Rex rabbit only poops in the grass

[Sam]

Hello everyone. My sister owns a male Rex rabbit and I need to ask a question regarding rabbit poop habits on her behalf.

Her rabbit, Horace, changed his defecation behavior this week. When she bought him, he was fully toilet trained and very disciplined. He went through a hormone phase before being neutered but that was about it and he never made a fuss out of using his litter box again.

Until last week or so. Now he simply refuses to go in it, but when we take him to the outside enclosure we built for him, he’ll poop a small amount in the grass.

Does anyone know what this could be (if there’s a medical condition I’m not aware of) or how we could re-train him? We’ve tried bringing the box outside to where he usually goes (so he associates the places) but there hasn’t been much of a success yet. It’s getting progressively colder outside where I live and eventually, bringing him outside a few times per day won’t be feasible anymore.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Tony's Mum]

Check his feet. Rexes are prone to sore hocks, and mine won’t use a litter tray with hard litter (wood pellets etc) if her feet hurt at all. What kind of litter is in the tray?

[Sam]

I checked and his feet aren’t hurt. He also sometimes sits in the litter box when we bring it outside, but he just wont poop in it. The litter box brand is Living World’s Fresh and Comfy, which is made from recycled newspaper.

[Tony's Mum]

Well there goes my theory so! How confusing.

[Bam]

Could he be wary of another animal? I just read about how cats can be very wary when it comes to using a litter box, if there’s another cat that perhaps might have called that box (or whole area) as theirs. Cats don’t guard stuff like dogs do, they rather stalk, still keeping a close eye/nose on what they beleive are rightfully theirs. Cats scent mark “their” stuff with their cheeks, like buns do with the chin.

It is a bit of a mystery, this.

[Author]

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