Bunny pees everywhere!

[Phi Rabbit]

Greetings!  I am very frustrated and at my wits’ end with my new rabbit.  About six weeks ago I adopted a new bun.  He’s an older bun, about five, and is neutered.  According to the foster home, he had perfect litter habits.  This is not my first bun and in fact I have had several, all of whom were easy to litter train, so I was not prepared for this battle.  However, this is the only bunny I have right now.  I had a thorough vet screening including bloodwork and urine screening recently and he got a clean bill of health.

Unfortunately, Bunny is a nightmare with litter habits.  He pees EVERYWHERE.  He has an ex pen area attached to a cage, and in the ex pen he has a gigantic litter box (he is a big bun and we thought a huge box would help) plus another smaller one in a spot he was peeing a lot.  He happily uses the giant box, which is also stocked with hay.  He goes in it a lot and we know he uses it.  But we can’t trust him outside his cage unsupervised, even in the ex pen area because he will pee in any spot that hasn’t got a litter pan in it.  And when we let him run around the house we can’t take our eyes off him for five minutes or we’ll find pee — on random spots on the floor, on the couch (we try to keep him off the couch but sometimes he gets up there), on anything that’s been left on the floor (he peed on my school bag the other day)… there’s no consistency or rhyme or reason to it.  Often it’s just small amounts all over the place (one time I found five separate spots on the couch that he made in about ten minutes.)  We put a box in his area for him to play with and just now we found he’d peed on that too.  I guess this is marking behavior, but he’s middle aged and fixed!  And it’s not settling down at all, it’s been going on for six weeks.  It’s terribly frustrating and is stopping me from being able to enjoy his company since I’m constantly getting frustrated and having to clean things anytime he has play time.

We confine him to his cage at night, and he doesn’t seem to do it in there (he leaves pellets all over but not pee and I don’t care what he does with pellets since those can be swept up), but I obviously can’t keep him in his cage all day.  I am going to go nuts with this bunny and I’m very sad.  I hope someone can help because I don’t want to end up with a bunny that has to be penned on a tarp 100% of the time.

[sarahthegemini]

He could be marking – age and the fact that he’s neutered won’t stop him marking a new territory. But I’m wondering if he’s got a UTI? I would get him checked out at the vet to rule anything out before assuming it’s behavioural

[Phi Rabbit]

He’s had a very thorough vet screening already including a urine screening and I did mention the peeing problem.  He received a clean bill of health.

[Yoyo]

Hi Phi, welcome to BB!

&,.. omg,.. you have just described my WORST pet scenario, ever too… and,.. I own 6 pets lol,… other then a rare accident, or a medical condition.. pet excrement in the house, is the highest on my list of intolerable… my heart goes out to you, at this time — the neuter, is covered, the UTI came back clean.. ( maybe want a second opinion on that,.. )

Lets see,.. first question I have.. do you have any other pets? Pets, that could have urinated on any of the areas, you mentioned above? .. Here is what I would try doing, were I in your situation… get enzyme cleaner, and literally spray the heck out of EVERYTHING,.. his cage, his xpen,.. all your furniture, and the carpets, if you have any – vinegar + water, is the cheapest formula to use, but, that, especially in large quantities, can be smelly, but.. its for the greater good, if you don’t want to shell out the price for the enzyme products, sold in stores or online.

Next, I would heat steam all of my carpets, if you have any carpet, and take the furniture cushions off,.. maybe they zip off, in the back, and launder them – enzyme clean the cushions, and leave outside to dry.

THEN,.. once everything is VERY clean,.. put bun, back in pen, and start all over, fresh.. if you can get extension pieces, for your xpen – the better.. every day, your bun, doesn’t mess in his area,.. add another piece extension to the pen, until you can gradually work your way up, to a much larger area, – with no accidents.. if there is an accident.. remove the extended piece, re-enzyme clean, and begin again, in the smaller space again… etc working way up to larger area.

– Its basically, potty training 101, all over again…it should work tho, if you are consistent.. I would hesitate, to continue letting him free roam, until you have tried some of my suggestions. If you don’t have the money for extra xpen pieces, get creative – you can use some chicken coop wire too, and, that’s really inexpensive, and, you can form it in many different ways!

I hope something will help your bun, to remember to use his box.. I can only imagine the hell that you have been going through — wishing you the best of luck!!

ETA- add a hay hanging thingy, by his litter pan too, so, he can sit in litter and munch too… add some yummy treats there too, that he only gets, while eating from his tray, until he begins to learn to remember to go back to his litter box often on his own. 

[sarahthegemini]

Well I’m glad he’s nice and healthy, that’s the main thing He’s probably marking then – do you have other pets or a lot of visitors that might be making him feel insecure?

[Phi Rabbit]

I have no other pets and very seldom have visitors — I think we’ve had a visitor only once since we got him. I did have another bunny before him whose scent may still be in the house, but that bunny had good litter habits so there should not be a lot of pee smell around. The couch cushions have been unzipped and washed more than once (I have to, he keeps peeing on them) and the floor is wood, not carpet (this is part of why the pee problem is so hazardous to my house), so it’s not likely much smell is lingering there. There are a couple of area rugs which he does mark but no more than he marks every other darned thing.

His giant litterbox has an attached storage area which we use for stuffing hay in, so he has hay in his litterbox (and he does sit there eating it). I don’t think he dislikes his litterbox, he uses it fine, he just goes anywhere else he happens to be too.

He sees the most respected exotics vet in the area and the doctor did not find anything that seemed to be the cause of it, but he is going back for a re-check on his bloodwork (he was a bit anemic on the first draw) and I suppose we can ask again. I don’t feel very optimistic about any of this right now.

He is currently limited in his pen area to a space small enough that it consists entirely of two litterboxes, but he looks sad and disappointed and I hate it. His cage itself is not very large (it was used with a previous rabbit who had free run so the cage itself didn’t need to be large) so he has hardly any room right now. He was such a little explorer and so fun to watch as he looked around the house. He would follow us around too, so cute.

[Yoyo]

ahh,.. seems as if you have already read my mind, suggestion wise Phi,..other then to limit space, and gradually increase out..I really hope you get this figured out sooner, then later… I can only imagine the mental anguish, you have gone through, trying to fix this… My heart goes out to you, and your bun… maybe, time will just resolve it, is really all I can offer now. He sounds like a very sweet bun, indeed!

[Phi Rabbit]

Actually I started limiting his space because of your suggestion.  I have given him a week (almost) of having a space so small he can’t avoid going in his litterbox, and starting Thursday I am going to open up a new section of his fenced area and see what happens.

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