SOMEONE is peeing on the carpet and their bedding... and mommy is NOT happy!

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This topic has 6sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 10 months ago by BinkyBunny.

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- 05/02/2010 at 7:49 AM
  Barbie
  Participant
  1581 posts
  Time for a litter box refresher course I suppose. In the past 3 days, I’ve cleaned up 3 accidents. Not to mention countless poops. I don’t know which one of them has decided to completely forget their litter box habits – it could be both of them – but it’s driving me nuts! I already do all the basics – hay in the litter box, litter box in a place they like to pee, extra litter boxes (they have two in their pen and two in the living room). I have noticed that the accidents seem to happen when the litter boxes are on the dirty side… so I guess I’m going to have to start cleaning them daily instead of every other day *grumble grumble* Maybe that will help, though I’m not sure… I cleaned the boxes in their cage yesterday morning and woke up to find soiled bedding in their cage this morning…. And one box was completely unused (they prefer one box over the other in their cage). I’m at my wit’s end with this though. I’m moving to a new apartment this summer and can’t afford to have them ruin the carpet there, so I have to get this little “problem” figured out in a month or so. This just started recently, in the past week or so… I know there are lots of threads about little box training, but I feel like I’m already doing the basics like everyone else suggests, so I think I need some “advanced” tips here. Do I confine them to their crate for a day or two and see if that helps?
- 05/02/2010 at 12:40 PM
  RabbitPam
  Moderator
  11002 posts
  It’s possible that they are protesting messy litter, but try to watch them both to see if one raises his/her tail to go outside the litter pan. See if you can scoop them up just before they go and put them into a litter box. I am wondering if it’s a bit of a health problem for one, who can’t get to a box in time?
  
  Let’s assume they just want it cleaner sooner. One thing you can try is to put a fresh layer of litter on top of the soiled area for the night, and see if that helps them let you go two days. I would also give a vinegar and water wash to the places that were peed on outside the boxes. And put fresh hay in one end of each litter pan to tempt them.
  
  When you move, it will be new for them anyway, so the aberrant behavior could start up anyway for other reasons. To avoid that, keep to their routines closely in the the new place, and set up their things the same way. It will help them adjust.
  
  Sammy left two piles of poos last week outside her cage, and she’s never done that before. Then it stopped. Weird animals.
- 05/02/2010 at 4:45 PM
  Barbie
  Participant
  1581 posts
  Yeah, I’m thinking it was most likely a dirty litter box protest.
  
  I have thought about a health issue, but both are eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing as usual. They’re as active as usual, and none are showing any signs of distress/pain. I called my vet (who is recommended by HRS and is a rabbit specialist) and she said that she doesn’t think it’s imperative that I bring them in right now, she said I can wait and see if anything about the situation changes.
  
  Anyway, I would think that if it were a medical issue, at least some of the accidents would have been elsewhere in the apartment, perhaps under the dining room table since they hang out all day under there or in the bathroom where the like to poke around and hang out in the dirty laundry basket The thing is, all the accidents hae been literally right next to the litter boxes. I know it’s not a problem caused by one of them not being able to hop in (even little Jeannie can jump easily over the side) and the litter box is plenty big for them both – they often sit next to each other and munch. I do have two litter boxes right next to each other in the living room and in the pen, in case they ever want their own.
  
  I already do fresh hay daily, but I’ll try sprinkling some more litter (wood stove pellets) on top of the soiled stuff to see if that allows me to change the boxes every other day rather than daily.
  
  It’s incredible how much poop and pee these little guys produce daily!
- 05/02/2010 at 11:40 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  So they can both fit in the one litterbox but they have 2 anyway? Mmm… That’s tricky because you’ve addressed alot of the possible reasons. I would try the confinement. It won’t hurt them.
  Do you have anything to protect the floor under the pen? Are these accidents only happening in the crate & pen or around the apt also?
- 05/03/2010 at 12:32 AM
  Lintini
  Participant
  3329 posts
  I bet freshening it will help the problem
- 05/03/2010 at 1:37 AM
  Barbie
  Participant
  1581 posts
  Yep, they have 4 litter boxes total.
  
  Two of the accidents were in the pen, on their bed next to the litter box. The other one was in the living room, next to the living room liter boxes. They’ve never had a problem with marking the bedding in their pen before and it’s been about a month since I washed the fleece beds, so I know it wasn’t marking, since the beds were nice and smelly already (I had to wash everything again Sunday though in light of that morning’s accident, so we’ll see what happens with that).
  
  And I use a 50/50 vinegar/water solution to clean up all pee spots (and I usually get the poop spots with the vinegar solution as well).
- 05/08/2010 at 2:35 PM
  BinkyBunny
  Moderator
  8776 posts
  Could one of them have a UTI? Sometimes peeing outside of the box is a symptom of a medical issue too. Do you notice one sitting in the box longer lately or anything a little bit out of the ordinary healthwise?
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