Territorial doe / toilet disasters!

[Miniflops]

Hello binkybunniers!

I was wondering if anybody has any tips for me dealing with ongoing litter training issues (or, if not, can empathise a bit!).

My minilops are 3 years old – brother and sister – and they were both neutered at 6 months. The boy is a big, chilled out, affectionate lump of a thing, but the girl is a tiny bit special and has never really relaxed around us (although she seems better around men than women for some reason). Boy bunny’s litter tray habits are 99% perfect, but the girl has never totally got the idea – she uses the litter tray if she’s locked in her cage, but when they’re hopping around (which is most of the time) she will poo and wee in any corner of any room she’s in. (She seems to prefer covered areas – under desks, sofas, tables etc.) Confining her to smaller areas hasn’t worked at all, and if I put extra litter trays down she just finds new areas of carpet to wee on. (Sadly we’re in a rented flat so we can’t change the flooring.) I’ve cleaned the floor with everything (vinegar, bicarb, enzymatic pet cleaners) but nothing seems to work – it’s maddening and it’s been going on for years!

It seems territorial to me, and for some reason it always gets worse at dusk – even if they’ve been out all day. I think girlbunny might be one of the rare cases of buns who get more territorial after being spayed – does anyone have any tips? I can’t wait to move to somewhere with hard flooring, but until then it looks as though I’ll have to spend 20 mins a day scrubbing the carpet and doing panicky surveys before guests come to avoid any embarrassing surprises

Any advice would be appreciated so much!

Thank you so so so much,

Ruth

[LBJ10]

Hmm, what about just buying a piece of linoleum and laying it down over the carpet?

Have you asked their vet about the behavior? I know this has been going on for some time, but perhaps there is something else going on.

[Author]

Messages