Ok so Drue has been free ranging it from morning til night since Thursday.  He gets along great with the dogs and so we just gate him into the kitchen when we’re going out since we’re not willing to risk letting him stay out with the dogs.  Anyway, at night I pen him up into the bunny condo.  Tucker knows when it’s Drue’s bedtime because that’s also pellet time..so of course she runs to the top condo..because that’s her favorite.  Well, I figured Drue gets to be out all day and she doesn’t so I might as well let her get the pick of the condos at night.   Well, Thursday night that was fine with Drue, he went in there and all was well.  Then last night he went in there fine..didn’t have to coerce him to go in there but when I woke up there was poop EVERYWHERE in that lower pen!  He had a clean litter box, barely any poops in there..he just didn’t use it!  What could be causing this??  He has excellent litter habits, this is completely not like him.  Is this in retaliation of getting the lower condo??    Is it in retaliation of being locked up at night when he’s out all day??  Is it something else?  I’m  not quite sure what it could be.  There is NO pee outside the litter box,  so I don’t think it’s that he’s having problems getting to the box.  It’s like he’s choosing to just poop all over the place in there.  He’s been out all day so far and has not pooped outside his box at all.  He’s gone back to the box no matter what room he’s in. 

I was thinking about letting him stay out in the kitchen all night.  But..my worry with that is that after Tucker is spayed and they are bonded she won’t be allowed out like that unless she seriously calms down with her chewing.  I’d have eaten away baseboards and chair legs if she was allowed in the kitchen overnight.  So, I’d like him to stay in the habit of having to go into some kind of enclosure at night, I’d hate to let him have all that added freedom just to have to turn around and take it away down the road.  The during the day freedom I hope to be able to keep up with Tucker once their bonded.  Atleast to all areas except the couch..but we’ll figure that out when the time comes. 

Anyway, if I keep putting him in the lower condo do you think he’ll learn to accept that and stop pooping all over?  Or would it be better if I just let Tucker have the top condo during the day and make her go into the lower pen at night and give Drue his top condo back.

For a bit of back story for those who don’t know…Drue and Tucker have switched back and forth every other night between the top pen and the lower pen.  We’ve figured this will get them used to each other’s scents and have them not gain that much of a territorial feeling over either cage.  They both LOVE the top cage though and greatly prefer that to the lower pen, which has a shelf but other then that is mostly an open topped pen.   The smell of each other has never bothered them before.  I do not change the litter boxes each time they are switched and I don’t change their blankets, toys, stuffies, nothing.  I leave everything the same.  She never seems bothered by it and he never has these poop outbursts before either.  They both cuddle with each other’s stuffies and blankets and never have shown a dislike of  the other’s scent..so I don’t think that’s anything to do with it. 

They have recently started “playing” between the gate.  Since I am down here all the time I have had the NIC grids making a big giant pen for Tucker to play in.  It’s attached to the pen/condo area.  Drue will run around the outside and Tucker has run around the inside and they’ll run around and follow each other and binky from each side.  Since this has started Tucker’s also been lounging in the open area more..before she’d always lounge in her condo.  Tucker started to growl the one time but Drue didn’t return any agression..so again I don’t think this has anything to do with his pooping all over but I guess that is a change that happened yesterday.