Night time litter box habbits

[Baxter n Boos Mom]

I have two beautiful free reign dutch bunnies.  After we had Baxter neutered, he was very good with his litter box training, and rarely made a mistake.  That is until we brought home Baby Boo, our dutch tan.  Then Baxter became incredibly territorial, making messes all over his side of the fence.  At that time, Boo was perfect with his litter box training – then his hormones kicked in.  After they bonded, we had Baby Boo neutered, and I had hoped that both bunnies could resume their good litter box habits.  Unfortunately, for some reason at night  when they’re both confined to the guest bedroom, one or both make mistakes outside the litter box.

I hate the idea of locking them in a cage at night – but not sure how to re-train them, especially since the messes only happen when we’re asleep.

Any advise?  

[LittlePuffyTail]

Is it just poops outside the litter boxes or pee as well? Are the messes pretty much in one spot or scattered all over?

My male, Bindi, has great litter box habits but for some reason at night, he leaves a little pile of poops right at his condo door. Sometimes, my other bun, Olivia does this too. I see this as normal rabbit behavior, because in the wild, bunnies will mark the entrance to their warren. I don’t worry about it, since the poos are easy to clean up.

[NuggetBuns]

Baxter n Boo- I was going to create a new thread about re-littertraining a bunny, but you got to it first . I’m new to bunnies but have read about them online. If Boo was litter trained and then neutered, you probably will have to retrain him. Some bunnies change after getting fixed or forget good habits, but the good news is that it’s much easier to train a fixed rabbit! Baxter might be copying Boo’s bad behavior, thinking it’s okay. How many litterboxes do you have in the room? Do you place litterboxes in other places in your home? Asking because maybe they like to do their business in other parts of the home more than the guest room? 

LittlePuffyTail- Do you know if rabbits can see very well in the dark? I’ve had my bunny for a month and she is 90% litter trained (not fully because sometimes she leaps onto the couch and leaves droppings). She’s only allowed to roam freely in the living room when we are at home, but at night and when I’m at work, she’s locked in her cage. We have two litterboxes outside of the cage and the moment I open her cage door, she always runs out to one of the litterboxes to pee or poop. Anyway, we changed her setup last night and upgraded to a puppy pen so she would have more space to run around when we’re sleeping or at work. This is what I saw when I went into the living room this morning around 7am:

It looks like a poop mine field, no pee spots thank god! We only moved her cage and added the puppy pen last night. Her litterbox in the back has not moved so I don’t understand what is happening. She seems to be marking her territory, but the funny thing is that this is not new territory! She’s either having a pooping fit or just can’t see at night to find her litterbox. 

[NewBunnyOwner123]

Ohhh this happened with Sally when I “upgraded” her cage. I have a pen similar to yours and when we first moved her she pooped EVERYWHERE the first couple of nights. It has since, ceased. But I was on top of picking it up because I didn’t enjoy when she kicked it out of her cage and I’d step on a poo when walking into the kitchen :/ I think she is just claiming that as HER HOME. Whereas when she is running around the living room she doesn’t poop mark because it’s not necessarily her personal space.
Sally never poops outside of her cage when running around. She will still drop the occasional poop in her pen though but never in the kitchen or living room when running around

[Deleted User]

If buns are moved into a new area they will mark their territory through pooing. Rabbits do not like the dark and should be given night lights to see by. I would just make sure that the night lights are strong enough to give a good ‘glow’ to the room. Several kiddie nights should be good.

[NuggetBuns]

NewBunnyOwner123- Yeah, Nugget does not normally poop when she’s running around our living room either. Did she go back to pooping in her box after the first two nights or did you have to guide her back into it? If your profile pic is your bunny, my goodness she is freaking cute! I would happily pick up after her poop .

My plan is to give Nugget that pen space when she’s alone and then open it up so she can run around the living room like she always does when we’re home with her. If I notice that she’s pooping everywhere, then she might need to be retrained. Hopefully, Nugget will stop pooping on the floor after a couple days. I’m also not sure if she pooped in a pile at night and then ran around at the crack of dawn kicking it everywhere, OR if she was dropping them as she ran around. 

[NewBunnyOwner123]

I didn’t have to retrain her. She still went in her box but she also pooped everywhere outside of it. After a few nights she just quit doing it. I’m guessing she decided it was marked enough to her liking she will still leave an occasional poop outside her box but I think it’s because she is unspayed and we have recently taken in another bun :p

My avatar is Jack, he passed a couple months ago. He was Sally’s brother. You can see lots of pics of Sally in this months picture thread though! She is just as cute, so she gets away with a lot because I love her to death lol- just changed my avatar to Sally, been meaning to change it! 

[Baxter n Boos Mom]

The cage/condo/food/litter boxes are all on one side of the room, and that’s pretty much where I find the scattered poo.

I find small pee spots in various places on the same side of the room….mostly little spots, but next to the lounge chair, which is inches from their litter box, there seems to be quite a bit of pee.  So I’ve been laying a doggy pad there.  

They used to have perfect litter box habits 🙁   Now – it’s only good during the day, when they have free reign of the house.  

Baxter prefers to spend the day in the living room, and chases Boo when he tries to join him.  Boo spends most of the day in the guest bedroom.  

I’m guessing it’s Baxter leaving the messes, as he is the more dominant/aggressive bunny. I’m wondering if:

1) Baxter is marking his territory each night, since Boo spends the majority of the day in this room, or, 

2) Leaving pee/poo in protest about being confined to one room during the night.

Any ideas on how to re-train them, during the night?

Thank you.

[NuggetBuns]

Baxter n Boo- First off, I LOVE your avatar pic! Your buns are precious  Hm, it does sounds like Baxter is trying to claim some of the guest room, especially if he doesn’t have problems pooping in the litterbox in the daytime. Maybe you just need to lay some of Baxter’s things (towels/blanket that has his scent) in the spot that you usually find his poop, so he doesn’t have to keep marking. 

How long has this been happening for? Did you always keep Baxter in the guest room at night time or did you change his sleeping arrangement after he was bonded with Boo? If the change is recent, it might just take a few days to a week for them to get used to it. 

NewBunnyOwner123 and Skipper’s Mama- Nugget stopped marking! I thought I was going to come home to another nugget minefield, but the pen was spotless! It was also clean this morning. I was so happy I let her out and brought her to my bed. She was crawling all around my boyfriend for 10 minutes and always going to the edges trying to see if she could jump down… then she stopped in the middle of the bed and looked so relaxed! I thought she was so cute and happy, but then realized she peed . Didn’t yell at her b/c it was completely my fault. Oh the life of a bunny owner…

[Deleted User]

NuggetBun Lol! Skipper used to do that before she was fixed. Now she’ll periodically jump up on the bed while I’m getting ready in the morning. And she’ll the bf awake because I’m too busy putting on makeup to pay attention to her. xD

Baxter it sounds to me that the poos and pee are a bit of a dominance issue. How many litter boxes are in the room for the buns? If you’re saying that Baxter chases Boo out of his area, I’m wondering if he’s not allowing Boo to use the litter box during the night. Which may be the reason as to why you’re finding pee spots. I would stick another litter box in the room to see what happens. And I would put some used litter in the box from Baxter and Boo to signal to them that its okay for them to use it. Or are the sides of the litter box not high enough? It does sound like you’re having some dominance issues though with these little guys. I would see if you could have Boo run around Baxter’s area for a bit while Baxter isn’t there so that Baxter gets used to the smells of Boo being in “his” territory. The more that you have Boo run around the area the less it becomes Baxter’s. That is if you want Baxter and Boo to get along in the same vicinity.

[Baxter n Boos Mom]

Thank you – yes, they’re really cute! I just wish they were cuddly – but that’s another post. 

We started to lock up Baxter in the guest room at night, once we adopted Boo – because he was entirely too aggressive towards the baby, and I didn’t want to take any chances while we were sleeping. After they bonded – we locked both buns in the guest br (man cave) at night. Baxter was reluctant to share this space with Boo….but over time he came to accept Boo in the man cave. It’s been about 8 months since we started locking them up together at night.

Baxter’s scent is all over the man cave – as this is where their grain/hay/food/water/veggies/treats and litter boxes are.

At night – when I check up on them, they are like the avatar pic, nose-to-nose….so I know they get along. And Baxter is really good about grooming Boo,

I have two litter boxes in the room. One larger primary litter box, and then a smaller one in their cage.

Do you think it’s necessary to cage them overnight, to get them to start using the litter box again?

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