New bunnnie pooping and peeing on bed

[Staceyr]

Me and My live in boyfriend work at a resturant together.  We were outside of it on sunday and saw a bunny hopping around the dumpsters.  We grabbed her and she was very friendly, she is really fat, and soft. Which made us feel like someone left her there.  She was def. a house rabbit, because we bought her a cage, foood, and litter before we bought her home. And right when we placed her in the cage she knew where to pee and poop.  She was doing really good with that for a few days.At first she would hide alot, we have been giving her free roam to one of the bedrooms..but within 2 or 3 days she is comming up to us to be petted and nudging us with hre nose!! so cute!! She is very happy, we feed her a balanced diet with lots of greens, hay and pellets.  She has a big cage, and sometimes even has been doing “binkies”. which i have researched, meaning they are happy. So lst night she really started to get comfy with us and started hoping on the bed we have in there (we dont sleep in there and lock her up at night) but she peeed right on my boyfriends hand and all over the bed. he yelleed at her and placed her in the cage for the rest of the night.  We let her out again this morning to roam for a few, he went to work and left her out.  and when i woke up there was pee and poop all over the bed in there..why would you say she is doing this?  and why has it just started after haveing her for 5 days now?

[kimberleyanddarren]

Is she neutered? if not then this is probably why.. you need to take her to the vet and get her spayed or this is likely to continue.. as she is deaf a sharp NO wont work as it may for some other rabbits so you could try doing the behaviour things like turning your back and making the bunny aware you are very upset with them which may teach her not to do it but spaying is probably the main reason and you should get that done asap. Hopefully after that it will stop. Oh another thing could be that you have given the bunny too much room too quickly and it has gone abit power bad so maybe allow it to only have a small space for a few days and then gradually increase the space so the bunny knows that thats your area and not its own then things might improve.. congrats for helping a needy bunny btw!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Firstly Welcome to binky bunny! And Congrats on your new bunny and *hugs* for rescuing her!!

Bunnies mark territory by peeing and pooing so that is probably what she is doing. One of my bunnies loves to sneak in our bedroom and poop all over the bed. I have a feeling that she would pee if she had time!! I think beds are cushy and are a favorite of bunnies to mark as their own. Probably you want to limit her access to the bed, and that shoudl solve the problem.

Also unaltered bunnie mark more then altered bunnies. Once you have your bunny seen by a vet, the vet can probably determine if your bun has been or needs to be altered.

BTW have you named your bunny? Pictures Please !!

[wendyzski]

(I think when she said “def. a house rabbit” she meant short for “definitely”)

Sounds like territorrial marking.  An unspayed rabbit uses poop and pee to tell other rabbits “This is MY place”.  Your bed probably smells like you, so she’s trying to be “top bunny” by puttin her smell all over it.

In the short-term, either don’t let her on the bed or put a sheet or plastic over if when she is up there.

In the longer term – get her spayed!  This sort of territorrial behavior will diminish, and she will live a longer and healthier life.  Some studies have shown that unspayed femal rabbits have an 85% chance of reproductive cancers by age 4.

It can be hard to find a rabbit-saavy vet but it is worth it.  Congratulations on your new friend!

[Staceyr]

Her name is Ruby..its because we found her at Ruby Tuedsays LOL

But yeah im guessing thats what she is doing is trying to mark it as her own…How much does it cost to get a bunnie fixed?

 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

She’s lovely!! You are so lucky!

It can be quite costly to get a bunny fixed-it was definitely a surprise to me I thought it would be less then the cost to alter a cat…What city/country are you located in? We could help you find some vets in your area that see rabbits (they are considered exotic and surprisingly only some vets see them!) and you can check out pricing!
Some places will do it relatively cheap, and prices vary…so I don’t want to scare you off before you look into it

[kimberleyanddarren]

oh.. sorry *blushes* i thought she meant deaf and spelt it wrong *goes and hides head* ooopps….

[Staceyr]

I live in the detroit michigan area. We live in the suburbs.

I just went to clean up her mess and she was trying to get my attetion and i ignored her, which i never do. Do you think this helped her realize she did wrong? i have never had a rabbit before so I dont know much about them, except for what I have researched…
I should also mention I live with 2 cats and 2 dogs..so far they have been off limits..the dogs are not allowed down here, but I have 1 loyal cat that follows me everywhere and gets very jealous when i am in there wth her and meows and scratches at the door…i tried showing him the bunnie, but he got scared!! which suprises me becuase he is usually a bully to the other smaller cat in the house, thats why i am worried about these 2..do you know anything about cats and bunnies?

[Floppy]

Awww too cute how the name came about! yay for rescuing!
as far as territorial markings…my neutered boy, he likes to hop on the
bed. There are two things that he does: 1) he will hop on real quick
during his fast runs around my room and test me out. haha, real funny
Floppy. 2) If i am not in the room, he will definitely take the opportunity
to hop on the bed and if I am not there long enough, I have found
“gifts” from him….

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ok, on vets…Here are some I found in the Detroit area that see Rabbits…I don’t live there so not giving a referral or anything, you’ll have to check them out yourself, but it’ll help you get started

This is a rabbit rescue in detroit metro, lists rabbit vets in the area -> http://www.michiganrabbitrescue.org/vets.htm

And here’s some info on choosing a good vet -> http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.html

You might already have a good vet for your other pets who sees rabbits, and that could work out as well!

As for bunnies and cats, I think there are some members on here who are experienced with cats and bunnies together and dogs and bunnies together, so I’ll leave that question for them to help you with The only inter-species bonding mine have done was chase around my boyfriends mom’s cat -not so helpful to you !

[Staceyr]

Yeah….while i was posting that last post she did it again!! So i locked her in her cage, this is getting out of control! Everytime we clean it up, she just does it again

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

How’s your set up? My guys like to mark all around their cage and anywhere they perceive to be their own (ie. their litterbox that is in the living room and under the two tables they like)…Is the bed next to the cage? Does she have a litterbox to use that is outside the cage?

[Staceyr]

She has a litter box in the cage, and yes the bed is right by her cage..maybe that is why..if this keeps up the only thing i can think to do is only let her out if we are in the room with her..i feel bad keeping her caged all day, but we both work alot so its hard to keep an eye on her all the time.

[Sarita]

Wow, I cannot really see how long those ears are but they look very long which makes me wonder if she is an English Lop.

I do think you are giving her too much freedom and she does need to be altered.

[babybunsmum]

ruby is a darling!  love how you picked her name

i also think that restricting her to her cage when unsupervised is a good idea.  i know that rabbits tend to mark territory a lot when their territory is too big too fast… i learned this from recent personal experience!  it is important that your bun gets time out of the cage to romp, but for now i’d limit it to when you are there to hang out & supervise.  limiting her free-roam space in the beginning will help solidify where ‘her spot’ is for litter.  during the time you are limiting roaming space, you can block ruby’s access so that she’s only on surfaces you can clean easily with vinegar / water (or an odor eliminating pet cleaning product).  patience is key.  maybe aside from the odd poop her & there, she will catch on if you are persistant! 

good luck!

[brook]

Sorry to get into this post, but for some reason I am having trouble getting into the posts to add a new topic, I have done this several times before, but now when the page to type your message comes up, I can type a subject and add an attachment but the entire middle area where I type my post will not allow me to create a message… Is anyone else having this trouble or is it my computer, I have no problems with any other websites than this one. when I load the binky bunny home page the green bar across the top where you click on forum, webcams, etc. does not appear, it always says that there is an error on the page, but the page opens just with limited access. This is the only area I could find to type a post about this, so sorry for interrupting this post!! i am dying to post a topic about my new bunny but cant seem to get the page to load. Let me know if anyone else is having this problem!! Thanks brookintoledo

[Beka27]

welcome here.  how wonderful for her that you were able to catch her before she got hurt.  it’s so infuriating how people will just dump their unwanted pets.

sometimes new animals will be on their best behavior for a little while after coming to a new place.  the marking on the bed is likely because she is feeling more secure with her surroundings and it smells very strongly of you.  like was mentioned before, it can also be a dominance thing. 

i think you should restrict her freedom for awhile until she gets used to using her litterbox more.  in the meantime, she does need to be checked by a vet.  there’s no telling how long she was wandering on her own.  the vet will also be able to give you an idea of her age, tell you for sure if she is a she, and give you info about altering.  i would suggest keeping her away from the other pets until she’s more settled and she’s been checked over by a vet.

unfortunately, most cages that are available in stores are far too small for rabbits.  the smallest recommended size is 2 x 4 feet… and most stores don’t carry them that large.  you might want to think about (especially if you work a lot and are not around for constant supervision) getting an x-pen to attach to the cage or make your own enclosure that she can play and run around in when you’re not home.  here’s a picture of what i have for my rabbit.  i have an extra large Marchioro cage (the largest size available) and an enclosure made from Neat Idea Cubes and a gazillion zipties.  all of this is over a cheap 5 x 8 foot rug from Wal-Mart (b/c Meadow is potty-trained and does not ingest carpet).

 

there are many options available for rabbits.  it’s just going to take time, money and a lot of research on your part to figure out what works best for you.  and we’re here to answer any more questions or concerns that you might have.  also, at the top of the page under bunny info, there are some great sections about different aspects of care.

[brook]

Ok, I figured out how to post after going to the technical section, I opened Mozilla firefox and am using that and it seems to be opening everything fine, sorry again for jumping in on this post. To add to your original post, We too had this problem with Bomber, he would always jump on the couch or bed to pee, and pee on the floor only under the coffee table, I think it was because he knew that was our territory and wanted to be a part of it. When I would clean I would never find poop under the chair that he liked to lay behind, but it would be all over the floor under the table, even with a littler box down there. I think neutering would have helped him tremendously. We are gonna try some new things with the new bunny, limiting his freedom at first and different things to keep this from happening again.

[Spacehopper]

Pop a plastic shower curtain on the bed. Buns don’t seem to keen on them underfoot. lol And also saves your pulling your hair out!!

[Author]

Messages