Bobo the Bad Bunny – peeing & free roam

[CojoCinder]

Hi all!

First time bunny owner here! My husband and I bought a Flemish Giant bunny and he’s just turned 3 months old. It’s taking some getting used to, since we don’t know much about bunnies, and we have 2 Goldendoodles who are very jealous of Boris.

He has a small cage where he sleeps with a circular playpen attached to it. It has a thick canvas bottom. Recently he has really been scratching at the edges and biting at them through the fencing (it’s around the bottom only) a lot. We let him out for at least 30 mins every day and would love for him to be out all the time when were home… HOWEVER….

First it was just the pooping. Scattered turds everywhere. Annoying, but at least easy to pick up. Recently… Maybe past week and a half…. He has started peeing too. He didn’t do that at all up until now. Very good about peeing in his litter (and majority of poops). But now he pees on the couch and carpet every time he is out! It’s a beating! I put him back in his cage right after, but it makes me not want to have him outside the pen. At the same time, he clearly wants to come out because he rushes out of the cage portion (into playpen) to see us and then the scratching/biting at the edges.

I have him scheduled for his first vet check up and then will be getting him neutered ASAP (I read you can do males around 3.5 months old). Any other ideas/help?? I don’t want to confine him so much because I think he will be unhappy… But the peeing is awful. And hard to catch him in the moment.

Also, any advice on how to train to be a free roam bunny would be wonderful!

Thanks!
Lindsey

[LBJ10]

To be honest, it might be better to contain him in some way. Maybe confine him in a room where it is easier to clean up his pee? Like the kitchen or in a laundry room. Litter training just doesn’t happen with a lot of un-neutered bunnies. Once you have him neutered, then you can work on litter training and then you can gradually work him up to free roam again.

[litheandgraphic]

I agree with LBJ10. Litter training will help with this; but be aware it won’t be immediate. He will want to mark things he wants to claim as his/your collective territory.

Start with litter training and then, as LBJ10 suggested, it may be better to start to introduce him slowly to certain areas, steadily increasing his area and range so that he doesn’t feel like he has to mark every little thing he likes. You will likely have to put up with his peeing/pooping everywhere for quite a while, but eventually this will proyvably improve.

[Clarajb]

I agree- it took Ralphie a few months after I had him neutered to stop peeing outside of his litter box, especially on carpets. His chewing/ digging went way down too. He was 18 months old when I adopted him, so he had been in those habits for a whole but now he is fully litter trained and free range.

[CojoCinder]

Thanks for the responses!! We are definitely trying with the litter training, but his progress seems to go in waves. He was doing really good a couple weeks ago, and not pooping outside of it in his playpen at all. Now he’s back to scattering turds all around his playpen (and in the box).

When he pees outside of the litter (when he’s outside the pen and getting his exercise), I will immediately take him back to his pen and shut him in. Is this the proper “correction” for the outside peeing? What about when he scatters poops when he’s out of his pen? Those I usually just pick up and throw away or put in his litter, but no real reprimand for it. Should I return him to his pen for that too? (He will probably only get to be out for about 30 seconds if I put him back as soon as he poos!)

He also had a dig/pull up the carpet phase for a week or so… but that seems to have died down because I would really get after him with clapping when he did it. So he seems to realize that he shouldn’t do that. I wish it were the same with the peeing!

[LBJ10]

Progress will definitely “fluctuate” (seems to be doing pretty good, then not) until he has been neutered and his hormones have been allowed to die down. In the meantime, pick up his poos and put them in his litter box. If he pees, put the paper towel you use to soak up some pee with in his litter box. Time outs don’t really work for litter training. At least in my experience they don’t. They can be helpful when they are being insanely naughty (will not stop chewing the carpet no matter how many times you tell them no and redirect them) if you need them to “forget” about something for a bit. For litter training, I would try more positive reinforcement. Praise him when you see him in the litter box. Give him a treat. Put his food and hay so he has to get into his litter box in order to reach them.

[Brandywine]

I have two Flemmies, a girl and a boy, both about 18 weeks old, both just been neutered.

The girl is wonderfully toilet trained, even before the spay, she’s so neat and tidy, only occasionally will I find a little pooh not in her litter box. Unless the box is too full, then she poohs and pees very close to it – doesn’t like getting her paws dirty!

The boy, on the other hand, sprayed and poohed as he bounced before the neutering. Afterwards the spraying stopped and he started collecting his poohs and wees in two places in his area. In his cage he was quite tidy, but outside of his cage he poohed/wees in a very large area, but the same general area. So an improvement, but nowhere as good as the girl.

Now I’m reintroducing the two bunnies, and the boy is making a mess everywhere again, but no spraying. I think it’s a territorial thing, and that it will improve.

So partly it could be personality, or it could be gender.

Confining them to a small space certainly seems to make them be tidier, otherwise they are always stepping in their own pooh.

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