Well, it sort of worked – territorial peeing

[osprey]

My three buns are housed in a 4 story condo made from NIC cubes.  The second story of the condo has been an ongoing battleground for pee wars.  The floor was plywood, then I changed it to coroplast, and it had a faux sheepskin over it (the rubber backed kind).  I think this floor of the condo is Deanna’s personal domain, because there is a small litter box on this level that she really likes.  She likes to sit in it and pick hay out of the top of the hay rack that is on the first floor.  Every couple of days, one or more of the bunnies would pull the sheepskin out of a corner and pee there.  If I moved the litterbox, they’d pee where the litterbox used to be.  It was very frustrating, I’d have to wash the sheepskin twice a week.  About two weeks ago, I got rid of the sheepskin and replaced it with one of those BusyBunny grass mats.  Since then, there was only one pee incident, and that was over a week ago.  I have no idea why, but the sheepskin was an invitation to pee.  Maybe the pee smell never got totally washed out?

 

[MimzMum]

I’m concerned with this myself, because I bought one of those kitty Cuddl-e Cups and placed it in the bunny run and within seconds Mimzy had scratched in it and peed. So I took it out and vinegar-washed it. Put it back in the second time, he went right to it and peed. So I cleaned it again and haven’t put it back. But I think there’s something about that faux sheepskin that’s in the kitty beds, and for some reason it’s just the white faux sheepskin…I have another bunny Cuddl-e Cup that has green faux sheepskin in it and he doesn’t pee on that. 😕

[osprey]

Scratch that, it did not work.  We cleaned the condo this morning, and there were two pee spots on the new grass mat.  Grrrr.

 

[babybunsmum]

what has worked for me… and maybe it’s just luck… is to wrap the fake sheepskin around an extra piece of choroplast.  i had some left over, but any stiff board would do.  i tape it onto the under-side with packing tape to keep the edges away from falling prey to chewing & digging.  i tried this to help with pinky’s sore hocks & because the backside of the fake sheepskin i found is really furry & i didn’t want them to pull off & ingest fake fur.  both buns loooove to dig dig dig on it but neither has successfully chewed a hole through it because its wrapped tightly.  they have never peed on them.  i do have to launder them weekly at least because they sometimes leave -pardon the phrase- cecal skid marks on them.

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[babybunsmum]

forgot to add… my system wouldn’t help out the territorial thing, but makes it so they can’t dig the faux sheepskin away & pee.

[Gravehearted]

oo it sounded so promising too! i think sometimes it can be the pee scent really gets in something, like the faux sheepskin, but it sounds like Deena has claimed the spot.

I’m a lil confused – is there a box there that they’re pushing aside to get to the sheepskin or did you take out the box? We use those medium sized binder clips to hold the litterboxes in place and they’ve worked well – if it’s a scooting the litterbox issue.

babybunsmum – that’s a clever idea! i might give it a try too, since Viktor looves to dig.

[osprey]

So, imagine you are peering into the condo.  On the second floor, up against the left side wall of the condo all the way in the back is Deanna’s litterbox.  The pee war spot is on the right side, in the right back corner.  If I move Deanna’s box to the back right corner, then someone pees in the back left corner where the box used to be.  Does that make sense?  They have 3 boxes total, the gigantic one under the hay basket on the first floor, a smaller one in the back corner on the first floor, and then the one Deanna claimed on the second floor.  They spend most of their time on the third floor, all together, and they don’t pee there at all.  I think the 2nd floor peeing is Deanna trying to keep the other two out of her space, and then they all get into the act.

 

[Gravehearted]

yeah, it sounds like that to me. She marks the spot, they get ticked that she marked it, so in turn want to mark it too. :-/

[babybunsmum]

well osprey, that sounds like a 3 ring circus!  i wish i knew how to stop those kind of puddles… all i do here is clean it up all the time.  but then i’m hoping it’ll tone down after pinky is spayed if they bond.  if not at least i’ll be in a good clean-up routine!  do you think it’ll ever die down?  my 2 here seem to pee less often out of their litters after i’ve done a complete mopping of the floors with soapy vinegar water and scrubbed my area rug.  then once there’s a first puddle which i spot clean it seems to start a trend of more frequent mishaps.  i take this to mean perhaps they’ll ease up eventually.  maybe i’m just wearing rose colored glasses?

[osprey]

Pinky at least should be much better once she is spayed.  I know that with Marilyn the foster mom, she has been spayed a week now, and she is nearly perfect peeing in the litterbox.  Before her spay, I’d have to change her linens every other day because of the smell.  And her poops were really skunky too, that is much better now.

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