Mature Neutered Rabbit Pooing Far Away From Litterbox

[BenjiBunny]

Hello,

I adopted a male 5 year old rex rabbit named Benji(neutered and completely litter trained, previously an AP biology class/personal pet of the teachers) about 3-4 months ago. He lives in a large 2 story cage. When he first came into my house he started off with free range of my bedroom (fairly large, about the size of a masters). He did extremely well in terms of not biting and using the litter box 100% of the time. So for the past month or so he’s been granted access to the rest of the house (first and second floor). He has only just started going up and doesn’t between floors on his own and there were no problems. 

However, recently, he was found climbing into my guinea pig’s cage (we leave her door open but she doesn’t come out). We assumed he was just in there to eat her food and hay . He has begun pooing in large amounts around her cage, surrounding it almost, and peeing near it as well. Can anyone come up with a reason for this? I have put another litterbox down for him thinking he was just too lazy to go all the way back upstairs and to his cage (and upstairs in the cage) to use the bathroom as the guinea pig cage is downstairs by the stairs, but he still poos everywhere, but only in that small area, nowhere else in the house. He still uses his normal litterbox upstairs. 

I then assumed it was territorial, <g class="gr_ gr_30 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="30" data-gr-id="30">however</g> he is neutered (has been for a while), is a mature rabbit, and is only just starting this new behavior even though he has been&nbsp;exposed to Olivia (guinea pig) since he's been adopted.&nbsp;</p>

Can anyone help me with this problem? I don’t want to restrict him from the rest of the house again, it’d feel like taking steps back to me

Thank you! (I attached a picture of Benji in Olivia’s cage as well).

[Q8bunny]

Mature neutered rabbits can still engage in territorial markings. My Chewbacca did every single time we had a foster bun or piggie staying with us.

[sarahthegemini]

He is marking his territory. Isn’t it a bit dangerous that your rabbit has access to the inside of your guinea pig’s cage?

[BenjiBunny]

I’ve had Olivia for about 7 years now and just got into the habit of never closing her door as she goes back in herself, however when Benji started going downstairs I honestly thought he was too fat to fit through the door/wouldn’t want to go in anyway . He’s very gentle with her whenever they interact, but no worries as I’ve started making sure her door stays closed from now

[BenjiBunny]

Is there any way to curb this? I put down the litterbox right by her cage, but he still doesn’t really use it. Will it just go away on it’s own eventually? 

Thank you

[Azerane]

Yeah, definitely territorial marking. It’s tough to say, it might ease up a little with time and you should at least be able to get on top of the pee, but he may still leave a few poops around the cage every now and then. Just keep reinforcing his litter training by putting all his mess into the tray. Has he used the new tray at all? If not it might be worth putting some soiled litter in it from the other box.

[BenjiBunny]

He’s been shedding a lot more than normal and just started chewing things he shouldn’t be (he has been very good with chewing his toys up until now), could all his new behaviors have the same cause? We just came back from about a three week vacation, but he wasn’t moved to a new location, just a new caretaker for a while.

[Author]

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