Poops outside box but always pees in it

[Amelia]

Hi,

I have seen some related topics on here from searching, but nothing that quite mirrors our experience, so I am starting a new topic…

We have 2 bonded bunnies, Ralph and Edna. We had Ralph first, for about 1 year. He is litterbox trained and everything is still good with that.

When we got Edna (about a year ago), she had been living in a cage when the person wasn’t home, then let to run around the house supervised when they were home.. She didn’t have a litterbox in the cage, so she just went freely in there. When she was out running around, she would go back into the cage to use the bathroom.

We have the two of them living in their own bedroom, with an xpen running around the edge up against the wall all the way around the room (to keep them from chewing on wood doors and trim), and blocking them from leaving the room unattended. Edna will pee in her box, but poops everywhere! 

Obviously, I am to blame for not really trying too hard to correct the behavior for the past year, but we haven’t found anything that seems to help (Picking up her poops and putting them in the box hasn’t helped, the fact that she sees Ralph using the box doesn’t seem to make a difference, etc). It’s like she views the room as a big cage, since it is gated, and therefore poops wherever with in it.

We just moved to a new house, so we figured this is a good opportunity to really get serious about trying to get her correctly litterbox trained. We hope someone might have some suggestions? We could eliminate the xpen, but would need some sort of gate or something keeping them from getting out of the room when no one is home. 

[Muchelle]

Does she do all of her poop outside in one place or scatters it around? Because they mark territory with the poop, by leaving some here and there.

I’m saying this because if she pees in the litter box, then she probably grasps the concept of ‘bathroom’ place so the marking theory is the only one that comes to mind…

[Amelia]

Hi Muchelle!

she scatters it around. yes, it seems like she grasps the concept for sure!

Even though her and Ralph are bonded, I wonder if she still feels the need to mark the territory they share?

[Muchelle]

Since she was used to be alone, it can be she’s just being territorial. You know, letting everyone know that she’s the one in charge
My bun is the only pet of the house, but he marks everything and never misses to drop a poop here and there… it’s just his personality I guess.

[JackRabbit]

If you just moved, she’s likely marking. A good rule of thumb is…..a pile of poop is intentional and means “I had to “go””, a stray poop here and there are usually ones that just “fell out” like at the start of a bunny 500 or a major binky, and poops that are lined up at a border or are scattered everywhere are marking.

[Amelia]

Although we just moved, she has been doing it the whole time we have had her (2 years) And when she used to live alone in her old home, she was kept in a cage when the person wasn’t home, so technically she was just popping in the cage wherever she wanted then

[Author]

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