Don't know why Penny pees in the same spot every day

[kirbyultra]

I adopted Penny in April and she has been the most atrocious bunny in terms of litter habits, I have ever met. Over the course of the last 3.5 months she's worked it up to about 70-80% making it to the litter box. But she insists that every morning (right before I wake up, I think) she'll pee in a spot that is literally right next to her litter box. I don't need to tell you how obnoxiously annoying it is for a rabbit to pee on the floor every day! I have a giant towel that covers the entire floor so I can't just clean it every day. I clean it about once a week, but by then it's accumulated 7 days' worth of urine in that 1 spot grows and grows in size, and it smells terrible.

If I move her litter box over a few inches to the right to cover that spot she'll go over and pee directly to the left of the litter box instead. :X:X:X I just can't win with her!

Every once in a while (but I'd say at least once a week) she'll pee somewhere else also but she pees EVERY SINGLE DAY in a spot that is right next to her box. She knows perfectly well how to use a litter box. For some reason she just likes to take her morning whiz nearby...

What's a person to do?! Any suggestions for me?

 

[NorthernAutumn]

HA!
Slatey does the EXACT same thing to me in the run.

I really don't have any solutions, except to tell you that I share your pain!

I've found that if I keep the run box a bit dirtier, he gets there more regularly... *sigh*.

 

[kirbyultra]

NorthernAutumn wrote:

I've found that if I keep the run box a bit dirtier, he gets there more regularly... *sigh*.

I need a hug, Autumn! SIGH.

Dirtier? I don't know if it's her or more likely, because both my buns like to her "her" litter box more often than "Kirby's" litter box, but her box always smells like a dump! Woof! About 4.5 days is as long as I can go before I have to clean their litter box and without fail she'll pee in that special spot on the floor no matter if it's day 1 of litter box or day 4. Grumble!:X

 

[NorthernAutumn]

I was thinking about it a bit more.... Actually, when I wrap the NIC panel run around the litterbox a bit more (kind of like a little pooping alcove), he hits the box regularly, cause he can't be on either side. He has to be inside the box, or at the front of the box then.

That's worked well.

The proximity to the boys is probably also playing a role. The guys may also be spraying the side of the box, and she is doing her own retalitory marking.

In my case, Slatey's litterbox in the run fronts onto Stu and Evie's property line, so I think I tend to get more territorial piddles there as a result.

 

[kirbyultra]

She's not spraying the side of the box. She is just squatting beside it and taking a whizzer.

If I block her with a NIC panel she'll just squat there anyway and pee. I wonder what'll happen if I put an additional litter box there at night. I swear, if she pees beside THAT box................ ssd:

 

[NorthernAutumn]

That's the exact same as what is going on at my house.

See where the hinge of your run is? I bend the next panel (on the right of the photo) in to surround the box.

The piddle area is completely avoided - she simply can't access the space.

 

[Tweetiepy]

Bunnies seem to like to squat in a corner - try moving the hay rack to the other corner so she can use the cage/litter corner to pee - maybe put a toy or something that she won,t want to pee on in the corner she pees in??

Mine mostly pees in the corner next to his hay rack which is in the corner of his cage, maybe she wants the security of peeing against the grid AND the litter box?

Hope this helps

PS: leaving the urine there for a week might be why she keeps peeing there too - maybe use those puppy training pads??? Not sure how much they are and if it's cost effective or not

 

[Nancy McClelland]

try putting another box there and fill it with shredded newspaper. We also took and apple box and cut a couple holes and put the litter box inside, so it's like a bunny cave. Or, it just might be a territorial thing. All bunnies are different. We sure miss Commander Bun-Bun as she would only go in the litter box, poo in one spot and pee in another--she was the neatest rabbit we ever had. Good luck.

 

[missyscove]

Have you actually seen her do it?
I've seen my Timmy get in the box, back up so just the edge of his bum is over the edge, then pee.
I think he thinks he's in the box, but it just lands outside of it.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Can you get some smaller towels or something absorbent so you can use one a day. Then you can just wash them once a week, but don't have to deal with the smell all the time. Even paper towel could work for a bit.

Have you tried putting the hay at the end of the litter box? Lillian would pee outside the litter box becasue she could eat the hay without being in the box. Once I moved the hay so she has to be in the box, she doesn't do it anymore.

Putting something in that corner so she can't sit there and pee could help. It should be something she can't move, but easy to clean if she does pee there.

Keeping that spot really clean should help break the habit. Use something you can remove daily and clean the spot with a pet enzyme cleaner. Hopefully not having the smell there will help break the habit.

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Is she still drinking a lot? I've noticed since it's been summer and hot, Gus has been drinking more and therefore peeing more and also not being as good about his litter habits. :rollseyes

I definitely agree that moving the hay rack so she can back into the cornerof the pen (in the top part of the picture) may help encourage her to go there instead of on the floor.

It may also well be she's peeing over the side, though that doesn't really look to be the case here. The times Gus has peed over the side his new litter box, the pee has generally pooled underneath it.

Hope that helps!

Rue

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Incidentally,could you use a puppy pee pad there instead of a towel (or would she chew it?). That, at least, should absorb the smell a bit better.

Hope that helps!

Rue

 

[kirbyultra]

It's been a long progression with her since I adopted her. She peed everywhere multiple times a day when I first got her. But now I control how much water she drinks (she drinks it *as soon as I put the dish down*) so she doesn't pee as much anymore.

Previously there was no giant towel on the floor, so when she peed on the floor, I'd wipe and clean it immediately or as quickly as I spotted it. There was no telling when she'd pee except that I was sure she would pee, so sometimes it'd be a little while till I saw it. She'd get the pee on herself and bounce around the whole pen with urine on her fur :shock: So that's why I now have this giant towel - so that no matter where she peed, it'd be absorbed. It's not pretty and doesn't smell so hot after 6-7 days, but it's the only way I can be sure the place could be maintained relatively sanitary.

That said, I don't think cleaning it is the answer. History tells me she'll pee there if it's dirty or if it's clean, or if it smells like vinegar, etc. Maybe blocking it is the answer. I'll try to put something there and see how she behaves with it in the way.

The hay bin is as far in the left corner as I can get it

I have never seen Penny actually pee there with my own eyes. Usually it's clean at night, and by morning there'd be a urine spot. But I kind of doubt she's in the box and "missing"/overshooting. There's no residue to indicate that she was inside and she lifted her tail too far out and shot it out of the box. I have seen Penny pee in other spots and it's pretty stealth. She'd look like she's just sitting, and then suddenly there's a urine spot! She hardly lifts a tail, which explains why she used to have a urine stain on her tail

Actually, now that I look at it again, Autumn, I could shift my litter box 90 degrees counter clockwise and the pen panels on either side will almost completely block off either side of the litter box. Maybe that'll do the trick.....

 

[funnybunnymummy]

I meant move it all the way to the right so she has a "natural" corner to sit in.

Like this (X marks the pee spot! ):

Gus's litter box is set up very similarly, and he always pees in that same corner. Right where you haveyour hay bin!

Another option might be to hang the hay basket higher (like a hay net for horses). That way she'll have the entire litter box to pee in whatever corner she chooses.

Hope that helps!

Rue

 

[kirbyultra]

Ohh, I see I could try that as well... what's the worse that'll happen? She'll pee

I have tried hanging it higher but none of my buns seem to get how to eat hay through the bars of the rack. They streeeetch their necks and stand on their hind feet trying to reach the top. It's sad to watch, so I lowered it lol

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Hehe! There's a shelf over top Gus's litter box, so (when he did have hay in there) he couldn't eat from the top. But when we went travelling, and I attached his hay rack to the side of his pen, he was doing that too. Lazy bunny.

Rue

 

[kirbyultra]

Ugh she peed there anyway. I shifted the box 90 degrees counterclockwise so that it would be surrounded by the pen panels. So you know what she did? She peed right in front of the box, thereby expanding the infamous spot. Some of the pee even shot off the towel onto the floor so now it's *everywhere*. I'm so pissed off. She has to pee RIGHT OUTSIDE the @(%&@#*%! litter box even though it's RIGHT THERE. UGHHHHHHHHHHH.

 

[funnybunnymummy]

What a turd!

This is definitely an ingrained habit. I hate to say it, but maybe you need to do a complete reno on her cage to shake her up a bit?

Otherwise I really have no solutions? Litter boxes in every corner (including the ones created by other litter boxes?)



Rue

 

[Boz]

missyscove wrote:

Have you actually seen her do it?
I've seen my Timmy get in the box, back up so just the edge of his bum is over the edge, then pee.
I think he thinks he's in the box, but it just lands outside of it.

Dolla does that! How, I don't know. Marley can fit her huge 11lbs bum in a little 12x12 little box and will never accidentally pee over the edge. But Dolla, her little 3 lbs bum can! lol!

ETA: I also wanted to add that Dolla is a huge pain! She will pee out of the litter box a lot. Daily. She (with her two other buddies) were in a pen. It was getting ridiculous and the floor is so stained I'm going to have to use some seriously strong stuff (and do some serious scrubbing) to get the stains off.:grumpy: So finally, fed up with it I redid their pen and made them a cage with 5 levels (going to add another one level soon!). She had one accident the first night and I put another litter box on one of the shelves. As far as I'm aware she hasn't gone out of the litter box yet.:biggrin: However, when I let her out for run time she will pee on the floor.:grumpy: So now her run time is restricted. The floor is so gross where their pen was. I want to scrub it real good sometime this next week. Thank goodness it's in the basement.

 

[kirbyultra]

funnybunnymummy wrote:

What a turd!

This is definitely an ingrained habit. I hate to say it, but maybe you need to do a complete reno on her cage to shake her up a bit?

Otherwise I really have no solutions? Litter boxes in every corner (including the ones created by other litter boxes?)



Rue

LOL Yeah what a TURD indeed! I've been through so many interations in the rabbit room since getting her and really, none of them are any better or worse in terms of her peeing. I've tried removing flooring, different flooring, traction, no traction, cleaning, not cleaning, litter boxes all over the place, and it's no help at all. She's just a pain in my butt! Kirby... had to fall in love with such an improper girl. :grumpy: :rollseyes