Bad Habits of a Good Bunny

[headphonesandkneehighs]

My bunny Linus is normally very well behaved. That is, he was until this last week. He's taken to jumping onto my bed and peeing and pooping everywhere whenever I leave the room. He's neutered, litter box trained,

For a bit of background, he learned how to jump into my bed three weeks ago. Then last week I had to leave him at a bunny sitters so I could go home for a family emergency, and this weekend I had to go away again for a friend's wedding (with my landlady taking care of him). I'm pretty sure this is just how he's showing me that he's mad that I left, but he's never done anything similar before, and I'd like to discourage it in the future (I'd much rather he chew on shoes that pee on my nice down comforter).

My options as I see them now are to either try to train him to not do this, or to stick him in his cage whenever I'm planning on brushing my teeth or running errands.

Does anyone have any tips on dissuading him from making a mess every time I leave?

 

[MiniLopHop]

When you washed your bedding after the first time did you use vinegar? He may be smelling a faint urine smell and that is why it continues. The first time he was probably mad at being left alone. (not that bunnies are ever spoiled )

When I have to wash animal "blessed" bedding or clothing I wash it once with soap and a generous amout of white vinegar. Then I was it again (no drying step) with just the soap. The first time gets out all traces of the animal smell and the second wash gets rid of the pickle smell.

 

[gmas rabbit]

Good advise. Benjamin will pee on Len's side of the bed whenever he is mad at me or just life in general. I have to double wash it or he is right back up there redoing the disgraceful act. When we go to my daughter's in Alberta I put an 6x8 carpet on the bed with a shower curtain underneath. That way if he does pee it doesn't ruin her bedding. Funny thing is that he will not pee on the carpet. Some of these guys have really got attitude after being left. Once had a bunny that stripped a whole wall of wallpaper just to let us know that he was a little ticked.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Or, there might just be the normal marking going on. We used to put cardboard boxes on anything we didn't want an unsupervised bunny on.

 

[lagomorph]

I would suggest that he started this out of anxiety rather than anger. You say you left him at a sitter's house when you went away for an emergency. In his view, his beloved home territory was taken away from him, for reasons incomprehensible to him. That's a pretty scarey situation for anyone. So when he got back to his home he felt the need to mark it, to show that it is his. This is normal behavior in many species of wild animals. They mark with their territories with pee and poop to show others the property belongs to them. It is their way of delineating territory, just like we put up fences, etc.

With pets (especially cats, with which I have much more experience) this behavior can become a habit, even when it serves no purpose. I imagine a rabbit might behave similarly. I would break the habit by, as you suggest, confining him whenever you leave. After a few weeks of that, try giving him more freedom, little by little, and see how he does.

You do need to make sure you get all of the smell out of your bedding, because animals tend to want to "freshen" it up with more pee, when they smell their own scent growing fainter.

 

[juliew19673]

Poor Linus! and you. I do think he was just trying to reaffirm to himself that your bed was his after he was left somewhere else; bad habits die hard in a bunny world. I think time of him being at home again, without any disturbance might do the trick..

The word "Off" is uttered many times in my home with my "free roam" buns - they know exactly when I say this do move away from whatever bad thing their doing (binkie away like a spoiled child); it just takes sometime to make them aware of what I/you treasure (thing I wish them NOT to destroy/chew/pee-on), but they get it eventually..

There is also, as you suggested, pen them up if you can't watch to protect them from themselves and/or you stuff.

No right way to do this, but please post back what you find works (or not) as this an ongoing problem for so many of us.

Good luck!

 

[mochi_ball]

It's really funny how rabbits change! We've had Mochi for about 6 years now and she's always had pristine litterbox habit and never ever peed on the bed before until recently (started about 9 months ago). I was out of town for a few weeks and so she was alone with my bf. I guess she missed me so much that she peed on the bed one night although my bf was home in the living room. He thought it was an isolated incident, washed the bedsheets/blankets but then it happened the next night! Since those two episodes, we started putting up a playpen wall to isolate the bed so she can't jump on it.

But there was also a few times after that when my bf wakes up in the morning and opened up the playpen (forgot to close it) and she snuck onto the bed, snuggled with me for a while, hopped around me while i'm still sleeping and peed on me and the blanket! (RASCAL RABBIT!). So really I have no idea what makes Mochi want to pee on the bed so much as we always wash the bed blankets thoroughly and she does it even when we're at home paying attention to her. I attribute it to old age and being extra spoiled (we don't really punish her as she has free roam of our apartment except the bed area). We basically just had to wall off the bed with the playpen even though it looks bad. But hey, anything for the bunny right?