What to do??

[Meloney]

I have three bunnies.  They are all adorable, and I love them to pieces.  Angel, my oldest female spayed, I have had for over two years.  Brady and Sweetpea are a bonded pair (Male and Female, both fixed).  Angel has the run of my bedroom with the exception of a caged off area for Brady and Sweetpea.  This living arrangement has worked for almost 2 years rather well.

All are littertrained well, however since Sweetpea had a small bout of headtilt (she is doing pretty good now, hardly any tilt left over) she doesn’t always make it back to the littlerbox when she poops (both types).  However, this too has been a daily fact of life for awhile now.

With the last month or so Angel started peeing and pooping  right at the edge of Brady and Sweetpea’s area.  Knowing that I would have to nip this in the bud, I put a litterbox there.  Just like I did when she was being litterbox trained.  However now, she wont use the box in her cage, only the box near Sweetpea and Brady.  So of course, Sweetpea and Brady can smell this, and are peeing and pooping on their side too! And the litterbox I put on their side they throw all over no matter what I do.

Well, I have cleaned the foor over and over, but Angel wont stop using that litterbox and in turn Sweetpea and Brady wont stop.  So, I decided that I would give them each smaller areas to live in, and then they can run for exercise in a bigger area.  The minute Angel was out, she started peeing everywhere.

Any suggestions?  I am at a loss!

Pics:

Angel being cute

Sweetpea is the black and white and Brady is my brown eyed boy

All three of them together right after Sweetpea was finally reintroduced back into her living arrangement after head tilt.  That is the offending corner too!

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[Scarlet_Rose]

Hi AngelBunnysMom, welcome to Binky Bunny!  What a great little trio you have, such furry cuteness, how do you stand it?!

Hmm, it sounds like a territorial war.  With the one bun out of the group (so happy to hear the head-tilt is near non-existant) from illness and then the reintroduction, it sounds like they are trying to re-establish the rabbit hierarchy once again.  Have you tried the schooch technique where you herd the bun towards the litterbox when you catch them in the act?  Also shrinking the free run space to reinforce litter box habits, then granting more space may help.  Now as for the other two, are they throwing the litterbox or throwing the litter out of the litterbox?  If they are throwing the box itsself, pierce or drill a hole in the lip and secure with a loose notebook ring or zip tie to the side of the enclsure and if it is the litter they are throwing, try placing a grate slightly imbeded in the litter (like a kitchen cooling rack or harware cloth). I really hope that some of these tips will help your situation.  I see you have some beautiful hardwood floors and I don’t want them to get ruined.

[Floppy]

Oh My Goodness! Loppy cuteness everywhere! ***melting***

[babybunsmum]

your bunnies are adoreable!  glad sweetpea’s headtilt is clearing up, the poor dear. 

i haven’t tried this myself but i read somewhere that if you want to move a bun’s littter it’s best to do this at an inch a day’s increment.  i’m wondering if this factoid could help your situation and maybe you could do this with angel’s extra litter (the one by sweetpea & brady)?  theoretically angel will keep using it as it moves away & eventually it’ll be far enough away from sweetpea & brady’s area so that they won’t be tempted to mark as much.  maybe worth a try?  good luck!

[Meloney]

These are all really awesome ideas and I will keep you all posted!

[MooBunnay]

Hello AngelBunnysmom! Welcome to binkybunny!

Yes – there is always the “mad poop war” going on in those controversial areas. I have not been completely successful in completely stopping poop wars myself One thing I’d recommend is making the poop war area as easy to clean up as possible, try putting a tarp, or some of that plastic carpet protector, or maybe a towel that you can toss in the wash from time to time in that area so that you can clean up easily and minimize the frustration from that aspect.

Also, have you considered making a “buffer zone” ? You could make a secondary pen around the the first pen and leave maybe 6 inches – one foot of space so that they aren’t in direct contact, but can still see each other.

[bunnytowne]

I have mines cages on top each other so one goes onto the couch next to the high bun cage and poops on the new couch the one in highest cage does not go on that couch but the one poops there anyway so I put a towel to make cleaning easier as I have no room to move their cages anywhere else

 

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