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Forum BEHAVIOR Pooping on bed when I have a friend over?

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    • Muffinz
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        Ok here is some background so you have something to go off of, and sorry but I’m very long winded! : So I have not had my bun but for a few weeks now, but she has done an incredibly impressive job learning to use her littler box. Like literally 3 days and she had it down. I started out with one of those corner ones and she was going beside it. I also had littler in the entire bottom of the cage. I dont think she liked the corner box so I got her a much larger box with some hay and and removed the littler from the rest of the cage bottom and she has used her box flawlessly ever since. The first few days I did not let her out of her cage much. And when I did she seemed to be very hesitant to go back into her cage. But once she seemed to understand that she had free reign of my bedroom (bunny-proofed bedroom, of course) and could come and go as she pleased she would happily hop back into her cage, do her business, and go on about her merry way. 

        I know she is in a bit of a teenagery stage, but I thought considering her age – and the cage she lived in up until this point was full of poop and 4 other rabbits – that she was doing really really good. The only problem is she was “randomly” pooping on my bed. And not just one or two here or there. Like a dozen or more little coco puffs right in the middle. So I thought to myself, perhaps because I come home and give her some kale and let her out, she is having to go because she just ate. She has hay, pellets, and water freely available at all times, but I give her some kale in the morning before i leave for work and in the evening at some point. I would mainly use the kale to get her in her cage without picking her up and putting her there so that I could keep her contained while I’m at work or sleeping. Then I started letting her out at night to have free reign of my bedroom. NO ACCIDENTS! Like I went all over my room in every nook and cranny with a flashlight and not a single poo was to be found. 

        So we have gone a week or more with absolutely no accidents. Then comes the “random” pooping on the bed. Well, since I have probably already bored you to tears with my long story thus far, I’ll tell you what I think it is. I have a friend that comes over once a week or so. She really likes Muffin and always wants to pet her and hold her. And Muffin has been around her since she was 2 weeks old, just not on a regular basis. My friend came over last night and low and behold – Muffin crapped right in the middle of the bed again. So that got me to thinking just WHY on earth would she do that she has been doing so good! Then, I realized the last few times she did it, my friend had been over. I am honestly thinking that she is doing this to “mark” her territory because she wants my friend to know that this is HER room. Am I totally off in left field on this one? Or could this be a possibility? Muffin still seems to be very unsure of my friend, but not scared. Just leery of her. If she is trying to mark her territory because my friend keeps coming over, what is something I could do to help alleviate this situation? Any ideas or tips and tricks? Or will it just take time for her to realize my friend is only there temporarily and poses no threat to her living quarters? Also, same story with the cats – they are not in my bedroom often since the door is always closed, they usually only come in when i am home. One of them is very old and very cranky and could give a coco puff poo less about the rabbit so long as the bun stays away, the other cat is very intrigued (the old one comes in my room maybe once to every ten times the younger one does, the poop episodes seem to correlate more to the older cat’s presence)  Could the cats presence in my room, and particularly the old one being up on the bed and being cranky when the bun comes near, have something to do with the bed pooping issue? Again, any one have any tip, tricks, ideas, words of wisdom about my situation? Its not like bunny poo is a major issue to clean up, but I dont think she is doing this just because she needs to take a dump. I think she is trying to prove a point. But I have also been wrong many times haha. I just want her to feel comfortable in my home and not feel the need to mark her territory, so whatever I can do to facilitate that would be much desired! Thank you for taking the time to read my novel!!


      • Sarita
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        18851 posts Send Private Message

          Rabbits like to poop on beds simply because it smells most like their owners…I always recommend that owners who have this problem do not let their rabbits on the bed.

          It’s nothing at all to do with litter training either.


        • Stickerbunny
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          4128 posts Send Private Message

            Sounds like territorial marking. If she’s in the “teenager” phase still, it’s going to be common in anything with a heavy scent (bed, couch, etc)


          • Muffinz
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              Thanks for the replies! Im glad this doesnt really have anything to do with potty training. Right now my room is essentially a bunny room. I toyed with the idea of using the NIC cubes to make her an area to run around in attached to her cage but wound up just bunny proofing everything in my room instead because the way my room is laid out it was just impossible to make a pen attached to her cage. My bed also takes up 90% of my room. I really feel like if i move her to another room in the house that she won’t get the attention she deserves and I hate to leave her couped up in that cage so much. She doesn’t pee on anything on the bed so I can handle just a few coco puffs every once in a while. She has gott3n used to my friend it seems because she no longer poop on the bed after she comes over. She is an awesome bun I got really lucky!


            • LongEaredLions
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                Glad the issue has resolved itself. She sounds like a very happy bun!

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            Forum BEHAVIOR Pooping on bed when I have a friend over?