Losing his litter box training?

[littlemissflip]

Hi, our bunny is six years old, and while his litter box habits have never been as stellar as our previous bun, his hygiene habits have REALLY gone down in the past year, and especially over the past few months since we had our first baby. He still uses his litter box, but he also now poops and pees regularly on our dining room rug and the office rug (near his condo), as well as an under-the-deck location in the office, where his pee is starting to wreck the hard wood floor. This isn’t just “marking” poops, like he used to do–it’s full on poo piles like you’d expect in his litter box. 

I know that with a new baby I haven’t been keeping up on his litter box cleaning as frequently as I need to be, and he doesn’t get as much attention from me these days either, but I am trying very very hard to keep up with my pets and give them the love they need through this transition. But that could very well be a contributing factor to his recent decline in litter habits. 

Has anyone been through something like this? Any tips for restoring his litter box and discouraging him from using these undesirable locations? He has always had free-reign in our house, so I’m really not willing to start restricting him to his condo. 

Apologies if the information is somewhere on this site–feel free to point me in the direction of resources that might be helpful. I don’t have time to dig around for info right now, but hopefully someone here can help me out (or at least empathize).

Thanks! 

[Reeem]

Im not sure but it could be that he is trying to get your attention and the only way he gets it is when he poops out of his litter box. For a day leave him in his condo and check if he poops or pees outside the literbox. My bun will not use the litterbox if it isnt clean. If you clean it and he still poops and pees in his condo try to litter train him again by giving him less space. This is just my opinion on what i would try to do.

[littlemissflip]

Thanks for the suggestions. I’m not giving attention when he poops or pees outside of the litter box, so I don’t think it’s a direct way of trying to get attention. I do think some of it might be due to his litter box not being cleaned often enough, but… he doesn’t AVOID his litter box when it’s a little “past-due”–he still goes in there. He just also seems to have decided that several other locations are also fair game.

Both of our bunnies were litter box trained when we adopted them (from people who got them as baby bunnies and then gave them up when they hit puberty), so we’ve never actually had to go through the process of trying to litter box train them. I might need to read up on some techniques when I have a chance.

[Bam]

The techniques are simple, put back all poop in the litter-box (or sweep it up and throw it out of course), encourge bunny to go in the box by offering sth yummy on the side – many buns like to chew on something as they do their business. Sometimes you need to have several litter-boxes in the bunny-area and they should preferably be placed where the bunny has indicated that he likes to go. (They chose their spots and if you put a box there, the likelihood that the bun goes in the box is high because the box is in the “right” spot.). If you see the bunny go where he shouldn’t, it’s good if you can pick him up and put him in the box, immediately. And reward him with a yummy treat when you see him go in the box.

I don’t know if a bunny may respond to human hormones of motherhood in his environment or if he may “think” (it’s really more about instinct than actual thoughts, of course) that the new baby is a new rabbit so it’s important for him to reassert his position as top-bunny in your home. The adrenal glands can produce testosterone to a certain extent even in a neutered male, and it is possible for a neutered male to have like a surge of territorial marking-behavior years after his neuter. I’ve seen that in my bunny Bam one spring. It died down after like 1-2 months (I had to block off my sofa where he chose to mark) and it didn’t return.
There is also the possibility of an adrenal gland tumor, but I’d say that’s very, very uncommon.

[Reeem]

 My bun will also go in even if its dirty but she will use it less than a clean one. Bam gave you good tips , Its quite easy to train them to use a litterbox , so dont worry about that. 

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