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Forum BEHAVIOR Another couch pooping (and licking) question

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    • marzipan
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        I have read a few posts about rabbits who poop and/or pee on couches (and beds) to mark it as their territory. Jack is a neutered bunny, approx 1 year old. We’ve only had him home for 5 days now, and his litter habits have been basically great since about his second full day home. He peed once on the carpet his first time out but has used his litter box to pee ever since, and while he started out marking with droppings all over his own cage he now keeps that in the box too.

        He does leave droppings almost every time he gets up on the couch. Sometimes he’ll walk along the couch, stopping to poop every few steps, and then flop down in the midst of it like he owns the world. This is hilarious until I remember that it’s my couch. It certainly seems like he’s using them to mark his territory.

        I’ve gathered that one thing to do is to remind him that the husband and I are top bunny by removing him from the couch. But I would be happy to have him up there to pet and hang out if he can refrain from marking. Also, it’s hard for me to catch him right in the act as I can’t really tell when he’s marking until he gets up and moves away from it. Will it work to move him off after that delay, just so he gets the idea that I can, or should I remove him from the couch every time? Will he eventually be able to snuggle on the couch without marking? I read somewhere, maybe here, about rubbing a cloth on them and the couch to get their scent on it, which could work, but at the moment the couch has got plenty of bunny fur and that doesn’t seem to be enough for him, at least. (Hairbuster comb coming in the mail today!)

        He has also taken to licking the couch pretty extensively, regardless of whether he’s being pet at the time, and often while working on leaving his droppings. Is the licking about territory marking as well? It is actually kind of cute and doesn’t leave much of a mess so I don’t particularly mind it, but should I stop him when he does that too? He has occasionally transitioned into biting on the piping/edge of the cushion, though it looks like he’s just trying to groom the couch.

        At least it’s a pretty plain piece of furniture, easy enough to sweep off and vacuum. Here how Jack looks up there when he’s being good:


      • litheandgraphic
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          Aww, look at his face. He looks so innocent. 

          It sounds to me like he just really, really likes that couch and would like everyone to know that he likes that couch and that he claims it for Jack. Is he “chinning” (rubbing his chin against it) too? 

          But since he’s not acting territorial / aggressive when you’re around the couch, I don’t think this is something to worry about. It’s not a bad idea to try the cloth / scent thing. You could even try to put his litterbox on the couch when he goes to it and see if he gets the hint that the box is what he’s supposed to use. But it sounds like he’s just marking, as he’s in a new place now, and after a while this will probably pass.

          Theodore used to do the same thing all around his enclosure, and after a few months of being with us, he’s now the neatest, cleanest bunny ever and exclusively uses his litterbox. So give him time. c:


        • Flopsie
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            awww he’s a bunny loaf


          • marzipan
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              I know, his meatloaf pose is really cute


            • litheandgraphic
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                Posted By Flopsie on 8/29/2014 11:05 AM

                awww he’s a bunny loaf

                A HUGE bunny loaf.


              • marzipan
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                  Well, now he’s peeing on it too.

                  Last night he was trying to walk along the back of the couch, which is okay as it’s against a wall, but he did a small pee while up there. We returned him to his cage as it was getting late anyway, but we thought maybe he was just startled by something and it was an accident.

                  This morning he was out playing as usual and then retired to “his” part of the couch (where you see him loafing in the picture above) for a nap. He was there about 30 minutes while I was sitting across the room, and I just looked over and realized there was a big wet spot with lots of droppings on it, and that he had moved forward off of it but had also peed again there. So I shooed him off the couch (ok, really I lured him back to his cage with raisins), and I have sprayed it all down with vinegar and patted that up with towels, which I hope will work to clean it and prevent staining. (Luckily it’s just a dark blue cotton cover, and the first year we had it a friend of mine spilled a full glass of red wine on it, which somehow just dried and disappeared [?], so it does seem slightly magical.)

                  Did he just get confused about his litter box? Besides these two incidents, his only other out of box pees were (1) when we very first brought him home, on a cushiony pet bed in the cage that he obviously just mistook for a litter box, and which now resides in the living room outside of the cage and has remained pee-free, and (2) on the carpet his first time ever roaming in the living room.

                  I know it’s only the first week, but I want to make sure not to reinforce bad habits. Should we just remove him from the couch when he comes up there and just have him lounge on the floor instead? I’m also considering getting a puppy pad or something to leave as a “bed” on his part of the couch, though I would really prefer if he just used his litter box! I’ve heard of people putting a litter box on the couch but I’m not really willing to do that permanently.


                • litheandgraphic
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                    Try putting his litterbox on the couch when he’s out, in the spots where he’s going, so that he uses that instead. It may also provide a source of his scent for him, so that he doesn’t feel the need to mark the couch. You could always just not allow him up there, but it sounds like you’d rather give him the option of doing so. I know it’s super annoying right now, but it’s most likely that this will stop happening after a while, once he feels like he’s secure in his area (remember, he is new to all of this!) and that the couch is sufficiently “his”.


                  • Flabebe
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                      The puppy pad could work just in case he does pee on the couch, but have you ever told him “no”? You dont have to yell it or talk in a scary, for them, tone. Just be stern and everytime take him back to his cage. Then clean up the mess. Obviously hes marking his territory, and by continuing to do this he will get the idea that he cant be around “his” couch if he pees on it! Once he feels comfortable and safe he should become a neat bun again :p


                    • marzipan
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                        One thing is I can’t always tell exactly when he’s pooping because he’ll sit in a way that looks to me like normal sitting, and by the time he moves I don’t know if it’s too late for him to connect it. Unfortunately with the pee today I didn’t notice that right away either, so he was kind of just sitting there looking innocent when I put him back in the cage, so again I wasn’t sure if he knew what it was for.

                        Our current plan is to remove him from the couch when he tries to come up here, for a while, so he knows it’s not his. That might give him some more time to settle in too. Although weirdly he hasn’t tried to come back up on the couch at all today. We were kind of joking that he’s embarrassed about the mess this morning, but who knows.

                        In general we have tried a stern no and sometimes clap when he does things like try to dig up the carpet, and he doesn’t really respond to that except perhaps to look up for a minute, though admittedly we haven’t tried also returning him to the cage when he does it.

                        We also got a clicker from the binkybunny store and have started to try to associate it with treats. I’m not sure if there’s a good way we can eventually utilize that against bad behaviors.


                      • marzipan
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                          Oops, double post. Not sure if I can remove this one…


                        • litheandgraphic
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                            Posted By marzipan on 8/30/2014 4:35 PM

                            Oops, double post. Not sure if I can remove this one…

                            You could try clicker training him so as to distract him from doing this. You should be able to notice when he’s urinating because he’ll lift his rear and tail. If this happens, you can try clicking to get him to come to you and eat instead of doing that.


                          • marzipan
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                              I think we’re just going to have a no-couch policy and get our rabbit snuggles on the floor with him. I made some fleece blankets for him and put one on “his” spot on the couch, and after a couple days of removing him from the couch we let him back up again, and after dozing on the blanket for a bit he backed up off of the blanket and peed on the couch again. Good thing I have such a big bottle of vinegar!

                              The thing is, he’s such a large rabbit that there’s no practical way to make the couch physically inaccessible to him without building a cage around it or something else extreme. Currently I just say No and pick him up off the couch and set him on the ground again when he gets up there.

                              Has anyone ever used these Snappy Trainer things to teach a rabbit to stay out of an area or off a piece of furniture? http://www.amazon.com/Snappy-Trainer/dp/B00GJVFVNA

                              I guess it flies into the air when triggered. I don’t like the idea of scaring him, but I’ve seen them recommended on some respectable sources (e.g. House Rabbit Society: http://rabbit.org/faq-training/). It would be nicer than having to pick him up or shoo him off the couch all day…


                            • litheandgraphic
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                                Hmm, I’ve never seen those used before. My primary concern would be scaring him TOO much. I also think you might be able to save some money and just make an obnoxious sound yourself when he gets on or near the couch. Nothing terribly loud, just enough to be unpleasant.

                                The puppy pad idea is also not a bad one, but you’d have to watch and make sure he doesn’t eat it. Is there any way you can drape a blanket or cover over the couch while he’s out? This way he can feel free to mark as he will and then you can just take the blanket/cover off and wash it, like you’re doing now with his one spot.

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                            Forum BEHAVIOR Another couch pooping (and licking) question