Does it get better?

[Heidi]

I have a female Holland lop and she is 4.5 months old. I plan on getting her spayed at 6months.

1. I thought she was litter trained at least she was, except for peeing on me that I thought she would out grow by now. Well, She still pees on me or anything of mine that is on the couch. How do I correct this, I kennel her each time but it doesn’t seem to help. She comes to me, she jumps up on the couch and insists I pet her and then she pees on me. She will also pee on my blanket or pillow on the couch. She doesn’t seem to do this to my husband or daughter.

2. She pees drips all over the place. Why is she doing this? It’s a small amount like maybe the size of a nickel in size. She does this every place no real rhyme or reason to it.

3. She is following me around the house running around my legs over and over while leaving poops as she does this (is this a hormonal issue that will correct itself after she is spayed)

4. She has begun to leave territorial poops all over again. How do I stop her from doing this, it is excessive, I kennel her for it (worked the last time) but it doesn’t seem to work anymore.

5. She ATE my carpet. She is obsessed with digging and eating my carpet. We clap our hands and tell her no then redirect her to places she can dig. She has no specific locations to wanting to do this so I can’t block off areas. But she did eat a hole in my carpet in under 5 minutes when I left the room to go to the bathroom. How do I fix this? I know bunny’s nature is to dig and chew but from everything I read prior to getting her it seemed like this was not going to be a big issue all the time and that I would be able to leave her alone for a few minutes at a time. FYI she has a ton of toys to help her with this (rug, digging box, another type of digging/chewing box and a gazillion dif toys along with a cardbord box with hay in it (she likes to graze her hay).

 

All and all I feel overwhelmed, and I am hoping it gets better. She is the sweetest bunny ever loves attention and licks my hand when I pet her. But I need to correct these issues as she is starting to spend way too much time in the kennel because I can’t stay in the room with her nonstop to make sure she is being good. Prior to the eating of the carpet I was comfortable leaving the room for a few minutes at a time, but with how fast she ate the carpet I now know I can’t take my eyes off her. I am a mother to a 4 year old so I can’t just stay in one room all the time.

[Bre]

Hi Heidi

I appreciate your post because I am having the same trouble with my 5 month old male dwarf. The territorial poops are out of control.. and he sprays pee on my cats/tries to get on top of them. It is very overwhelming as nothing seems to work, I understand your frustration!!

Looking forward to hearing from others in response to these problems!

ps. Buster is being neutered Wednesday.. I really hope this helps.

[Hazel]

She’s a bunny teenager, her hormones are out of control. All the behaviors you’re seeing are hormonal and completely normal for an intact female. Only spaying will fix this, until then you will just have to live with it and try to minimize the damage. Keep in mind that she’s not doing this to “be bad”, she’s just doing what nature tells her to, there’s no ill will behind it. Punishing her with time outs won’t have any effect on her behavior, as you have already noticed. Keeping her confined more will however help to keep her from ruining your things as much as possible.

This is a difficult time for bunny parents, and it’s also the age at which a lot of rabbits get dumped at shelters, because people don’t want to put up with it. Just remember that this is temporary, and soon after her spay you will have a happy, improved bunny.

[Mikey]

All of those are hormonal aside from the digging and biting the carpet, thats just a bunny thing. Youll want to line her pen with carboard or coroplast then put fleece over that so the bunny doesnt slide around. If shes a free roam bun, then youll have to find ways to redirect her when you see her start digging and chewing the carpet. We easily trained my oldest boy to stop by calling his name, then handing him a DIY treat ball. He focused his attention to chewing on that until he got his treat, and by then it was usually his nap time

[Heidi]

UPDATE: CornDog (bunny) has been spayed for 2months now, and she is doing so good. She is using the litter box now, no longer pees or poops all over, no longer claims me and she has stopped eating/digging at the carpet for the most part. She is a bunny so she can still be naughty, but I am happy with her progress after being spayed.

[Azerane]

Hooray, I’m so glad to hear that she calmed down so much after her surgery

[Author]

Messages