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Hi,
We have a 2.5 yr old neutered male and a 3.5 yr old spayed female. Both were fixed under a year old. We had our male as a baby and got our female when she was almost 2 years old. We bonded them about a year and a half ago now, but they’ve never really agreed on hierarchy. They’re definitely bonded as they love each other and get along like a married couple, but they seem to constantly challenge who’s in charge. Because of this, our female refuses to use the litter box. Our male is perfect. He never goes outside the box. His personality is wonderful, he’s curious, bold, affectionate. However, our female has always been timid, easily scared and has no interest in us, she only likes our male. Unfortunately, Im at my wits end with her peeing. The pooping i could get over, but her peeing outside the litter box is exhausting me. I’ve tried everything, reducing their space, moving them to a new space with no scent of them, using vinegar to deep clean everything ect… and I’ve run out of options. We absolutely love and adore Oliver, our male, and we love Lola, but it’s getting to the point where I just can’t keep this up. She’s ruining the floors and constantly cleaning is overly frustrating. I know since they’re bonded, we can’t split them up and we don’t want to get rid of them as a bonded pair, because we don’t want to lose Oliver. I don’t know what else we can try. Are there pairs that just never agree and constantly challenge each other forever? If we could split them, at this point I would, but I know that’s the worst thing we could do, but I’m just so upset. I know there’s likely nothing you can suggest, but out of desperation, I thought I would ask.
Thank you
Some bunnies are better about the litter box than others, especially with bonded pairs. It could be a variety of things and/or a combination. Does Oliver hog the litter box? Perhaps Lola chooses to pee elsewhere because he is controlling the litter box. I had that problem with a bonded pair (two boys). One would pee in another area because he was being excluded. Keep in mind that this isn’t always super obvious while observing them because the the “rules” have already been set, so you may not see blocking (for example). If you do see blocking, it can simply be one bunny gets into the box and the other hops in there with them and then crowds the first bunny. In other words, it may not be something that looks overly aggressive. If that makes sense.
Or Lola could be feeling territorial and marking. This is entirely possible too. Poop wars are no joke! LOL
Have you tried adding a second litter box? Or using a very large litter box (think under the bed storage box)? Sometime washable pee pads for dogs can help in these situations if the peeing is primarily in one spot, but it’s hard to put a litter box there.
It’s possible. I’ve never thought about that. I have tried putting a second litter box in before and she still peed outside of it, so I removed it, but it’s still possible that he might be chasing her out. I’ve always just assumed it was territorial as he will periodically start chasing her while humming and trying to mount her, nip at her and fur pull a bit (not often). I’ve read that females generally are the bosses, but Oliver definitely feels he should be, so I just guessed that Lola was asserting herself over him. I thought once they were bonded, that this would stop, but it’s been over a year now and it’s just exhausting. I will maybe try an under the bed storage container and see if that helps. I’ve tried the puppy pee pads, but Oliver will chew them and I am worried about that. So I’m not sure what else to do.
Are your buns free roam? If they live in a pen (or at least thats where the litter box is and the peeing is happening) you could try laying a fleece blanket over the pee pads so he doesn’t chew them.
My first thought was a second litter box, too. Do you use any sort of bedding in the litter box? Perhaps she is opposed to that if you do, or maybe trying some sort of softer paper bedding would help if you don’t already.
Does Oliver hump and nip at her when she tries to use the litter box or just in general?
They are free roam during the day. I’m a stay at home Mom and homeschool my boys, so we’re home a lot and they’re out, but they’re in a 10×4 area at night. It uses to be a 10×12 area, but I was told to reduce the area to start over again and see if that helped. It did for about 2 days, then she started peeing again. She pees right outside the litter box and right by their water beside their hay. She never pees anywhere else in the house. I’ve never seen Oliver nip or hump her in or near the litter box. It’s just in general and it’s not all the time either. They’ll go stretches where they’re content and then all the sudden he’s chasing her. Sometimes she’s cleaning him and others it’s him cleaning her and sometimes they’re both cleaning each other. So I’m really not sure who’s the boss. I really don’t want to get into washing blankets on top of everything else ideally. The strange thing is that she’s gone over a month before without peeing anywhere. I don’t understand why.
Ah, ok, then at least if its just right outside, you could just cover the one small area and might not be as bad to keep up with versus several or a whole cage. Maybe the reusable pee pads would work, like someone else mentioned.
I think sometimes bunnies have arguments, the same as humans. We have a bonded pair, 2 boys, and 98% of the time, they are super loving and snuggly. But, then for seemingly no reason, one of them gets grumpy and will nip/chase/hump the other. Then they go right back to snuggling shortly after.
A very large litter tray might help. We use the bottom of one of them pet store rabbit cages repurposed as a big hay station and they really seem to enjoy all the space, perhaps something like that could help. I couldn’t upload a photo here but there is a pic of them in their hay station tray on my profile if you want to see the size. Have you noticed if she uses it more on the day it’s changed? Some bunny’s can also be very picky about wanting a very clean tray, we had a a bun in the past that wouldn’t go in their tray if it had been longer than 2 days since it was changed. Final thought, some bunnies do not like jumping into a tray, usually only when they are arthritic but a low entrance might be another solution. We had to cut down the side of our tray almost flat for our girl with arthritis to actually use it. Hope you find a solution!
I agree with Greg the Lionhead I’ve bonded six rabbits and I have five litters. I have two rabbits that will pee constantly on the floor drives me nuts the others they seem to be OK my one girl she stands outside of her litter and eats the hay. Maybe yours is doing the same I have a large high sided cat litter. I’ve seen all six of them in one. I don’t know how they eat the hay like that but and then I’ve only seen one. I’m just wondering though also, are you sure that your rabbits are bonded and not just getting along? not trying to offend just a question 😇 i’m going to cut my litter boxes down make it easier for them to get in cause I really don’t think they like that part having to jump in. I wish you good luck and really hope you find a solution to keep them together with you.
I believe they’re bonded…I mean, they snuggle, they clean each other, they are always together, but at the same time, it seems they are always challenging each other. Our female is more fearful and our male is very curious and brave. So he’s usually the one who is in charge, but she’ll occasionally challenge him. I caught her draping herself over him the other day and she’ll hump his face and chase him, but then she’ll clean him later on. I added a second litter box again and it helped for a short while, then she started peeing again. I have always spot cleaned their litter boxes daily and then fully clean them every other day, because I thought she was being a diva, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. She jumps in fine. It’s either he’s guarding the box and not letting her in or she’s maybe peeing on purpose. I’ve kind of just given up if I’m honest. I put down a rubber backed mat and I just remove it every so often and soak it in watered down cleaning vinegar, rinse it and leave it in the sun to dry. It’s working fine, although I would absolutely love for her to stop.
Just to chime in on the off chance it helps: my two girls also got along fine but would still get into occasional spats, mostly over food. Only one of them would try to hump, but they didn’t have an obvious “boss” between them. I did notice they would sometimes guard the litterbox from each other; usually one would already be in the box and when the other would come up to eat, they would kind of hunch down and pin their ears flat and grunt. In my set-up I use two XL cat litterboxes (~22 inches long) next to each other in one corner of their regular area, and they would kind of rotate between them– sometimes sharing one box, sometimes separate. At one point they started getting more aggressive with food and just seemed to be annoying each other more in general, so I had to mix up the feeding routine and moved one of the litterboxes to a different spot, a good 6-8 ft away. I figured it would be harder for one bun to guard two boxes at once. If I caught the behavior I would coax the bun that was pushed away to the unoccupied box. After a while (maybe a few weeks) they got way better about it. You might not have the same amount of space, but I wonder if rearranging their area occasionally would kind of break the routine a bit and reduce the guarding behavior– I noticed you said the peeing would stop for a couple of days after you reduced their space or added a second litterbox.
If it truly is territorial behavior, I wonder if your girl is feeling insecure. Outside of the litterbox behavior, there might be other stuff you can do to kind of reassure them and reinforce their bond, like: feeding treats simultaneously (instead of one bun before another), or petting them when they shove their faces against/under each other, waiting for the other to groom them (my girl Mischa would escalate to nipping if she felt she wasn’t getting groomed enough, which could sometimes cause a chase). One thing I also do is just verbally praise them when they’re doing what I want: taking appropriate turns grooming, actually sitting IN the litterbox and not just outside it. I can’t say for sure that it makes a difference, but I feel like it does!
Good luck and hope it works out!
I found our female on a rehoming bunny fb group in our area. We wanted a spayed female and she was the only spayed available at the time. So we took her and I fear she was neglected quite a bit as she’s very distrusting of humans. She only likes Oliver. We have tried just sitting with her and giving her treats etc but it’s been over 2 years now and if I go near her, she flips her back feet at me and goes and hides. When I have to pick her up to clip her nails, she breathes rapidly and wimpers. Oliver is very social and loves running around the house. She stays in their room and won’t venture out. Her previous owner admitted to only cleaning her litter box every 3-5 days, so I thought it was based on that, that she likes a clean litter box, which is why I clean it daily, but I do think it’s something more. I have 2 litter boxes and they tend to use the one more than the other and they’re side by side. I have moved one to another spot she would pee thinking it would help and she still peed just in front of it. I caught her just recently just running over to the spot and peeing, so I am at a loss. Her box was clean and Oliver was no one near her. I figure that this is just her and so we have to live with it. The rubber mat has made it a bit easier to deal with as it’s easier to clean than blankets etc that get covered in fur. Again, it would be great for her to stop, but I have tried everything and although she has stopped for weeks before, she starts again, so I have accepted it now. We still love her despite her hating us lol and peeing. She’s still super cute and Oliver loves her.
