Thistle the peeing machine.

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Thistle has been a bad boy, he was doing so well in his area with litter training so I decided to switch their pens, put Thistle in Ferns pen and Fern in Thistle’s pen.

Well he is not doing so great in there. He peed four times during the night, he peed in the litter box too but GAH! Is he just marking his territory because of Fern’s smell in the room?

Will all this pee mania stop once they are bonded? Because I want to be able to let them in other rooms  to roam a bit, but that can’t be done if he is a pee boy! It is just so frustrating because Fern has always been so perfect with her litter habits.

So is it marking and will it stop? I just need some reassurance because I am feeling so frustrated and i feel the peeing will never stop!

Help!

[RabbitPam]

It does sound like the peeing is marking, which means it will stop eventually. You could put him back in his own pen for a day or two, and try again, to see if it’s just the stress and marking. He may not like Fern’s smell in his pen either, but if it’s medical, it would probably continue in his own pen. See if he doesn’t do it so much in his comfort zone. This will take time, so be prepared to clean a lot for a few weeks, but not forever. (I keep a covered trash can, like a diaper pail, next to Samantha’s cage for easy disposal of litter and paper towels. It keeps the mess and smell down very well.)

[Moonlight_Wolf]

So now they are bonded and Thistle is still peeing out of the litter box a bit. So will this stop once he is more used to Fern and his surroundings, I hope so. Is there anything I can do to speed the process?

[mrmac]

Dexter did that too. He still does it occasionally but 9 times out of 10 he makes it in the box. Once he was in with the others he grudually got better and better and then it just seemed to almost stop.

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Yay, thank you mrmac, I have hope!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Ok another question, (sorry they just keep popping up, because once he seems 100% litter trained, he pees outside the box.)

I let my dog say hi to them in their cage today because Fern loves him and does Binkys when he is around. Well when I let neo (my dog) in the pen, thistle jumped up in the condo and did a big pee. Now I am not sure if he was marking his territory from Neo, or if he was too afraid to go down the condo to the litter box. He did not seem afraid of Neo, just a little unsure. Also he does smell Neo on a daily basis (Neo sleeps in my bed at night)

Also, I am afraid that if I let him go somewhere else he will pee there! Does anyone else have this problem? I want to put a cardboard box inside the bunny’s cage but I am afraid he will pee in it… because it is something new.

Do you think this behavior will die down over time, once he feels even more secure in his new home?

[Sarita]

Well, I think I would not let Neo actually into their pen since it’s their territory. It is possible it was either marking or fright, but you cannot really know for certain I think.

[BinkyBunny]

Jack is very territorial with our cat. He will mark up the place if Kitty shows too much interest in the bunnyroom, HOWEVER, that has lessened over time as Jack has slowly gotten used to him, but he just got more so with his “claiming” Vivian WHEN our cat comes around.

I say give it some time, and see how it goes. Once he realizes that Neo is not showing too much interest in him or is not a threat that may help.

It can take several months. I know with Vivian and Jack, the marking and peeing was so out of hand. But now the territorial poos are limited to “near” the box, and for the pees, (which finally stopped last week), I put placemats in the favorite “pee” marking areas.

Also, I took their favorite treats and cut them up into tiny itsy bitsy pieces and put them in the litterbox throughout the day to encourage litterbox use, because it seems that no matter why they go in there, they smell the box and have the urge to pee, and it seemed to help encourage litterbox use even during marking.

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Yea, Thistle does seem to be doing better, but every time I think he is done with all the peeing, he pees again! He seems to not pee for three days and on the fourth he does three pees 0_0.

I hope it will die down as time goes on! As long as it will eventually go away I will bear with it for the time being.

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