Particular spots where bunny pees.

[Amuse_Me]

Another post! This time regarding my bunny and peeing on things…

Cadbury, 7 or 8 months old and NOT neutered (happening in three more days!) is litter trained – and pretty good at it. He will go from ANYWHERE in the house, and run to his box to do his business. Every time. However, I have a few obstacles with him…

 

Any time he hops up on the couch with me or the girlfriend, he will pee on the blanket. He wont pee on the bare leather though. However, if the blanket is on the floor (with or without us), he will not pee on it? The same goes for the bed. If we are up there, he will pee. If we are not, he wont.

There is also one spot in my bedroom, a back corner, where he will pee (and poop also). There is nothing in this corner. It isnt behind any furniture or anything. It is open and free.

 

Is this a dominance thing for him, and he is trying to claim his territory? If so, why would he only do it there, and no where else where my girlfriend or myself are present? How can we make it so he knows it is my territory?

[Slowebot]

I don’t think its a matter of being HIS territory. He smells your scent all over those things so heavily that he wants to add to it to mark the territory of his warren. So he’s not trying to cover your scent but he thinks you’ve scented things and therefore thinks he too should scent them. Your bed and couch are things you spend a lot of time on and tend to smell just like the humans the bunnies love. Bunnies don’t typically like to pee on things that aren’t absorbent, hence the not peeing on the bare leather. The times my bunny has peed on my bed have been when I have been staring at him or when I’m reaching for him. Afterwards he is super affectionate and hops lovingly after me while I change my sheets like he’s super proud of himself because he thinks he is doing a good job for me by increasing the scent of the bed. This behavior doesn’t change with alterations either, the best prevention is to just keep him off the couch and bed since. There isn’t really a way for you to let him know that he shouldn’t pee there because it is your territory because he definitely knows it’s your territory, he loves the fact that you’ve scented it (he doesn’t understand that you didn’t pee on it) and thinks there is reason to scent it himself. I really think it is actually more of a loving gesture than territorial.

As for the one spot in the bedroom he has marked that as another litter box and the only way to stop him from using the carpet is to put a litter box there. You could try spraying it with vinegar after cleaning it and trying to get the scent away but more likely than not he has already designated that area as his second litter box so it might just be a good idea to put a spare litter box there. Or if you don’t want a litter box there just block it off with something big and heavy and hopefully that will make him forget that spot ever existed.

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