uh oh we have a pee pee problem!

[PeppersMama]

Okay, so pepper has always been amazing with his pee pee habits in his litterbox…a lot times he will poo wherever he wants but he ALWAYS only pees in his litterbox….until now.

I have been letting him free roam in my room alot more now because i have all my cords blocked off by NIC cube walls and i have bunny proofed my room. well he has never peed on the floor, sometimes a poop here or there but never pee…until he realized he could hop on my bed.

Now he LOVES being on my bed, he runs in circles on it, binkys, hops, lays in front of the fan, whatever he can think of. Its actually very cute, when hes on my bed i will sit there and i will say PEPPER! real excitedly and he will get excited and run in circles and binky and then suddenly stop and stare at me waiting for me to say it again, then i say it again and repeat the process til hes tired! lol!

Getting back to the point, usually within about ten minutes of being on my bed, he will pee. never anywhere else, but on my bed. i cant figure it out. is there anything i can do to stop it? did anyone else have this problem? any suggestions? I’m at a loss for what to do, and im tired of washing my bed sheets every day! lol! help?

 

Edited to add: i should probably mention, he is not neutered yet, but will be next month, my vet likes to wait until 5 months and i want to wait until after my school trip to do it.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Uh oh, sounds like the typical territoral move and yes, it is very common. Lucky you! Bunnies who are looking to be top bunny will pee on things that have your scent the heaviest like your bed, a couch or easy chair. There are several things that you can do, catch your bun in the act and scoot to the litter box, block off access to the bed, put a shower curtain on the bed to prevent the pee from soaking through, train your bun to stay off of the bed.

[PeppersMama]

awesome! thanks for these ideas….the shower curtain idea is a good one, i could just keep it folded up and when i let him out i will just put it over the bed. its harder to catch him in the act but im getting the hang of it…he sits really still and just raises his butt a bit. i think it might be easier to train him after hes neutered, but i can start some training now, and hes getting neutered very soon. thanks scarlet!

[Battie]

So you think our boys are just headstrong? I can deal with that. I just am so afraid that after everything I do for him he doesn’t even respect me.

[Scarlet_Rose]

You’re welcome PeppersMama! I hope it helps!

Battie, it is very typical for a rabbit to test boundaries and even the best-behaved rabbit will do this. There is a hierarchy in the rabbit-world and not much unlike an un-neutered male cat, they mark things with pee and spray to say “this is MINE” or “I am TOP BUN!” Just like a calling card each dog makes on a bush or fire hydrant. It does take some patience but the thing that I find is about 80% of people need to do is block a rabbits access to the bed because it is so irresistable to them. Trainging can be arduous and sometimes will not work, and I want to caution you that very few rabbits do not pee on the bed. For PeppersMama, neutering will probably help more but it is hard to say. The most effective way to train them is to catch them in the act, right when they raise their tail to pee and scoot them off to the litter box or a squirt from the water bottle. It is very hard to catch them in the act because the tail raising can be very slight or non-existent. Take a look at your rabbit in the potty box to see the posturing to help you.

[PeppersMama]

well, i thought about doing the shower curtain thing, as it seemed easiest, but then i decided to just block off the bed all together, as this was safest. it worked out better anyway because my boyfriend and i use our laptops on the bed alot and plug them into the wall, and we constantly have to watch to make sure he doesnt chew wires, hes got a few good bites into mine, but nothing too serious to make it stop working yet. I also wanted to buy another set of the 1 and a half inch square organize it wire cubes from target before they sold out (last time i noticed they had started replacing them at our target with the new ones with two sizes of squares). Well there were only 3 boxes left, and i already own one box (each is a 6 cube size box) so i bought another one to use to block off my bed. Now i have plenty of cubes if i ever want to make him a condo! but anyways, now he has a organize it cube fence blocking him off from my bed, and i also had to put a lid on his pen with them. Yeah, turns out my baby bun is an olympic jumper and he jumped his pen (36 inches high!)

[Scarlet_Rose]

That’s a great idea blocking it off and it sounds like the best thing for your situation too. My word you have an olympian in the house! He jumped 36″?

[PeppersMama]

yeah he did! hes crazy i watched him do it! he jumps just high enough to get his front paws on the top of the pen then pulls himself up and over!

[Beka27]

^^^oh my word. that would give me a heart attack if i saw that. i have a NIC grid fence that i use for various purposes. it’s great because i can drag it wherever i need it and set it up in just a second. how high did you make it, he can’t jump over it?

[PeppersMama]

well i made it two grids high, im hoping he wont try to jump over it because theres nothing for his front paws to grab on to really. if he does i have plenty of extra squares, i will just have to make it three high!

I did almost have a heart attack! i yelled his name and ran over and grabbed him before he could hurt himself. im surprised he didnt hurt himself the first time. i checked him over really good though and he is acting fine so i think everything is okay.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

You could also make like a top roof type structure

Like a “T” shape, two high and one on the top flat, that may discourage him without being so high you need to take ballet/gymnastics to become flexible enough to get over it yourself!!

[Scarlet_Rose]

You can also clothes pin a sheet over the top too.

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