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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Free roam bunny

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    • bunnybun
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        Hi! So I’ve had my bunny Ivy for about a week now. I live in a very small studio apartment so I am letting her be free roam to my bedroom/living room area. She already has the hang of her litter box and never pees or poops on the floor (except the occasional poop) 

        The problem that I have is that my bed is right in the middle of my space. I don’t mind her hopping up there but whenever she does, she pees I think it’s because bunnies like soft things. Any suggestions on getting her to stop? or how to keep her from hopping on the bed?? Whenever I’m home and she hops up I try to shoo her off but I’m not sure what to do when I’m gone because I don’t want to always keep her in her pen.

        Thank you!!! 


      • Love4Bunny
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          She might be claiming your bed as her own… I dunno! Personally, I wouldn’t leave rabbits to free roam without supervision, lest they get into dangerous mischief or rip the house apart. Can you put levels in your pen to give your rabbit more room? Also, is she spayed?


        • Bam
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            Bunnies like to pee on beds. Getting her spayed might help. When my Bam peed on my sofa, I had to cover it with a shower curtain.


          • Kimy
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              My bunny Lilly always peed on my bed once she was spayed and 2 weeks recovery she hasent peed on my bed again it’s because your bed smells so stongly of you and she is makrking it as hers


            • Vienna Blue in France
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                Can you put your bed against a wall then close it off with xpen barriers or a plank of wood higher than she can jump? It wil seem like you are in the xpen (LOL) but atleast you’ll have a dry quilt !

                There is no way on heaven’s earth that you could train her not to jump up when you’re not there. I tried that with my exceedingly well-trained bridge dog. As long as I was there she never jumped up (without me asking her)…. when I returned after work, there was a nice warm dent in the cushion right where I normally sit….
                So I had to stand the cushions upright… could you do that with your mattress or is it too big and heavy….?


              • flemishwhite
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                  It’s just a marking incident.  When we first turned Bunny loose in the house, she was maybe 1 1/2 years old and she was just naturally litter box trained.  She took up residence in our bedroom, and for the rest of her life, the bedroom was to be her territory.   She initially would jump up on our bed and pee near our pillows.  It was a nuisance since the bed cover was sort of thick and laundering it was a big job for the washing machine.  We started covering up the bed with a plastic sheet during the day, particularly putting the plastic sheet at the top of the bed over the pillows. All of this time she was a fertile bunny.  We did this for about 6 weeks.  This was enough to stop her from the habit. It was years after this behavior that we had her neutered at the age of 5 years. 

                  Keep in mind, that bunny pee is completely bacteria free and is a sterile fluid.  This is true for pee for most animals, including humans.  The only thing “dirty” about pee is that it that it does have nutrition for bacteria and will eventually rot and make a bad smell.   Yes, our litter box trained bunnies will occasionally drop a bunny poop pellet on the floor.  If you’re adventurous, pick up a pile of bunny poops in the palm of you hand and have a smell.  Bunny poops have a herb like smell with an onion or slightly sulphurous overtone. There is no fecal smell to bunny poops.  Also, keep in mind that the principal gut bacteria for rabbits is a bacteria that transforms cellulose to glucose.  This bacteria is completely harmless to human beings.   However,  rabbits will once or twice a day clear out their cecum stomach…they have two stomachs.  The cecum is at the juncture of the small and large intestines.  It’s their largest stomach.  In humans this stomach is vestigal and not used…it’s called the appendix.  For rabbits to purge the cecum to clear out undigestible parts, the cecum has to be voided out the large intestine and rectum.  When the cecum pellet comes out their rectum, they immediately eat it for re-ingestion.  You can own a rabbit for many years and not know they are doing this. It they get too fat or have an arthritic spine, they can not bend over to eat the cecum pellet.  It’s soft and mushy and can get stuck the the hair around their rectum and they will drop it on the floor.  The cecum pellet (ceotrops..spelling?) has a bad smell..it’s full of liver bile and liver enzymes and smells a little like vomit. With our previous rabbit , she was not eating her cecum pellets due to spinal arthritis, we put her on Metacam analgesic to reduce her spinal pain and she started re-ingesting her cecum pellets again.


                • Dee
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                    Peeing on beds and couches does seem to be a favorite bunny activity. Although I would much prefer a rabbit that pews on,things to a rabbit that chews on things- although many do both ?. My bridge bunnies, BunBun and Nelli, both peed on the couch and bed at first. Then they stopped, probably after they felt things were sufficiently “claimed”. My current male bunny, Lukie, considers my bedroom to be his “home base” and lives to sleep in my bed with me. However, he has never pees on the bed or on our couch. He likes to groom the couch though lol- such a weird little thing!

                    I agree with the shower curtain/plastic sheet idea. The pee won’t sink in then, and your rabbit might not even like the feel of the bed anymore.

                    My rabbits have always been free roam, no cage at all. I have an Xpen set up only for bonding. I do need to carefully bunnyproof, but it’s so worth it!


                  • flemishwhite
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                      I am jealous that your bunny sleeps with you.    I could never get Bunny to do this.  She insisted on sleeping under the bed. On really cold winter nights I’d pick her up and put her under the covers next to us. I thought she’d like to spend in bed under the covers…..No. She’d squirm out and hop under the bed.

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                  Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Free roam bunny