Welcome followmelevi!

#1 – He is likely pooping outside his cage to mark his territory. This has been happening to me alot lately because I am trying to bond two rabbits and they are vying for space! This means minefields for me the innocent bystander! lol

#2 – Rabbits also mark territory by rubbing their scent on it from their chins. (i think this the right way to explain it, if not im sure somone will correct me) so its all about territory

#3 – Not sure why this occurs, but it happens sometimes. Just try to not let him eat a peed on piece of food and it should fix itself as he is more secure that his area is marked. (someone correct me if im wrong!)

In any case, welcome…I hope i’ve been some what helpful and I encourage you to ask more questions because this community here is extremely knowledgeable.

Joe

welcome here!

i agree with what chinphat said!  it sounds very territorial.  is he your only animal?

the chin thing is call "chinning".  there are scent glands inder the chin that secrete a scent on "their" stuff.  it doesn’t leave a mark or discernible scent for humans, just for buns.  that behavior may diminish after neutering.

i’m not sure about the not "pottying where they eat" thing.  i had the opposite thought because they like to chew hay while they do their business.  (speaking of which… that’s a good way to encourage litter habits, put some fresh hay in the litterbox!)  my rabbit will eat wherever i put her food, next to the litterbox, far away from it.  she doesn’t care and it never affects her potty habits.

the testicles drop at about 3 and a half months, so they can neutered that early in most cases.  i think at five months he is definitely ready.  do you have a vet for him yet?  you may want to find one soon if you haven’t already.  they are going to want to do an initial exam before setting up the neuter.  you can ask your questions then.  the sooner the better, because some vets are booked for months ahead of time.

if you’re in the US, you can go to the HRS website, rabbit.org to find rabbit vets in your area.  outside of the US, i’m not sure, someone else can post a link for you.

Without shaving him, I do not think there is an easy way to tell… (A vet can tell you…but im not sure if they will just shave his belly as well)

Rabbits in my opinion are never happy to be picked up…I think its because they are prey animals…so being picked up is like they are about to be eaten. Obviously this doesnt mean you shouldnt pick up your rabbit for its nail clippings or moving it to its pen etc, just be mindful that they will always kick instictively. I’ve read somewhere ( i dont recall where) that they can kick hard enough to injure themselves so be very careful on how you pick them up. I think there is an example of the bunny burrito somewhere in the FAQ section of the website. It essentially uses a towel to wrap the rabbit before picking it up.

welcome

thought i’d add in about the territorial pooping… neutering is an obvious help to this behaviour, but also this will happen when bunnies expand their territory (free roam space).  they want to claim it all for themselves   i’ve noticed that my bun will gradually slow down leaving bb’s  all about if i diligently sweep em up as often as possible.  sometimes a change in the environment (furniture / litter rearranging…) will cause a reoccurance of this too. 

about the food & litter… since day one my bun has had the habit of peeing into any dish left in her litter area.  whether it had water or food in it.  little devil.  lol.  so i bought a hopper for her pellets & a water bottle.  now, for some reason, she prefers to drink out of the bowl i serve her greens in, as i always douse them liberally in water.  this bowl is placed away from her litter so she has never perched on it to pee. 

when you have to pick your bunny up – and as you spend more & more time with him he’ll trust you a little more (altho lots o buns never like being picked up incl mine) – how do you do it?  it can be tricky since swiftness is key, but generally if you place one hand under the chest and scoop their bum with the other hand so their back thumpers are heels up, they won’t be able to scratch you.  once you have him scooped you can shift the hand under his bum slightly to brace his back thumpers.  this will prevent him from kicking out into the air which, if done furiously enough, could cause injury. 

glad you joined up here… this place is a great resource & has lot of bunny people

Welcome fellwomelevi!! You’ve gotten some good adice!!

Do you have any pics of PandaBear you want to share?

My little guy got neutered at 4 months. I assumed everything would be compact and hard to see with all that fur (and I hadn’t really checked for anything) but a few days before his appointment, I picked him up and flipped him over, and screamed…

“Oh my gosh, what is THAT? I think he has a tumor! TWO OF THEM! Oh…wait. EWWWW!!!”

Ha ha, there’s was NO missing them!

oh my word.  he is too cute!  my suggestion would be to take him to the vet for a check-up, and you can ask them to trim his nails while there (my vet trims nails at every appt. as a courtesy.  yours might too, or might charge a small fee.)  it’s not easy to work on potty issues without the animal being altered.  it can be done, it will just take a long time and a lot more work on your part.

most rabbits do not like being picked up ever.  the best thing is to interact on their level.  get on the ground with him, let him explore you.  you can start gaining his trust by lightly petting him and not trying to pick him up.

i’m linking the HRS faq on shy rabbits.  it has some good tips on gaining trust… and it’s quicker than me typing everything out… lol!

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/shy.html

ooo he’s verrry adoreable!  baby bun was an extremely frisky & wiggly bunny too.  now that she’s 7yrs old we’ve got an understanding and she tolerates pick ups that are under 30 sec long… lol.  but it took a long long time to work upto it.  the best advice i can think of (and i’m certainly no expert… just a bunny mum) is to spend as much time with him as possible on the floor letting him come up & sniff you and NOT touching him or picking him up.  just let him get more & more used to you on an up-close-and-personal basis.  then gradually start to ‘practice’ picking him up.  maybe once out of every 4 one-on-one sessions… then once out of every 3 sessions… then every other session but not more often than this.  you may well already do this, in which case i’d say keep it up & ‘hang in there’!  he’ll likely never like getting picked up but i’m sure throughout the process you’ll eventually find the best technique that works for your particular bun.  i think the frequency is important since the most progress i made with my wiggly worm, out of the last 7 yrs, was last oct / nov when i had to pick her up to give her daily meds after her surgery.  before that i resigned to picking her up only occasionally for a quick kiss (i knew i HAD to get used to doing it no matter what) but with the meds it was at a frequency of 2x per day for a week.  since then she doesn’t even try to bolt when i approach her!  well unless she wants to play that is

I just wanted to say welcome followmelevi! You’ve gotten some great advice, spend lots of time on the floor with your rabbit to build trust and get your Panda Bear to warm up to you a bit more, neutering will help with the marking and friendliness too. : )

Your bunny is reaching sexual maturity and therefore this behavior is most likely due to that – causing him to become more territorial which includes marking.

As far as rabbits pooping not near their food dish, that is a new one. I know that is the way it is for other animals, but rabbits, being prey animals actually find it more efficient to poop where they eat, plus since their digestive tract is always on the move, when stuff is going in, stuff is more likely to come out…soooo that’s why it’s a good idea to put hay in their litterbox or in a hay rack that hangs over their litterbox – so they CAN eat while they poop.

Rabbits, in general, are not fond of being picked up, but it is a good idea for you to get him used to it if possible just so you can do nail trims etc. It could be the way you are picking him up too that makes it easier for him to get free and feel unstable. Be sure while you are practicing picking him up to stay low to the ground (kneeling or sitting) so that just in case he makes a break for it he doesn’t fall too far.

I am actually working on a video to show how to pick up bunnies which includes all different kinds (large, aggressive, fearful, etc)  Different methods can work better in different situations, but for now I found two youtube videos that demonstrate it pretty well.  The first one though should be done quickly – she is going slowly for demonstration, but for the safety of your bunny, you need to move confidently and quickly.  The second one is good if your bunny doesn’t bite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdt0XKNlfRY&NR=1

http://youtube.com/watch?v=394WrfWmXKE