Successful Dry-Bed Training?

[No Clue]

I’ve read through a lot of discussions on the forum about rabbits urinating on the bed, or peeing on other soft surfaces.  I’ve also read that they like to pee on soft surfaces or that they urinate on those places because it smells strongly of humans (and they’re going to claim it).  I’ve also read a few reports that their rabbits don’t pee on the bed.

I’ve yet to read about any successful transitions from wet bed-bunnies to dry bed-bunnies.  Do they exist?

Can anyone suggest how to get an otherwise litter trained rabbit NOT to pee on the bed?

 

Our rabbit has full run of our house.  It’s rabbit proofed, she’s got two litters, which she now uses dutifully.  She’s about 14 months (and spayed). She’s had great habbits since about 9 or 10 months (and relatively few accidents before).

She’s recently gained access to our bed and loves it.  Binkies galore.. rolling and running.  That’s great!  She’s demonstrated several times that she will get off and go to use her litter – better still!  She’s also frequently peed on the bed in the morning. Not so good.  She can spend the whole night on the bed without a problem (sleeping quietly at the foot of the bed, usually), and will then pee several times in the hour or so before we usually wake up.  Last night, we thought we had blocked her from the bed – and she found a way up this morning.  We removed her.  She found another way up and immediately peed on the bed (as my wife was trying to remove her).  If she just peed on the bed when she got access to it, things might make sense, but why the morning routine?  And, more importantly, what can we do about it?

The other puzzle is – she’s got her own soft surfaces.  She has a perch she sleeps on most days.  It’s essentially a stack of thick, plushy bathroom mats, with a blanket on top.  I swear it’s softer than our bed.  She loves it, but doesn’t pee on it…   

I’m amazed how easy it is to see malice in a rabbit’s behavior…

Thanks!

 

No Clue

 

[LoveChaCha]

It sounds like she is being a typical bunny. She sounds like she is marking the bed.. and/or just loves to do her business on soft stuff. I’m not so sure if you can train her not to… scholding won’t do much. They don’t understand such things

My bunny hasn’t peed on my bed… she likes to mark my room with poos every now and then, but no pee or poo on mommy’s bed..

Maybe I have a rare bunny o_oi

[RabbitPam]

Most radical suggestion I can think of is blocking her from being on the bed unsupervised, like closing her out of the room at night until you’re up. Then let her have supervised play on it as long as you get her off if she pees.

My other suggestion is to try to wake up when she first gets on the bed, and scoop her off and into her litter pan (keeping one right near the bed). If she pees there, praise her and give her a small treat. Then go back to bed. If she continues to pee on you, it’s marking, but also you can say NO loudly and put her into the pan again.

What I’m saying is try to find a way to reward her for peeing in litter pans only, and let her know that a move from the bed to the pan is her best option. Bunnies train through positive feedback, but don’t respond to punishment, so the NO is just to get her attention.

[No Clue]

Fortunately, she’s a stubby bunny and the bed is high, so we simply have to be careful not to have anything near the bed she can hop onto to make the final leap.
I just wish I could understand her fuzzy logic… if it was just the bed, fine. But, just the bed in the morning? I already hate mornings enough, don’t add to it rabbit!

We’ll try redoing the litter training specific to the bed, as you suggest, Pam…

Cheers,

no clue

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