Little-Bit’s Quarks

[Binkles]

Hey everyone! First of all, I want to say that I am extremely, EXTREMELY sorry for not posting lately. I guess I just kind of…needed a break from the forums for a while, you know? Always something happening that makes me nervous or worried or sad. And, you know, I guess I just can’t do that all the time.

So I’m sorry, but I should be on more now.

AND AS AN UPDATE! My friend’s bunny, Dust, seems to be doing MUCH better. Her head has returned to almost normal now, with that slight residual cock that most head tilt bunnies have. It turns out it wasn’t E.C. after all, and just an inner-ear infection. So happy news!

But anyway, I AM posting in the behavour section for a reason..

Now that Little-Bit  is always out and running around, having her own territory and such, she is inevitably developing new character traits…two of which are a little less-than-glamerous..

1. I understand territorial poops for the first month or so…but come ON..

To preface this, Little-Bit has always had pretty good litterbox habits. However, one of the first things I noticed when I began letting her out was that at the end of the night, there would be a nice accumulation of poopies on my bed. And yes, thank goodness, JUST poopies. (There was ONE time at the very beginning when I was laying there and she peed on me…>< But that one time was excusable, I think..)

Okay, okay. I understand, Baby. This is YOUR territory. Mark it as you want until you’re content that it is, indeed, yours. After all, it’s actually kind of nice of you to concentrate so many of them in one area for me as opposed to your litterbox -I can just sweep them up and dump them into my ‘to be put in the garden’ bag! You just keep ’em commin for the next month or so until you establish that my bed is yours. I’m fine with that..

…but come ON. D: It’s been almost three months now and she STILL leaves more poopies on my bed in one night than Binkles would have left in her litterbox all day! Which is fine, again, because they’re easy to clean up. But it would be kind of nice to just plop in bed when I’m good and ready instead of having to remove all these little balls from it before I do. And being little balls, they also have a penchant for tumbling off my bed and onto my dark floor…where I don’t notice them and they wind up little piles of stepped-on dust.

She doesn’t seem to notice them. No. Doesn’t even care they’re there. She’ll hapilly lay out amongst them and ‘inadvertantly’ send a few off the side of my bed when she kicks out. Every now and then as I’m sitting at my computer, I’ll hear ‘plink-plink!’ -the sound of bunny poopies hitting the footboard of my bed and bouncing off onto the floor.

D8

Is this behaviour something I can redirect or is this going to be a battle of the wills?

2. Not now, Honey Bunny…mommy’s SLEEPING..

Oh, I’d LOVE to let Little-Bit be out of her cage at night. I’d love it. And from my couple of good experiences I’ve had of having her out while I’m sleeping, she lays out next to my legs. Adorable. Sweet. Snuggly. Perfect.

Except..

She’s discovered that underneath my blanket is a place to digdigdigdig. Which in and of itself, is fine. I can sleep with her doing that..

But then she decided to develop this little behavioural tick that…well I don’t know where it came from or what its motivations are, but..

..as she’s underneath my covers, digging and exploring away, every so often, maybe once every couple of minutes or so, she’ll just ever so casually and nonchalauntly turn around

AND NIP MY BUTT!!

While I’m SLEEPING!!

And continue about her digging and exploring business as if it were just part of the routine.

She doesn’t nip hard. Just a little love nip. But it certainly ISN’T a pleasent thing to experience while I’m trying to sleep. I’ve made it a point to make a very quick sudden withdrawing movement with my body every time she does it to let her know ‘no. Mommy does NOT enjoy this.’ But it doesn’t seem to phase her at all. She doesn’t even move. Just continues about her diggy business.

So I implore you people…..what…on EARTH? 

Little-BIT sure is living up to her name.

 

 

[MimzMum]

lolz….*muffles laughter and snickers* Ahem! No, really, I’m laughing WITH you Sara, not AT you…. *gigglesnort*

BTW, I know what you mean about not posting. I suppose you are forgiven as long as you weren’t giving us the virtual bunny butt.

No, these things are not in the least funny. And I totally empathize. After all this time, if I have Mimzy out on the bed, he invariably leaves little calling cards here and there, you know, just to let me know how he feels about my blankets. God forbid I’ve just washed them, I think it increases the behavior. And of course, now that it’s mostly Fiver’s territory…well, you can imagine the mess. >_< (Not from Fiver however, he keeps ALL his bb's in the box. The only time I've found them on the bed was when he had slight poopy butt and couldn't help it.)

I have had Pip & Mimzy for about a year and a year and a half, respectively, and I think they sometimes may just never get over marking with poo. Pip will still leave it everywhere in the xpen, no matter who’s out there or not out there with her, and Mimzy, of late, has been leaving little blessings all over HIS night pen for me to sweep up in the morning. He used to be exemplary with his litter box habits…lately he just seems too lazy to be sure everything’s been properly deposited in the right place. I can’t suss it out for the life of me. :-/

Now as I mentioned above, it’s going to be all well and good unless Little Bit has digestive upset and the poos are no longer firm and crumbly, but wet and messy. (Let’s hope not, but it could happen.) I often take what they have left me and make sure I put in in the litter box and try to emphasize that THIS is where they belong. Don’t know if it does any good, but the only other thing I would recommend is using a fluffy towel on your bed that you can just roll up and shake out somewhere else so you can get into bed faster at night. As for the flyballs, well, those are a little harder to manage. Perhaps some cardboard ‘splash boards’? As long as she doesn’t eat cardboard, that is.
Cleaning the bedcovers with things like Nature’s Miracle might help, as that removes scent of marked territory, but I’m afraid she’d just redouble her efforts to mark your bed in that case. So I’m at a loss.

The only thing I can offer on the bum nipping is, well, she should be in her pen at night. I don’t think there’s any other way around it, unless you want to invest in some kevlar underpants. When bunnies dig and nip, they are imitating warren-building behavior that they use to remove troublesome and offensive roots and such that are in their way, not to imply that YOU are in her way, don’t take it personally. I suppose when you jump away, it confirms for her that her tactics are working, sadly, one can’t just sit there and ‘turn the other cheek’, so I don’t know what else you could do in that circumstance.

I used to have a kitten who would come all the way over from her sleeping box on the other side of my room and claw her way up my comforter and crawl down in the space between my back and the sheets and it scared the life out of my when I found her there every morning, not knowing how the little thing managed it (she was weaned too young and definitely imprinted on me) and worrying that I would roll over in my sleep and hear a squeak and find a little cat pancake and I would’ve felt terrible about that. Luckily, it never happened, but it cost me some serious Z’s, let me tell you. >.<

But yah, that’s my never-to-be-humble opinion. ^_^ Although I must say, I am SO glad to see how you and Bitty are bonding so well and that she seems to be your little shoulder angel these days. What a sweetie!

Sooo…if you have a moment, recent piccies, please? *bats eyelashes*

[Veronica Vigilant]

Hi Binkles, I seem to remember you posting once that sometimes you put hay on your bed for Little Bit for when she’s hopping around? If that’s the case I wonder if she’s confused and doesn’t realize that the bed is not a place to poop? Even if there’s no hay out when she’s doing the pooping, maybe she “remembers” that this is a place where hay is sometimes and therefore it’s ok for her to use it as a litter box? (I’m pretty sure poops in a pile is more indicative of “bathroom” behavior than it is “marking” behavior). Maybe try only keeping hay and other bunny foods inside her condo so that she more firmly understands that the rest of the bedroom is not actually hers! (Well, at least not to use as a bathroom!) I would also try keeping her inside the condo for a few nights in a row to reinforce her using the litter box and then start letting her out at night again and see how she does.

My one rabbit used to dig a lot in my blankets- which was always associated with biting and ripping my blankets to shreds- and everytime I would catch her digging I would push her off the bed (gently! and my mattress is directly on the floor so there was no fall!) I was actually surprised, but she eventually stopped!!!! (Ok, I also sacrificed a pillow to be “hers” that I leave on the floor along with a shopping bag from the Gap that she is for some reason obsessed with digging at)

[Binkles]

x3 Nonono. You guys don’t get it. It’s not the ‘digdigdig…nip!’ motion that they do when they’re digging at something, ie a root or something else that’s in their way. Bitty doesn’t actually very often dig in me, it’s usually that if she’s digging and then nips me, she’s digging AWAY from me and then pauses, turns around and nips me, then turns back around and goes back to digging. In fact, she may not even be digging when she nips me. More often than not, she’ll run underneath the covers, explore a little, then pause by my butt and *NIP!* then go back to exploring.

I swear there’s an alterior motive…as to what it is, that’s beyond me.

I’m quite positive that the poopies on the bed are a territorial thing as opposed to her thinking it’s a litterbox. She never really leaves it in ‘piles’ like you would find in her litterbox -it’s all spread out, though more at the foot of the bed where she hangs out. And she never pees on my bed, pee is restricted to her litterbox. I do spread hay out on my bed for her, but I don’t think this would confuse her because I’ve never been one to put hay in litterboxes. =s I know it can be luxurious to pee and eat at the same time…but gosh…just putting it in there and contemplating her ingesting something that she could have possibly urinated on. So anyway…hay shouldn’t be associated with litterboxes in this instance.

[Balefulregards]

I am thinking – Coco likes to nip me when I am not in her “way” necessarily. Sometimes I wonder if it is a “Hey – just checking to see if you are still there…”

Maybe just seeing if this “part” belongs to you too? I wonder if bunnies think we have FAR too much in terms of body space.

[MimzMum]

Oh dear. 0_o Well that changes things. I’m inclined to agree with Baleful on the nipping, she must just be giving you a brake check or something. Odd. :-/

Did anything else change in your room recently besides the upwardly mobile bunny condo? Did you get a new comforter or something?

And, just curious, I know you’re doing the college thing, right? How long are you away from her during the day now? Could she be letting you know she does not approve?

[Author]

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