Spayed rabbit peeing everywhere

[FloppyBunny]

Hi,

I had my girl spayed in July, so her hormones should have calmed down by now, but she keeps marking her territory. At first it she seemed to simply have not been litter trained, but as she got used to her new home, it became clear that it was territorial. If we leave her and her bonded friend’s room alone (no cleaning or changing any smells), she will use her litter box 100%, but if we want to clean the pee she left before, she starts all over again. She also leaves poops where she pees sometimes, but I could deal with that if it weren’t for the pee. I am starting to get quite discouraged and my family members are not pleased. We will be selling our house soon, and we need the carpet clean. Tonight I got up to go to the washroom and smelled her pee, so I had to go clean at midnight. Her urine smells quite strongly, and my sense of smell is extremely sensitive. I also can’t change the litter box as often as I would like to. If I vacuum the carpet, I HAVE to leave the dirty litter box or else she freaks out again and the carpet will be covered in pee. I swear she doesn’t even pee this much the rare times that she uses only her litter box. Does anyone have any ideas? I’ve tried absorbing pee with a towel and leaving the towel there once the carpet is cleaned, it kinda works but then she ends up throwing it away and peeing where it used to be. I’ve washed with vinegar, etc.

She’s been living here for 6 months, her scent should be everywhere. I think a big reason for her insecurity is that she’s had at least 5 owners (that I know of) in her 3 or 4 years of life. Her last owner also didn’t understand rabbits and forced her to be used for zootherapy every day with random people even though she’s not comfortable with this. She now lets me hold her and will stretch out on me, but even with people she sees, smells, and hears everyday (but doesn’t interact as much with other than a few pets), if they hold her, she tries to jump to me and gets nervous. Imagine having each day a bunch of random people who may be a bit rough without meaning to (i.e. kids). She’s slowly been improving and getting used to her new final humans, but the poor thing will again be moving in 6 months (with us). She does so many things that make me and my family really believe that she was slightly “traumatized” and is therefore very insecure and territorial. I’m giving her time for the rest, but the peeing everywhere needs to stop.

I didn’t expect this to be so long, sorry!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Have you tried offering her more litterboxes? Maybe try putting litter boxes where she likes to mark the most. Also, if you don’t, put lots of hay in the litterbox to encourage her spending lots of time in there.

Hope someone else can offer some more helpful advice.

[FloppyBunny]

I will try putting some more litterboxes, but I don’t have much hope with that because if something blocks her spot she will throw it elsewhere. As for the hay in the litterbox, I used to do that, but she wouldn’t use the litterbox, she would pee right beside it instead. I later figured out that she doesn’t want to dirty the hay, so now use shredded paper, which she likes.

[Azerane]

Hmm, tough one. Do you completely clean out and spray down the litter box when you change it? I’d suggest either doing spot cleans of the box, or when you do a complete change, keep a scoop full of dirty litter and sprinkle it back over the top of the clean litter when you’re done to keep her scent nice and fresh in it. If you can hang a hay rack next to the box it may help too, bunnies like to poop/pee and eat

Otherwise I’m not sure what to suggest, she does sound very territorial. I have a bit an an unorthodox suggestion which is to clean up her pee on the carpet, but sprinkle her poops around those areas when you are done. If her marking is territorial, perhaps she’ll be less inclined to pee there after cleaning if she can still smell her poops there. But that’s just a wild guess I don’t want to encourage her to poop there.

Do they have a cage in their room at all? My other suggestion is to keep her confined to a smaller area of the room for a while until her habits improve after which you can slowly expand the amount of room she has.

[FloppyBunny]

So I’ve tried the extra litterboxes, and she just pees beside them. I just went to check on them, and her butt is all wet from the pee, even her back seems to have been sprayed, I don’t know how. Of course she thought it would be a great idea to stand on my foot with her wet butt and dry herself there .

I don’t wash the literboxes when I change them, and leave most of her poops when I clean the pee. I don’t know what to do. I want to be able to keep her, but this is getting tiring. Also, even if I wanted to rehome her (which I don’t, she’s been passed around a lot), I couldn’t. She goes insane if locked in a cage after been given all this freedom, and would be miserable since most people who get rabbits unfortunately do not give them much space.

I doubt blocking off a part will change anything, because she marks right at the beginning of the carpet, not everywhere. Mostly the corners.

My instinct tells me that once she feels completely at ease, it will stop, but idk how to help speed up the process. For example, she doesn’t even completely flop out except occasionally. When we clean her messes, she doesn’t like it at all and will keep running between areas we cleaned. She even peed right beside me while I was cleaning the first one.

Do you guys have any tips on how to make her feel at ease? I can’t remember how it went exactly with my last 2, but it was easier than this. She flips between things that show a lot of trust and acting like she doesn’t know you. She lets me touch her stomach, she’ll climb on me if I lay down, and let me pet her the few times she flops out. She even once flopped out beside me when I was laying down. But then randomly she’ll run away if I try to pet her, or if she’s in the litterbox and I get within 20ft of her, she’ll get out (so now I wait), she’ll be purring when I pet her, then suddenly leave flicking her feet. I’ll offer her a treat, she’ll eat some, then leave flicking her feet. Idk why she’s so confusing.

Sorry this is so long!

[Artax]

What ended up happening?

[Bam]

This is an old thread from 2017. We ask our members not to revive old threads 🙂 I will lock this topic now.

[Author]

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