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Mr. Bun-Bun has always had issues with urinating in unnecessary places, but his behavior as of late has escalated to the point where I consider him a “problem child.” He’s been with me for 4 full months now and his behavior has definitely changed. He’s peeing on the couch on a daily basis again, I finally took the couch cover off so I can just wipe down the couch when needed (it’s leather, which I don’t use, but my friend left this couch here and I’m certainly not buying a fabric couch now with this pee-machine in residence!) He pees in other corners often now, and usually pees on the couch more than once per day.
The thing that bothers me the most is his aggressive behavior towards the cats. Misha (my sick kitty) has smacked him a couple times, with claws withdrawn, and messes with him (e.g. crouching in his favorite corners when she knows he’s out of his cage.) With animals it’s always a territory battle, I understand that, and the bunny and cats have snoozed quite close to one another, so it’s not escalated to a dangerous point. But over the past few days Bun-Bun has chased the cats out of the kitchen! Literally – he lunged at them and rounded them up until they left. This is bad because their litter boxes are in the room past the kitchen, and their food is in the kitchen, so I can’t let him feel like it belongs to him only. My poor cat Misha is very sick and I don’t want her to spend her last months (hopefully years, fingers crossed) being depressed because of this.
I guess I know the answer to this – keep him in his condo more. Once he’s been out of his condo for an hour or so he doesn’t protest if I put him back in there, just munches on his hay and chills. And he doesn’t really misbehave until he’s been out for a few hours. Ideally I’d like him to be out for longer every night!
So what’s the change? He got fixed over 3 months ago!
Here he is after eating with his fat tummy, it’s not all bad. I feel bad cooping him up longer, but I’ll do it if it’ll make a difference?
my bunny Chance is a pain in the you know what too.i just put her back to her pen because everytime i let her out,she poops and pees everywhere.its tiring that i have to follow her around and pick up her mess.ugh!i try to let her out more often but she just gets to my nerves.well she’s not spayed yet so that might be one of the reasons.by january she will be spayed so im just going to be more patient with her.
do you have any other bunnies?your bunny might be territorial marking.can you just block him off of the couch when he’s out?he probably smells something on the couch that he’s not happy with. maybe your bunny needs a litterbox training refresher course? ![]()
No other bunnies, just the 2 cats. I don’t want to banish him from the couch because that’s where he also crawls in my lap for snuggles. This morning it occurred to me that he thinks it’s a game. He’s been very playful lately, and he loves it when I chase him, he binkies away from me until he lets me “catch” him. Today I caught him on the couch just hanging out. When I said “Get down!” he did two binkies. It was actually really cute. I understand that he enjoys marking things, if it were up to him the whole house would be covered with pee. I guess I’ll just let him out of the cage for no more than 2 hours at a time, then put him back in for a break. I can’t think of anything else.
Hopefully spaying will help your bunnies’ behavior, but like I said it didn’t help with mine! You’re right, it is tiring. I’m definitely spending more money on paper towels and laundry!
I think it’s definitely age related – he’s neutered but he’s still young and naughty. I understand you want him on the couch, but I would prohibit it if he’s peeing on it – that’s not a behavior you want to reward.
Don’t think of his condo as discipline – make it a place he enjoys being. I don’t have cats but I think the attitude towards the cats is very typical of the rabbit/cat relationship. I think the aggression is just instinct, I am a prey animal and you are a predator and I have to defend myself and this is the way I do it.
If anything I think he thinks of the condo as a reward! I always get him to go in by giving him some pellets, maybe if I’m doing it right after he pees on the couch he thinks he’s being rewarded. It takes a couple minutes to do that so I didn’t think it was being linked in his brain but maybe it is. As long as he’s been out for at least an hour, he’ll sit and munch on hay in there without protesting.
I just thought of something else too, recently I caught one of my cats about to go in his condo, she was halfway in before I pulled her out. Mr. Bun-Bun saw that and bolted back to guard the door. Maybe since she tried to infiltrate territory that’s supposed to be his only, he amped up the aggression.
Oh and good point about him still being young too, I didn’t think of that. He has become a LOT more hyper recently, but that could be due to a combination of all the things I mentioned… who knows.
I bet you are right about the rewards….that’s kind of funny too.
Do you have a litter box for Bun-Bun in the area where he gets to roam? If a box is in the same room as your couch maybe Bun-Bun would opt for the box? Of course bunny pee is flourescent orange too lol, which I am sure makes this marking even more of a problem
. Good luck!
He’s basically litter-trained, but unfortunately thinks the entire couch is also his litterbox. Lately I’m not letting him get up there, he’ll jump up and I immediately scoop him in my lap, or shoo him off. He also frequently pees right in FRONT of one of his litterboxes (as well as in it.) I don’t know if I should break down and get another box? 3 for one level of the condo seems excessive!
I’m going to my parents’ house for a couple days, I’m hoping the change of routine will calm him down. He loves to run and binky in their house with all the carpeting, and never peed anywhere there (knock on wood.)
Lately his chasing the cats is a bigger problem. He has no backup plan, I don’t want the cats to turn on him (so far they haven’t, but they could?!?) He seriously lunges and chases them everywhere. He even lunged at my roommate the other day! He really just wants the apartment to be me and him only!
I would say him wanting you and a space to have you in is a pretty big bunny compliment, haha!
Could getting up on the couch for your response and chasing the cats be play for him?
The litterboxes in his condo, how big are they?
He definitely thinks the couch is a play area because I’ve caught him doing binkies up here before. But with the cats he’s being aggressive. When he first came here he would run around them in circles more playfully… that’s when my cat would swat his butt. Now he’s being aggressive because he’ll catch sight of a cat, perk his ears all intensely, then crouch along the ground with his ears flat and lunge towards them, then keep chasing them no matter where they run!
I think it’s more him coming into his personality because he’s comfortable. In his prior situation I know for a fact the girl provided him with exercise and good nutrition, but she was unwell and would have spells where she would stay in bed for days – literally – and he was in his little cage the whole time. Then when he was at the clinic I took care of him, but was only there 4 days a week, and at night he’d be in the dark in his little cage for 15 hours! Now he’s in bunny heaven even though he can’t be free range, he’s still spoiled and happy. I never saw him binky, sprint, toss his head, or flop until he had been here in my apartment for a couple weeks. And yeah I’m lucky, he definitely loves me!
His litterboxes are those plastic pans used in hospitals, big enough for him to sit in with room to spare.
