Olly’s play time

[Carolyn]

I have three bunnies, Scamper (male), Olly (male) and Cookie (female).  We allow them out of their cages twice a day for about an hour.  Right now none of my bunnies are bonded together. That is my new years resolution to get at least two if not all three bonded together.

In the morning when we get home from work (overnighters), we let scamper out in the living room for his hour run, then Olly is let out after him for his hour in the living room. Cookie is let out in the hallway. She is still really little and there are still lots of places for her to hide. At this time we clean their cages and litter boxes,  We give them their daily pellets, hay.

At night we do the same Scamper is out for his hour, Then Olly , and Cookie in the hallway. The very same way as we do it in the mornings. At this time of night we straighten up their cages. After their run times they get their daily veggies and we top off the hay and leave whatever is left from their morning pellets.

In advance, so you all know, Scamper was fixed in September and Olly was fixed in November.  Cookie isn’t old enough, but will be in February/March area.  Scamper and Olly’s cages are side by side for over a month now, trying to get them use to being with each other before trying to bond them again.

So my question is why does Olly poop all over the floor at night, when in the mornings he is good as pie????…and no he does not poop just in front of Scampers cage he goes everywhere to the point we put him back in  his cage early at nights.  Unlike Scamper who will sit in one spot, lift his tail and "unload", Olly literally drops a pellet with every step.  In their cages, Scamper is 99%, Olly is 80%, Cookie, 99% using their litter boxes.  This evening ritual with Olly is so predictable, it’s getting frustrating so any advice or reasoning behind it would be greatly appreciated….

Thanks in advance

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[JK]

I’ll let one of these experts here answer that but I just had to tell you how adorable Olly is!!! I’m assuming the picture is of Olly. That face is so angelic it’s hard to be mad at the little pooper! Love your names.

[Lisa_43]

The same here, what a cute bunnie.

[Carolyn]

Yes thats my Olly. He is such a sweet heart.

[Carolyn]

To give a little history on Olly. We purchased him from his owner who didn’t have time for Olly or his sibling at the time We were told they were 4 month old and they were both girls. In some ways I wish we took them both but as my boyfriend has to remind me from time to time is we can’t save them all.

 

Anyway when we picked Olly up his living contions were bad. They kept the two rabbits in a cage that was to small for one rabbit. The food dish was empty, no access to hay and no litter box. The rabbits really had no room to move. So he was bonded to a sibling but I don’t know if he was the dominant one or not.  The only time he had access to a litter box was when they were out for play time and to my understanding was they got out once every couple of days and Olly didn’t use the litter box at all.

 

So at the end of October we booked the appointment to have Olly to be fixed and for some reason I decided to check his sex again not that  I really honestly knew what I was looking for but it was clear he had grown some boy parts.

 

I tried twice to put the two boys together about a month after Olly was neutered and they started to fight, I separated them right away and quit trying to get them to bond together. Decided I needed to read up on it more before trying again plus the holiday season was coming up very quickly.

 

Since then I have placed the two boys cages side by side where they can see each other but far enough away that they cannot reach each other. I’m hoping it will help them bond better with each other.  When scamper is out and about he may stop by Olly’s cage to say hi but he doesn’t stay long, Scamper is always too busy looking to see what trouble he can get himself into ( he’s my bad boy…lol).

 

When Olly is out and about he runs around living room. Then he either goes to back to his cage, or he hangs out in front of scamper. I think this morning he was trying to get Scamper to play with him. Scamper for the most part sticks his nose out of the cage sometime he runs to the front of his cage, not sure if the is charging or not. They don’t seem to growl. Sometime nip at each other but that’s getting few and far in between.  For the most part when Olly is hanging out at Scampers cage they well lay side by side or they sit with there back to each other pretending the other one is there. Olly has a very laid back personality, He happy to hang out in his cage all day and not bother with anyone.

[charlie82]

Hi,

It sounds like Olly is still just behaving like a juvenille. Some rabbit can take longer than others to litter train and some are more territorial. Since Olly was neutered in November he may still have hormones kicking about that make him want to leave his mark. The fact that Scamper is in the same room is enough to want to make olly poop everywhere, it doesn’t even need to be somewhere scamper has been. If he is dropping things off as he moves around he is most definitely marking his territory, even with perfectly trained litter box bunnies they will also do this if another rabbit is in the same room. I have a doe who is neutered and will use her box religiously if she is the only rabbit in the room, bring in my bonded pair and she poops everywhere.

You are doing the right thing with the cages. You might also want to keep swapping over litterboxes for a couple of weeks and maybe trying out what Binkybunny did with a substitute ‘friend’ i.e a soft toy with the other rabbits scent on. Seems like a good idea. Check out the bonding info in the ‘Bunny Info’ heading above.

[Gravehearted]

well since your bunnies aren’t bonded, the pooping is about marking territory.
I have no idea why he would be doing so much at night, and not in the mornings, though. It may be because they’re more active at night? I know my bunnies when let out during the day are more mellow and like to snooze..

[MarkBun]

I agree with charlie. It could be a territorial thing. Since I assume you let the other two out to hop around, their scent via their bodies gets put around the room. Olly is just trying to cover it up with his free range bb’s. Although things may seem to be going smoothly through the bars, that can change in an instant once that blockade is gone. Maryann was the biggest darling to the buns when we introduced them via a pen between them. No charges, grunts, nips nor ear or body posturing. But once that blockade was gone, NinjaBun!

My personal thought is that they are only being polite due to the cage seperating them and that you’ll see some aggressive behavior once they are physically together. Of course, this is to be expected especially between two boys WITH an unfixed female lurking around (even if she is a baby).

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