Beyond desperate for help

[akat]

My rabbit has literally destroyed my house and my mental health and I don’t know what to do anymore. I know this is a lot; please bear with me.

I rescued my first bunny (4 y/o & spayed) three years ago. She seemed lonely, so I adopted a second bunny (3; also spayed) over a year ago. They get along fine. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re “bonded” or go out of their way to play together (no matter how hard I’ve tried to make it happen), but they never fight or show physical aggression towards each other. They’ll sit next to each other and share food and toys, but that’s about it.

However…since the day they started sharing their space (they have free roam of my upstairs sitting area, bedroom, and the hallway in between the two), my first bunny has become so territorial that she’s destroyed quite literally everything and absolutely refuses to use her litter box.

And yes, I have tried. I have tried so, so hard to re-litter train her. I’ve closed her in a playpen (both alone and with her “friend”) for weeks at a time with nothing but multiple litter boxes, and she will not do it. She pees right in front of it, every single time. No matter how clean the boxes are, no matter how many I give her, or how much I shampoo her pee out of my carpet, or how much vinegar I use to neutralize the smell…nothing. And she knows how to use a litter box; she used to use it meticulously. It’s just like she’s choosing not to now that she has to share her space. But how has she not gotten used to this?

The peeing everywhere is the worst part, but it’s nowhere near the end of the list. She has gotten so much more destructive that no amount of bunny-proofing can prevent it, though she has every rabbit toy imaginable. She was not always this way, and it’s gotten far beyond normal rabbit destruction.

I don’t have space to be able to enclose her in a playpen that’s suitable to live in permanently, or space to have separate/divided areas for her and my other bunny. And any time I’ve put her in playpens or taken any of “her space” away, she gets extremely aggressive and will pounce and grunt at me, scratch and bite me, scratch the floor, and rattle the cage bars for hours on end.

This rabbit went from always making me the happiest to making me sob tears of frustration every day for over a year. I am at such a loss and I feel like I’m out of solutions. I’ve brought this to so many other forums to no avail. I’m quite literally losing my mind and I cannot keep scrubbing and shampooing my carpets every day of my life. She’s done irreversible damage to a house I don’t own, and I have no idea what to do anymore. Please, please help.

[DanaNM]

Hi there, I’m so sorry you are having issues with your buns.

So, just to clarify, it sounds like you have two unbonded rabbits? If your buns don’t groom each other or cuddle, it sounds like they are in a tolerance phase of living together, which would explain a ton of the behaviors you are seeing. If your bunnies are truly un bonded, not only are the issues you described unlikely to get better, but the situation is very dangerous for your rabbits, because a fight could break out at really any moment. That sounds dramatic I know, but it happened to me and one of my buns was really badly injured (I thought my pair were bonded but they weren’t).

When unbonded buns are forced to interact or share space, you will often see tons of marking and lots of other territorial (destructive behavior).

In my opinion, your options are:

1. fully bond your rabbits. this would involve working with them in a completely neutral territory, and possibly getting help from an expert. If you post a bit more info about what you did originally to bond them we can certainly try to help you here.
2. fully separation of living spaces and no interaction between them (but you mentioned this isn’t really possible in your living space).
3. Rehome your newer rabbit. Unless your buns are properly bonded, your original bun will likely continue to be territorial. I do want to confirm with you that they aren’t bonded, because a bonded pair should never be split up.

. . . 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.  

[akat]

Thank you so much for your response.

No, I do not think they are truly bonded, and I don’t know how to get them from tolerating each other to actually being a bonded pair.

For the first couple of weeks I had them separated by a gate so they could see and smell each other (but again, this didn’t provide them enough space for it to be a permanent setup).

They were introduced in a playpen in a neutral territory for just a few minutes the first time, then gradually expanded their space and the time they’d spend together in the enclosure. I believe by the end they’d been in the pen for almost two weeks together. They had started to groom each other a bit with no chasing or aggression, and they’d both been using their litter boxes.

I gradually gave them access to what was once just one bunny’s territory, but obviously she did not take this very well, and they went into this phase of just tolerating each other.

I’ve tried to start from the beginning with bonding several times now, but it feels like I can’t force a bond now that they’re already tolerant of each other. I’ve also tried “stress bonding,” like taking them in the car in one carrier, but this did nothing (except maybe make them a little mad at me).

Is there anything different I should doing to bond them since they’ve already been living together for a year?

Thank you again.

[DanaNM]

Hmm, yeah that is tricky. I’m really not sure, because it’s pretty rare for buns to be in this tolerance phase for so long without fighting. If possible, you could try taking them to a friend’s house and see how they do in a completely neutral space?

. . . 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.  

[LBJ10]

I agree with Dana. This does sound like territorial behavior. Some bunnies deal with things differently. Instead of trying to pick a fight, she is desperately marking and destroying things instead.

It may help if they are taken to a completely different location so you can bond them. Someone else’s house would be ideal, but you could also see if a rescue could help you as well. The “trauma” of being in a strange place combined with the neutrality of it may be enough to trigger them to comfort one another.

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