Pooping behaviours – any ideas?

[Bunny Hugger]

Hi everyone, 

I’ve posted about some pooping behaviours in the past but of course he has a new one now that I can’t quite figure out (he’s had some other ones as well that I haven’t posted on here but figured out pretty quickly what was going on and was able to stop it). 2 days last week I came home and found a whole bunch of poop in our upstairs bathroom as well as a medium-small pee puddle. I cleaned it up and just attributed it to him maybe being a little thrown off now that I’m back at work after the Christmas holidays. 2 days later, the same thing happened and all the poops and the pee were in almost the same spots. This morning I left for work a tiny bit later than usual and actually happened to be upstairs near the bathroom when I saw him go in and then proceed to leave 3 poops here, another 3 poops over a bit more, and some more poops here and there around the bathroom – all in similar spots as I had seen before. I started cleaning them up right away since I was there but then I kinda stopped as I noticed he was eating some of them. These were definitely not cecotropes, they were the regular hard round pellets. On the plus side, he didn’t pee in there today. My partner thinks maybe we should just close the bathroom door and see what happens, but I am not too keen on that idea as the rest of our upstairs is carpeted. Any ideas on what to do? And why he would be eating his poop??

[vanessa]

Put a litter box in that spot… I’ll bet he will hop right into the litter box, and won’t poop/pee on the floor anymore. My little guy was in the back bedroom, and I normally have a carpet for him to access the 3 bedrooms. tHat morning, I removed the carpet while I was cleaning, and forgot to put it back. He won’t walk on the bare wood hallway, s he stayed in the back bedroom, where he doesn’t have a litter box. He found himself a corner in the room, tipped over the air vent cover, and used it as a litter box. The next day (with the carpet in place), he did the same thing. So he decided that was his new poop spot. I put a litter box there, and also on the spot where I saw him pee when his pal kicked him out of their shared box. He now has 3 litter boxes – no more unintended poop piles. His pal, also has an extra litter box. She was making poops and pee piles on her 3rd level condo. I put a box there, no more bad poop/pee piles. Give it a try. It may mean cleanign up more litter boxes, but once they decide to go in a certia spot, it is sometimes hard to convince them otherwise. If you close the door, who knoes where he will decide to go next. And then you must always remember to close the door. I woudl add a litter box in that corner…
Is he eating his cecotroughs or his regular poops? Cecotroughs are normal to eat. Regular poops – not too concerning. Sometimes bunnies eat them – we figure their bodies know if they are missing something in their diet and they eat their poops to get the digested item.

[Bunny Hugger]

Thanks for your reply vanessa. Recently he was going to the bathroom in another area of the house so I put a litter box there and now he doesn’t go there at all haha. I will add another one in that bathroom and see what happens – he’ll either use it or it will be a deterrent like the other one. Silly buns!
That’s actually really cute your bun used the air vent as an emergency potty haha. I think you shared that in another reply to my older post but I still love that story!
He was definitely eating regular poop! Glad to hear it’s not a concern. He eats a great diet but he does seem to be shedding a lot lately so maybe he needs the extra fibre!

[vanessa]

Yeah – it was really cute. Now I remember your original post too. When I put the litter box on the 3rd level for Guin, she stopped going there. So eventually I took the box away. After a few weeks, she started it up again. So I’l just leave the box there. She might go in it once in a while, mostly it acts as a deterent, but it keeps her from pooping.peeing on the fleece. Sometimes we just can’t tell why they break their habits.

[LBJ10]

He could have suddenly felt compelled to mark there. It’s hard knowing what’s going on in their little bunny brains sometimes. If an extra litter box there works, then I wouldn’t worry too much beyond that. Eating normal poop isn’t unheard of.

[Author]

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