Peeing Binky and Cat humping :/

Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS. SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED. We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best.

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time.

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

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.

What are we about? Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules.

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 8sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 9 months ago by Unikatze.

Viewing 8 reply threads

Author

Messages
- 07/31/2018 at 12:16 PM
  Unikatze
  Participant
  13 posts
  Hi guys,
  
  First time posting.
  
  My Girlfriend and I recently adopted a lovely 8 year old Bunny named Allowishus Alfonsus Ignatius, or Wish for short.
  
  He’s a lovely bunny and we’ve fallen in love with him.
  We also own two cats, who also love him, and things had been going on well so far.
  
  Wishy isn’t neutered, and the one vet in town won’t neuter him because she doesn’t feel comfortable doing it. So far this hadn’t been TOO much of a problem, he has his stuffed animals he uses to fulfill his needs, and only we just kind of dealt with his binky pees. He does pee on the couch though.
  
  Now he’s gotten a bit worse. We just moved to a place with a carpet and he has been peeing on them. We have banned him from the couch, and has also started peeing on the cats and trying to hump them.
  Today he decided he wanted to start eating cat food so we had to start putting it up high.
  
  We were thinking of buying him some diapers, since that would solve both the peeing and the humping. But then I read another thread about how it’s only a good idea to keep the diaper on during play time as it shouldn’t stay on him too long. The thing is, Wishy doesn’t have a play time, he’s just free roaming around the house, so we don’t exactly know when the pees are going to happen, and we don’t want to leave him with a peed diaper on all day.
  
  Alternatively he could be kept in his house when we’re not around, and just let him out when we’re home with a diaper on.
  
  Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
- 07/31/2018 at 9:04 PM
  kurottabun
  Participant
  908 posts
  Welcome to the world of binky bunnies That name is such a mouthful but it does sound like a name meant for a king lol!
  
  I don’t think it’s a good idea to put a diaper on a perfectly healthy bunny – they are often only used as a last resort for bunnies who are ill and can no longer take care of their hind areas well. Even then, some people have chosen not to use them and just clean the rear more frequently to prevent infections etc.
  
  The behaviours you mentioned are all hormonal and is natural for a sexually matured bunny. For some it goes away with age, but for some it’s constant until they are fixed. I suggest finding the next nearest rabbit savvy vet and getting him neutered. If you’re comfortable to share your location here, there are many people who can assist in finding a rabbit savvy vet for you. Fixing him will most likely resolve both the humping and bad litter habits but due to his age, the vet may have to run a few tests or checks to see if he’s healthy enough to go under.
  
  He could also be displaying these behaviours because of the move. A change of environment often triggers bad habits all over again, so perhaps it would eventually die down once he’s more used to the area. Meanwhile you could try providing him with some extra things to chew (apple sticks, willow balls, cardboard boxes, toilet paper tubes etc) so he can view those as chewables instead of the carpet.
- 08/01/2018 at 4:06 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  I agree with Kurotta, it’s not at all fair to put a diaper on a healthy bunny. It could cause problems like urine burn where the pee stays too close to his skin, and would stop him eating his cecatropes which are very important to rabbit gut health.
  
  His behaviour is likely because he’s not neutered, but you can still work on litter training him. Have you been trying to litter train at all? It might be harder as he’s older, but most rabbits will eventually pick up the concept of a litter tray if you’re consistent with it.
  
  I also second the opinion of finding a rabbit savvy vet – I doubt the humping will stop otherwise.
- 08/01/2018 at 8:11 AM
  Unikatze
  Participant
  13 posts
  Thanks for the replies.
  
  I know Wishy has a Prostate issue,, but I’m not aware if that’t the reason why the vet doesn’t want to neuter him or if it’s because she just has no experience with rabbits.
  
  I did meet a different vet who was in town before who was willing to neuter him. But we had just gotten him at the time and his previous owner had said he was too old for it. Also that vet said it shouldn’t stop the Binky peeing, and we didn’t have humping issues back then, so we thought it wasn’t necessary.
  
  I live in the Canadian Arctic, the closest vet other than my current one is 2000 km away (1240 miles) so neutering doesn’t seem like an option at the time.
  But if you think it can still be done. My town is Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.
  
  The cats themselves are starting to defend themselves and running away from him when he tries to hump them. So it may not be a problem much longer. The main issue is the binkying on the carpet. He doesn’t actually squat to pee outside of his litter boxes as far as I can tell. (he’s not chewing on it, just peeing, he has plenty fo stuff to chew on and is pretty good about it)
- 08/01/2018 at 10:52 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  Why is binkying on the carpet an issue? (A binky is when a bunny does a happy jump or hop into the air – do you mean something else?)
  
  The 2000km does make it more problematic!
- 08/01/2018 at 12:09 PM
  Wick & Fable
  Moderator
  5820 posts
  I believe the binky-pee is a way of describing spraying, where the rabbit jumps in the air and sprays pee when doing a rotation. Wick did this, and that’s how I know what his pee tastes like, haha.
  
  Spraying is a hormonal driven behavior, therefore neutering would most likely reduce or eliminate the behavior. Wick stopped after the neuter. This makes me question why a rabbit vet would say neutering would not stop the behavior, unless they are not as rabbit savvy as they say, or they misunderstood and think you just mean a regular binky, which is a behavior that’s different than spraying.
  
  Binkying is a jump/twist in the air to express a burst of energy.
  
  Spraying is projecting pee across a large area, which can come from an aerial body rotation.
  
  The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 08/02/2018 at 7:34 AM
  Unikatze
  Participant
  13 posts
  We’ve never seen him binky without peeing.
  He jumps, twists and pees.
  This is something his previous owner warned us about. That he would usually start circling us and we had to run or he would “ninja pee”, which is the jump-twist with a spray. As far as we know it’s a sign of affection.
  He’s started doing it to the cats now that he’s bonded more with them as well. And we can’t get mad at him for doing it because it means he loves us.
- 08/02/2018 at 9:41 AM
  Wick & Fable
  Moderator
  5820 posts
  He’s quite the sprayer it seems. Unfortunately, the only way to really reduce it is by neutering. I understand from experience that it’s not realistic to distract the rabbit or run away when the circling begins. Have you contacted exotic vets further away? Your rabbit, assuming he’s healthy, is not too old to be neutered.
  
  The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 08/02/2018 at 1:00 PM
  Unikatze
  Participant
  13 posts
  Yeah, we just used a carpet cleaner over the weekend and spot cleaned everywhere he peed when we were out of town two weeks ago (he seemed to have gone on a spree). And then yesterday had to re-do it because he had been at it again. We’re considering keeping him locked in his room when we’re out of the house and just letting him out when we’re home.
  The running away usually works actually, he will start running after us in a playful manner. But the cats don’t know they have to do it.
  
  My girlfriend just had the idea that the Humane Society here sometimes brings vets up to do community neutering and maybe one of the vets that comes up could have Rabbit experience. We’ve tken him to checkups and he’s healthy other than the prostate issue.
  
  Flying him down to Ottawa would be very expensive and a logistical nightmare.
Author

Messages

Viewing 8 reply threads

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.