New bunny here

[A Lops Life]

We just got our first bunny. He is a 1 year old Holland Lop. He is adorable and so sweet. We have an appointment to get him neutered in two days but it’s really hard to find info on what to do with him until his horomones are settled down. I have him in a 24×48 pen (like an x-pen) with his litter box. He usually has one or two pee accidents when I come down in the morning. Of course there is poo everywhere but it is getting less and less.
My problem is, when I open up his cage to the biggest, which is 48×48, and sit in there with him, he sprays me and circles me. I am constantly changing clothes and doing laundry due to this. How am I supposed to bond with him if he always sprays me??

[OnyxMoon]

Congrats on the new addition! He sounds super adorable! 

The pen is his territory, and since he isn’t neutered yet, he is territorial like all bunnies are. So when you step in, you are intruding on his space and when a bunny sprays that is them marking their territory. So when he is spraying you, its him being territorial.

Territorial issues should go down after neutering, and after their hormones die down. Which should be about a month after neutering. Thats when i personally would try bonding with him again.   

After his surgery just let him chill out for a while, you want them to be calm and warm after surgery. From what i have read, rabbits are more prone to hypothermia after surgery because of the Anesthesia and their smaller size. So make sure he is warm for the first few days.

Neutering also helps a lot with litter training, so after his surgery and his hormones are calmed down, he will be much easier to train!

[A Lops Life]

So, I shouldn’t be trying to bond with him at all yet?? I can’t imagine not bonding with him for over a month! He seems fine when we sit with him in the bigger cage and comes up to us to get carrots. Then just all of a sudden he will circle me and then spray me. Today I found him humping his little stuffed monkey lol ?

So if we aren’t supposed to bond with him until after his horomones calm down. Do we do anything with him?? He runs back and forth in his cage waiting for us to come up to him.

[sarahthegemini]

Of course you should still try and bond with him. Unfortunately that means putting up with spraying til he has been neutered. Not much you can do I’m afraid.

[OnyxMoon]

Super sorry, I didn’t mean don’t try to bond with him at all, sometimes my words get jumbled! And it ends up sounding the opposite of what I mean! ??

[A Lops Life]

Oh ok, it’s ok. I just want to make sure I understand. How would you suggest bonding with him if sitting in his opened up kennel gets me sprayed? I can’t have him out of the cage until he is litter box trained.

[Deleted User]

He can get depressed if you don’t let him out. Litter training him is honestly going to be near impossible until he’s neutered. It’s just that instinct. Wear clothes you don’t really care about if you want to be close to him and bond with him or put an old blanket over your lap. You don’t have to wash the blanket every day. Just take a face cloth and wipe it down with some white vinegar at the end of the night. To *attempt* to litter train him, you can keep his food items and water next to his box so he does the majority of his business in the box. Wiping up pee with a paper towel and putting it in his box and scooping the poops into the box can help. If he looks like he’s about to pee, you can scoot him toward to box. If you notice he pees in one specific spot the most, put the box there.

[Wick & Fable]

Litter training on an unfixed rabbit can reach a particular threshold of success, but every rabbit is different and the large majority will never get to 95-100% until they are fixed. I think it’s worth letting your rabbit out, even if it means cleaning up after them because honestly, even fixed rabbits will pee/poo outside the box for a number of reasons.

Wick did a fairly good job staying adherent before his neuter honestly.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[A Lops Life]

Thank you all so much. I will do the blanket trick so I don’t have to do laundry so often lol. He goes in tomorrow to get neutered, so fingers crossed, he gets better soon. He only had one spot of pee outside his box this morning with about 20 poops out of the box. Pretty good, I think.

[Author]

Messages