every vet in the 50 mile radius and the cheapest price I could find was $350 to get her spayed. Lastly, in the midst of all this she also picked up the gross habit of constantly eating her poop. I’m not talking about the cecotropes, she is always eating her normal pellet poops. Sorry this is lengthy, but any advice would be greatly appreciated! She used to have free roam of the living room, but now I have to have her in her cage for a lot of the day and I feel really bad and it’s really frustrating.

By the way, here’s a picture of my baby girl :

[jerseygirl]

Ohhhh! She’s a beautiful bunny!

Although you’ve had good experience her behaviour so far, I would recommend spay for health reasons. Female rabbits have high risk or developing uterine cancer. A spay eliminates this risk.

More of the low cost spay/neuter clinics are doing rabbits now(See link).That might be an option to look into. Or it may be a case of taking her on a road trip to a more affordable clinic.
http://www.nootersclub.org/lowcostspayneuter.htm

Her behaviour does sound territorial and hormone related. Is it possible she’s younger then you and the vet predicted? Did she do a lot of growing from 6 months onwards?

Rabbits do sometimes eat their normal fecal droppings but it shouldn’t be excessive. Does she get plenty of hay or stopped eating as much of it?

Has this habit increased more now she is not free roaming? Or does she eat the marking ones she does when out and about?

[michelle_marie]

She was 1.5 pounds at the vet, and I believe the last time I weighed her she was 5 pounds. So yeah she’s grown quite a bit. She always has a constant source of hay but now that you mention it, it does seem like she’s eating less of it. I fill up her bin every night before bed and this morning when I woke up it looked like she barely touched it. I let her run around for an hourish when I can keep an eye on her and the rest of the time she’s in her play pen. It does seem like she’s eating them while she’s in her play pen. I’ve caught her doing it several times daily the past few days. It also seems like she’s A LOT worse with the pooping at night time. I have her out running around right now and she’s being really good but in the evening she goes crazy with the poop!

[jerseygirl]

She was 1.5 pounds at the vet, and I believe the last time I weighed her she was 5 pounds. So yeah she’s grown quite a bit.

Ahhh. I suspect your vet meant she was 6 weeks old back in june rather then 6 months. They grow a lot in those first 6 months . It’s unlikely she did most her growing from 6 months onwards. Unless she’s one of the larger lop breeds and still has growing to do. I did read once that the larger breed rabbits sexually mature a bit later so I guess it’s possible if she is a larger breed (like french lop) that you’re seeing normal hormonal behaviours that others would see at 4-6 months in the smaller breed rabbits.

For her to gain 3.5lbs in last 6 months, I’d say she is probably about 8-9 months old now and should be done growing.

I’d consider getting her teeth checked if she is eating less hay. She could be eating her poos to get the easy fibre if she’s having trouble eating hay. Or it could be she simply doesn’t like the current hay she has??? You could try a new batch to test that out. They can be real fuss pots sometimes.

I do see mine eat their normal poos sometimes & it’s often just a couple territorial ones they’ve dropped. It’s like they come back and clean them up!

[jerseygirl]

Is she your only rabbit? I just noticed 2 cages in the picture.

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