Both buns now pee IN FRONT of litter box?!

[Koki&Ipo]

I have a 2 year old neutered Holland Lop, and a 9 month old spayed Netherland Dwarf.  My buck has always been very good at using his litter box for both pee and poops.  Every now and then he will pee/poop outside, but always in his hutch, never out in the room.  My doe isn’t as good, but still gets 90% of her messes in the litter box.  She also never messes out in the room.

I got her spayed at about 6 months, and the vet told me that  she had an excessive amount of fat on her organs and he recommended cutting out pellets. I had her on unlimited Oxbow Essentials Young Rabbit pellets, while my buck, now over 1 year, is on ~1/2 cup the Oxbow Essentials Adult Rabbit food. (They were separated at night so he didn’t eat all her “baby” food)  So I just slowly cut their pellets out, and once they were both off their pellets, I started keeping them together at night in the same hutch instead of separated.  I didn’t notice a change in their litter box behavior immediately.  Then I started to notice that they were peeing/pooping much more often outside of their litter boxes than I had originally thought.

Yesterday I took the hutch outside and scrubbed it.  Instead of putting aspen flakes down in the hutch as usual, I put down towels with the thought that I would be able to see just how often they really are messing outside of the litter box. Both buns have been kept on towels before, so they’re used to that. I also separated them again last night so I can know exactly who’s messing and how often. This morning I get home from work to find that my buck has used the litter boxes,a little, but mostly used the space DIRECTLY IN FRONT of the boxes. -_- and my doe used the box more than the space in front of her box.

HELP?! I know this is lengthy, and I apologize! Thank y’all in advance!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sounds like territorial marking. How long have they been bonded?

I don’t have any advice other than try putting lots of hay in the litterbox to encourage spending time in there. Also, make sure the litterbox is plenty big. Big enough for both buns to fit comfortably.

[jerseygirl]

In addition to LPT’s advice, I’d also stop the lining the hutch with the aspen flakes. It’s too much like litter material and they’re likely to pee on anything absorbent. Instead, try line the hutch with something washable, like vinyl. You can mop up any pee spots with paper towel.

[Author]

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