Different bunny after her spay.

[RachelF]

So while Kit has been an angel lately(besides him coming into manhood.. which is unavoidable), Honey has been a little messy girl. She was so well litter trained, and I know its probably a coincidence, but I think she is worse all in all after her spay. She poops and pees everywhere! In all four corners of her cage, and sometimes on the carpet. She even lays in it, if I don’t get the pee up quick enough.

She doesn’t “trust” us like she used to, I have to chase her for a good 10 minutes to catch her, where as before, when I walked over to her she would sit at my feet or put her head down for a pet. Its discouraging, I want to give her time to play during the day but all she does is dig the carpet, get under things she’s not supposed to, and run from me. Not a scared type of run, because I can often tell from her body language if I frightened her. Its more a chase game I think.

She also doesn’t want to interact with us anymore, when shes out during playtime she wants to do her own thing. She’s always going over to Kits cage, aggrivating and exciting him and he hops around dumping everything over trying to get to her.

But thats not the issue– I just want my old cuddly bunny back. She absolutely hates being cuddled now, takes every opportunity to hop away.

Isn’t a spay supposed to calm the rabbit down, and help with littertraining? WOW i got the exact opposite.

[Beka27]

some of this is normal bunny behavior. it’s not typical for a mature rabbit to like cuddling. this would likely be the case regardless of whether or not she was spayed. you were experiencing bunny puberty with her which was making her DOUBLY affectionate, but it was not real affection, it was her hormones. now that they are gone, her real personality is going to start shining thru. if you are needing to chase her for any reason, i’m worried that that might make her trust you less, so you can try to calmly rebond with her now.

the marking may be in response to an unneutered male being in the house. when does he go for his surgery? can you limit her runspace and start littertraining again and see if there is any improvement? or move her (or him) somewhere where they are not in each other’s space?

there are two different phenomenons happening the first year of life, one is bunny puberty (hormone-related), one is bunny adolescence (age-related). you’ve taken care of the hormones, but it is still likely that some bad behavior will last thru out the first year. be diligent with your bunny-proofing, supervision, and distraction with toys. if she is chewing or digging, you can try a water bottle set on “stream” (if it deters her) or a loud clap and “NO!”

 

links:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/training.html  Training

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-3/age-related-behavior.html  Age-Related Behavior

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-6/chew-stick.html  More Than Just a Chew Stick

[Deleted User]

Instead of chasing, do you have a treat she can’t resist? When i shake the papaya tablets Boston comes running no matter what she was doing. Getting her to come to you could help w/ the trust issues!
Good luck, I’m interested to see what others have to say since Boston is getting spayed soon too.

[Hedi]

My first bun Carrera was such a lover for her first few years. When we got her fixed she changed completely and unfortunately has never returned to my cuddle bun. Pre-spay she would sit with me for hours and hours just sleeping on me and now I am lucky to even get a pet out of her. But I still love her.

My last two buns I got from rescues so they were already fixed and I knew exactly what personality I was getting. So in the future I think we will only get older buns just because of this.

Carrera is still my first bun and my baby and I love her to death and it breaks my heart that she is still so weird but that is ok. She only gets love on her terms.

But remember, having something that traumatizing like surgery your bun may be unhappy with you for a little while

[RachelF]

I feel better after hearing all of your response, and looking at the links you gave me, Beka =] I guess it is a stage in her life, or her “coming into her own” personality sort of thing.

By cuddling, I mean, I’d sit on the floor and she’d immediately run over to me and bump my leg/hand/arm until I got down on all fours and pet her or gave her a nose rub ^_^ I really miss that. Now she is so mischevious. And treats only work to a certain extent, she doesn’t get excited for food like Kit does. She does like dried papaya treats..

She was a little better yesterday. I clean her cage, I mean SCRUBBED it down with vinegar to get rid of any smells, and moved her litterbox into the corner where she does most of her peeing and pooping. She still is having accidents but it doesn’t seem AS BAD.

Hm. Does anyone think that adding another litterbox(therefore limiting more space in her cage) would help?

[Beka27]

another thought… my bunnies have been strange the past few days. i think it might be weather-related. if your weather is changing now you might be noticing some odd behaviors at the same time.

what kind of litterbox are you using now? you want to make sure she still has room in her cage, so if you need a larger litterbox, you might need a larger cage (or pen or condo) as well.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

What about starting from scratch for litter training. First line the entire cage with litter.

Next in a few days/weeks, use a litter box that takes up 3/4 of the cage floor and fill it up with litter. Then smaller and smaller. That would invovle multiple litter boxes though…just a suggestion if you can do it!

[RachelF]

Honey’s been doing a little better.. still peeing in another corner, but I keep cleaning up the corner and moving the litter box to the corner where she’s most recently peed. I let her out for a good 4 hours, no accidents, but she went in and out of her cage and I think she peed on the floor of her cage in that time period. Hey, its better than the brand new carpet!

It has to be Kit causing her to be so territorial and mark every inch of her cage– I thought about movig him to another room, I just don’t want him isolated and when your living in a 1br apartment there aren’t a ton of rooms to move him too!

I am trying to pay off bunbuns spay and then he will go in for his neuter. I also am planning on getting an xpen, its just I was waiting until Kit was better trained, I can’t let him run around the house because he will atleasttt pee twice on the carpet :/ And the only other place to let him run is in the kitchen, but my boyfriend doesn’t want Kit in the kitchen anymore because of his peeing problem. Its even staining the floor–and we don’t let it sit for long at all we clean it up as soon as we see it..– I agree with him, its not nice to cook dinner with that smell in the air.

I know it sounds like I’m complaining, but I doooo lovve my buns, I just don’t understand them lately! Being a bunny parent is a lot harder than I thought. Especially with changing habits and personalities of my two, I just can’t keep up on what they like, what they don’t like, when they are potty trained and when they aren’t, when they want attention and when they want to be left alone!

I swear, Honey has two personalities, she’s been so distant lately, and then last night she just wouldn’t leave me alone! Which I loved, she followed me around the whole house licking my foot and nudging me. When I sat on the couch she jumped right up and sat next to me for pets.

I guess I should just accept it and move on. =]

[Beka27]

you hit the nail on the head. bunnies are very unique creatures. for the right person, it’s absolutely worth it to share your life with them and learn about their little idiosyncracies… but it is a learning process. this explains why so many end up being dumped. people don’t know the importance of spay/neuter, and they’re not willing to learn, and at a certain point there’s not a lot you can do to train anymore without getting the surgery done. but you’re doing a fantastic job with them! this is all stuff that is to be expected with baby bunnies. they go thru the changes and you have to adapt to whatever they turn out to be. this is a reason why so many of us advocate adopting adult, altered bunnies from shelters or rescues. you miss the messy stage, you don’t have to worry about the surgery, the personality is set, so “what you see is what you get”.

[skunklionshow]

I’m not sure what your cage set up is, so I’m not sure how a bigger litterbox is going to affect their overall space.  I have a 5 level bunny condo.  The first floor has a large cat litter pan and a larger corner shaped litterbox.  I have litterbox on about 50% of their ground floor.  However, since Leo was neutered he’s been a major pooper.  I swear, I don’t remember him pooping as much as he does now!!!   My suspicion is that Leo tends to hang his butt off the edge of the corner litterbox. 

I just acknowledge Leo’s superduper poopyness.  My Jessica was a monster b/f she was spayed.  She would bite me to the point that I bled so bad.  I even had to get stitches once.  She has always been standoffish, so she didn’t really change that personality.  When she was evil, I clicker trained her to go into the cage.  I think you could do the same. 

I agree that she’s likely off due to her hormones dying and their being a big sticky horney boy in her apartment.  I think that once he’s nipped, some of her gentleness may come back.  I think it’s probably a bit unnerving to have him around.  But alas, every-bunny is different.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hey bunnyballet, I just also wanted to suggest that it might be that Honey is experiencing a roller coaster ride of changes with the fluctuation of hormones and is going through a sort of bunny menopause. She was used to all those hormones in her system like Beka said in bunny puberty and now it is greatly diminished and it really takes some getting used to. I don’t know about a bunny because unfortunately they cannot talk, but I can tell you how a human reacts in menopause and it is sounding very similar to me.

It is going to take some time for things to simmer down and it may be that she is frustrated that she can’t mark things like she used to and don’t take Honey ignoring you during play time personally, she is just branching out, leaving the nest and being her own independent bunny and some rabbits are like that. You might want to work in some one-on-one floor time with her to reinforce your bond with her once again. If she is just too terribly interested in that handsome male bunny, Kit (his hormones kicking in which I bet are attracting her).

K&K has some wonderful input on the litterbox issue and you may want to really limit the space she gets to run in – for now until they improve and/or Kit is also neutered.

Beka – Great advice and links too!

[ilovemylittleman]

All I can say is hang in there…. and you definitely aren’t alone.
After Little Mans neuter, he has nerve damage to one of his rear feet and an attitude that won’t quit. It seems to change weekly and he has calmed down quite a bit. Some weeks he loves me, some he doesn’t know I exist, and some he hates me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll quit with the mood swings before too long. I’ll keep my other fingers crossed for you.

[RachelF]

Thank you guys so much for your advice, ilovemylittleman– i no longer feel alone!=] I’m just taking it day by day.

Last night Honey jumped straight out of the top of her cage! I guess I have to keep the top closed from now on?? xD

[Scarlet_Rose]

Oh dear, I take it she is feeling a little frisky then? You can also clothespin a sheet over the top too.

[BinkyBunny]

I also just wanted to add that you can put two long-time neutered bunnies near each other, and you can still see some crazy territorial behavior. Also, if you have the scent of the other bunny on you, then that also may be the reason for behavior with you. So I bet, like others have said, she is dealing still with hormones if she has been spayed within the last two months, AND dealing with another rabbit in her territory – or at least even the scent of another rabbit. It can make everything go haywire.

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