Peeing/pooping during stressing/dates?

[gbe]

 

(I’ve been providing updates on Daisy and Buster’s difficult bonding in the “First-time bonder with tough bond” thread, but this is a new issue that I thought needed a new topic.)

We’ve been bonding Daisy and Buster for the past two weeks via dates in bathtub, and because they’re not getting along too well, we’ve been doing 10-30 minutes of stressing just before putting them in. Typically this means putting them together in a tupperware laundry basket and driving them around, or at least putting them on the floor in the basket while vacuuming around them. The car rides definitely stress them more, which is probably good, but the vacuuming also prevents them from fighting and is more convenient.

After about a week of stressing, Buster has started going the bathroom both during the stressing and while in the tub. During stressing, he will usually pee (but not poop) in the basket – not brief marking but a good amount of urine. After moving to the tub, he will often drop a few pellets. I typically line the tub with hay for them to chew on during dates, so maybe he’s trying to claim it.

Daisy is the main aggressor in the relationship, and she will frequently nip/bite him if he gets too active too close to her. More than anything, this seems to cause him to both poop and pee – the pee is often a spray when he’s attacked, which is usually accompanied by an unpleasant smell (do bunnies musk?). This tends to make dates go sour because Daisy gets splashed with it and gets even more upset.

Buster has never been a very clean bunny – his litter habits aren’t great, but he definitely knows how to use a little box because he’s very good at it when we switch him to Daisy’s cage. But going to the bathroom during bonding, whether out of fear, marking, or defense, is a new one to me. For what it’s worth, Daisy doesn’t go to the bathroom at all on dates.

Has anyone dealt this behavior before? What does it all mean? Any advice from you bonding experts out there? I really want this bond to work, but this is making things even more difficult!

[Elrohwen]

Some bunnies pee out of fear. They can also definitely release a scent when they are upset about something – Otto and Hannah got into a scuffle once and boy did Otto smell!

Mine peed quite a bit during the bathtub dates – sometimes it was obviously marking (usually from Hannah) but other times it was just full amounts of pee, probably because of being nervous.

[cainan]

Ah ha! I thought that I had imagined that “fear smell” during the kids’ tub dates. It even gets on your hands for a little bit too :$
Merry also seems to be peeing out of defiance these past two days. Gotta love bonding!

[Elrohwen]

Yeah, when Otto did it I wasn’t sure what to do, but I wiped down the cage (I stuffed him in the plastic cage and locked him in to separate him and Hannah, who had just started living together). Luckily wiping it down completely got rid of the smell, so he must’ve sprayed something into the air.

He also used to fear-pee every single time we picked him up or put him in the carrier. Once he soaked the carrier so much (including the blanket and paper towels I had put in there) that I had to stop 10 min away from our house and change out his bedding because he only had about 4sqin of dry space to sit on. Haha. He’s gotten over that, thankfully.

Hannah sometimes smells oniony, and smelled like that a lot when we first got her, but it doesn’t seem to be related to being nervous. I have no idea why she smells bad sometimes.

[cainan]

Ha that reminds me of a funny story from our first stress bonding. We were driving to the vet and the two of them were in one carrier. Both were obviously scared. Banner buried his face under Merry’s butt (out of fear or in a bid to be groomed I don’t know). She finally got sick of him and peed on his head . Didn’t stop the little guy from trying again though!

[Elrohwen]

Hahaha. At least neither of mine have peed on each other!

My boss at my last company had a big doofy doberman mix and her husband had a pit bull mix. When they first started living together, the dogs would go out together and the dobie would lift his leg and pee right on the other dog. Lol.

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