litter trained in her room but not in the house?

[evansvillegirl26]

Tonks  99% of the time uses her litter box in her bed room. When I get home from work I would let her hop around the house and she would go back and use her box or go into the cat boxes. But for the last 3 days she is pooping on the floor and tonite she peed on the couch!!  The litter boxes are clean so I don’t know if Iv’e given her too much freedom and should just stick to letting her run the bedroom?? Anyone have and ideas?

[babybunsmum]

giving too much roam space too soon can lead to marking with poops and/or pee, so maybe you could restrict her back to her room for a while and then slowly let her roamfurther & further (block off areas you don’t want her to be in right away).   do you have other pets?  if tonks smells other beasts she could be marking on their scent.  for example couches and beds are a favorite spot for bun buns to mark because they smell like we do.  i would restrict her from couches & beds to prevent that.  i’ve heard of a couple of methods for doing this but i’m lazy… i just shoo my buns off of the couch when they jump up & don’t give them time to pee.  i have a spay bottle with water which i use sometimes when i’m reeeeally lazy because i can spray them without getting off my tush.

also, some times peeing in lots of places can mean a urinary tract infection (baby bun had that issue) but it doesn’t sound like thats what you’re dealing with from what you describe.   if tonks starts leaving multiple puddles in random places then i’d goto a vet to check it out, butg if she’s just marking the couch i think it’s more territorial.

i forget… is tonks spayed? 

[evansvillegirl26]

yes she is spayed. I have cats she gets along with so I don’t know if she now has a problem with them.

 

So today she is pooping on the spare bed that is in her bedroom. She has never ever done this. (we have had her for 3 months) she is about 11 months old.  She has also started to want to hump my arm and nip at me while she’s doing it. 

Can rabbits go though heat even though she is fixed??

 

[Beka27]

when was she spayed?

[BinkyBunny]

Also, have you been around any other animals lately? Held another rabbit, cuddled a friends dog, etc, etc.?

Has she spending more time with your cats than normally she would?  With more freedom, she could be trying lay down her ground rules with them.

[evansvillegirl26]

She was spayed in April right before I brought her home. (she was 8 mo old)

I went to the humane society last saturday and walked dogs but she didn’t start this until about 4 days ago. Plus Iv’e been around lots of other peoples animals before and she has never acted up

[bunnytowne]

hmmm I have the opposite problem Puff I had to put 2 litterboxes in her house cuz she pees on the rug. outside in the bathroom she is perfect weeing in the bathroom litterbox. weird. anyway.  yes they like to pee on our couches. I have heard people put a shower curtain over teh couch to stop this. I put garbage bags around my couch cushions.  my garbage chic couch. ahaha. 4 months later they are still holding my 2 cushion that kept getting peed on. I can probably remove them now  yes cuttin down on her roam space can help     I have had my 2 girls for about a month now. and Cotton has just now gotten around to peeing on my shirt this morning. it smelled like the girls cause I held them with that shirt on. which I had been doing all along wearing the same shirts. so I guess time to change shirts from 1 bun to the girls oh well. hey they luv us what can I say.  Tonks Really Really luvs you

[BinkyBunny]

evansvillegirl – hmmm. Quite the mystery. So maybe it is a freedom thing. When did you start allowing her more freedom? How much freedom and for how long? How much did she interact with the cats before vs now?

[evansvillegirl26]

Her interaction with the cats has been the same. From the first day we brought her home we locked her up at night and during the day we let her run the bedroom. She was using her litterbox 99.9% of the time from the get go. I started letting her run the house for about 1-2 hours about 4 weeks ago. But about a week ago she start the pooping around the house. I have not let her run the house in about 3 days now. But now she is pooping in the bedroom and even when I lock her up at night she’s not making much effort to go in and poop. I have found a few pee accidents but she is still using her little box most of the time. I hope by letting her out around the house and now not letting her she’s not doing this to throw a bunny tantrum. I thought about changing her litter to something softer. I use yesterdays news but it’so hard and she’s a mini rex and their feet seem to to be more prone to sore hocks. Sooo frustrating!!

[Beka27]

you could try a different litter or different kind of litterbox. she stills needs to get daily exercise, even if it’s in a restricted area. if she’s leaving poops around mostly, that’s not a HUGE deal, they can be sucked up easily… it’s more of an inconvenience.

[evansvillegirl26]

Ok so this morning I go in and am checking the bedroom area and she is peeing on the carpet now. I just can’t figure her out. She is being more aggressive about wanting to be pet. Can she still go through a heat type thing even though she’s fixed?  Would it be ok if I lock her up and just let her out from about 6pm to 11pm ? For now until we get  this straighted out. I know it’s going to make her mad but she was using her box fine before.  Her pen is about 60 inches long. Here is a pic. Thanks for the help so far guys!!

1617204448371.jpg

[Beka27]

i think it’s fine to let her out at night, as long as she gets time each day. late evening is usually when they’re most active. have you thought about getting a piece of remnant linoleum and cutting it to fit her room, then putting the rugs over it. at least for now, it would be easier to keep clean. once she starts peeing on the carpet, it is going to hold that smell and make her more likely to continue doing it. try and clean the spot thoroughly with some vinegar and water.

[evansvillegirl26]

Iv’e got some of that pet solution stuff that I got at Pet Smart that I am going to put in my bissel carpet spot cleaner tonite. I think I will look into a piece of linolium for the floor!!! Thanks for the advice!! I hope she can be trained again!! Silly wabbit!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

To answer your ‘heat’ question: Rabbits’ don’t go into heat, they are ‘induced ovulators’ meaning they ovulate after/during mating. So they don’t go into heat at all anyways.

Keep us posted on how it goes!

[BinkyBunny]

OYE! Well, I can tell you sometimes bunnies do go into a revamping of their territory. I also was thinking…did anything frighten her lately?

My bunnies just recently went through a poopfest stage. I had to lock them in their pen for longer, and supervise the time outs to catch them in the act of urinating. It took about three days to retrain. But then lately it’s been happening again. I think it’s because I’ve been soo busy this last week, not giving enough attention, and so now maybe they now see their space as ONLY their space and decided they are going to dominate the area and claim it as their own.

So I myself may be forced to retrain soon.

Do you have time to supervise more to retrain?

EDIT:  SO, guess what, my bunnies must be on a Tonk wavelength, because I just now went to go check on Jack and Rucy, and I found Jack up on the couch and he had peed on it!!    He NEVER goes up there.  Thank goodness it’s futon with a waterproof cloth futon cover, so it just sort of settles on the first layer.   Well, now I know I am not spending enough time in there because I usually hang out on the couch to claim it.   Both Jack and Rucy like to chew holes in furniture when they are up on it, so usually I just hang out on it which gets my scent there, and i do not allow them up on it.  

SO, maybe it’s an attention thing with Tonks too?   Has anything changed with the amount of attention you give?

[evansvillegirl26]

Nothing that I can pin point has changed other then my shift changed in the morning by one hour so insted of me letting her out John lets her out but as soon as I get up the first thing I do is get her veggies and go in and sit with her and feed her for a little bit. I can’t think of anything that would of scared her but who knows!!!   Hopefully Tonks is not sending out secret bunny messages to Jack and Rucy about the poopfest!!!

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