Rabbit pees on my bed?

[Basil]

Hello!

I have a bit of a weird question. I have a young, unneutered/unspayed rabbit (his history is that he was essentially a discarded Easter Bunny that I somehow ended up with. He’s only been to the vet once as an infant because he had fleas and they couldn’t sex him properly – he will be going back to a vet that specializes in rabbits once he is older and spayed/neutered) who is lovely, gets along with my cat and dog, and is free ranging during the day, and in an x pen at night. He jumps on my bed, which is totally fine, but my problem is that he tends to pee on it? He’s about 98% litterbox trained otherwise, so I am just confused as to what this could mean, if it means anything? I have a waterproof duvet cover on my bed because of him so it’s not a huge deal, I’m mostly just wondering why he would do it? He also sometimes poops on the bed. It’s almost like this is the one place he isn’t litterbox trained. He won’t go anywhere else in my room. 

Also, a related question: He has two litterboxes with paper pellets and hay in them, and he uses them when he’s in his xpen, when he’s out he loves to use the cat litterbox which has a clumping clay litter in it. I watch him like a hawk when he goes in there and he never eats the litter, are there any other dangers to him using it? The cat doesn’t mind and I clean it twice daily. 

Basil and I thank you in advance! 

[Terra]

Hi there,
My guess would be that he’s peeing on your bed because it smells of you, to make it smell of him instead as a show of dominance. I suspect he’s using the cat’s litter box as as a show of dominance over the cat as well!

This should be something that resolves when he gets neutered, though there’s still a chance it might be a thing he always does, especially now he’s in the habit of it. If you can keep him off your bed for a month or so when he gets neutered there’s probably a better chance of him forgetting about it.

I’m not sure whether the clay is any risk to him. If it’s dusty then that won’t be good for him, but I don’t really know whether clumping clay litter is dusty or not since our cat is very particular about not having clumping litter…

[Basil]

Thank you Terra! This is very helpful

Is the dominance thing a further indicator that he might indeed be a boy, or is it something that a boy and girl rabbit would both do? I know it’s a bit of a guessing game!

[Terra]

Oh, girl rabbits definitely do dominance displays too. They’re very equal opportunities about these things!

How old is s/he? Vets can sometimes sex baby bunnies from about 6-8 weeks, though it may be 12-16 weeks until you know for sure. Boys can be neutered pretty much as soon as they can be sexed, and girls from not much older than that, as long as the vet is confident performing surgery on rabbits (a less confident vet might want to wait until they’re a little bigger).

[Basil]

Oh man, I didn’t know that! I am not sure how old he is – the vet was guessing around 7 weeks old at Easter, which would make him 6-7 months old now. I just went to my regular vet because of the fleas and there was an emergency health issue (half of his tail was missing O_O) so I am not sure how accurate that assessment was. That vet said they couldn’t be fixed until one year old, so I honestly have not looked up the issue more since then and assumed that I would find a rabbit-specific vet to fix him once I went off to school in the fall. I’m moving in couple weeks now and have been talking to a highly recommended vet who works almost exclusively with rabbits and other small mammals, so I will get him fixed ASAP!

[Jdee Chan]

I have this problem as well. My girl bunny Momo ten months old so its about two months since her post op stage where she was buzzing like a bee. And sadly my bed is just a mattress on the floor as I’m getting a base made for it. But it won’t be ready till after dec at this rate. I can’t keep her off it. She digs the blankets chews them pees on it. But since its so close to the ground I can’t keep her off it. During the day she has an outside hutch I leave her in since we rent. At night I bring her in for two hours before bed and let her get her energy out then I put her in a cage over night to sleep but its always first thing in the morning. Despite the litter tray being by her cage ahe will beeline to my mink blanket or dressing gown on my bed and just pee.
Some help required please. Also this is my first bunny. There needs to be a movie on how to train your bunny.

[Author]

Messages