Hello everyone, I need some advice on my buns litter trainig.
My bun’s a year and a half old, and he’s been litter trained for a while now. At first, he had his litter box and his cage in which he was closed during the night, and had water/food/hay in. During the day - his free roam time, he had access to the cage as well, obviously. After some time, he got free roam time always, as I felt bad locking him in the cage during the night, I like I was punishing him, as if he did something wrong. I didn’t do so immediately because I was worried, since when I let him put of the cage he tries to jump very high surfaces and ends up falling or something like that and during the night I can’t supervise him. At this point he stopped using his litter box, I guess he didn’t want to be in a “dirty” environment, his cage was now both, his litter box, and feeding space. I let it be there for some time but he just didn’t want to use it anymore. Also, his free roam space was my bedroom, since it’s really spacious but still less work to bunny-proof, unlike my living room and kitchen area, in which I always open terrace doors or have Internet cables in, and I was always scared what might get on the floor while cooking. Anyway, lets cut to the chase, eventually he was living in my bedroom, and had no cage time, even when I wasn’t at home the whole day. I mentioned that I was worried to let him be unsupervised, but he turned out to be doing great, and that he only had silly ideas when he didn’t know what to do with himself after I let him out after a long night being locked up. He often came to bed with me for some cuddles before sleep time, but never wanted to sleep on the bed, which was great as I was worried I might scare him or hit him accidentally, in my sleep. He slept at night, and played during the day, he was great. Before I had problems with him marking territory by peeing on my bed, but I guess he already felt like the whole territory was his after some time. We did a little bit training on bed peeing, like not letting him up unless he wants to be petted or leaving him his spot on the bed, and it worked, for some time at least.
After some time, he started simply acting crazy. He started both peeing and pooping on the bed, even jumping on my face from the headboard, several times during the night, also biting my boyfriends clothes while he slept, waking up covered in bite holes, but he was never my boyfriends fan anyways. I would wake up in bed full of poop and 3-4 pee puddles, and to be honest I found it utterly disgusting. I tried to forget about it and changed and washed absolutely everything, still giving him time to kind of smell the new scent and the sheets, lay around on it and come up in the bed, so he doesn’t mark his territory again as it doesn’t smell like him anymore. He did it again, and I couldn’t do anything but start locking him during the night again. He was also running round like crazy and jumping on places he never was before. I should mention he’s not neutered, but he also never started humping things, or running around us in circles, the territory marking problem was overcame as well, or at least I thought so. I never plan to breed him, and when I went to the vet to get him neutered, they advised me not to do so as the procedure can be really complicated on smaller animals. I did express my worries about the procedure as I didn’t want my decision to put his life at risk, but I also didn’t want to risk his health because of not wanting to neuter him. The vet told me that neutering or not-neutering has no connection to his health benefits since he’s a male, and that the only real reason would be excessive humping or behavioral issues, and again, advised me to not neuter as the procedure can be risky and apparently has no benefits. He was a great bun, he still is. He was so calm and easy to work with at the vet, with any vaccinations and even grooming time with me, he does get a little pissed off after a while, but I try to calm him down and not push it if its too much for him, like for example when clipping his nails, he never tried to bite me or some at me for whatever reason. Figured that he might feel more comfortable to be groomed at home, in a place he knows and recognizes and with me if it means anything to him, than taking him to the groomers although it took more time. He bit me once, by mistake, when I was giving him some pellets, but quickly let go as soon as his teeth toughed me and apologized by licking my finger and carefully taking the pellet from me.
I really hate having him locked in a cage, I feel like we don’t have the same connection anymore, although he seems not to care as he doesn’t even bite the bars anymore, and before that used to be a big problem at night, I would put stuff on the bars all the time but he would just tear it off and bite through it, with unbelievable force until be manages to reach the bars. I was getting scared that he will hurt his teeth, anything I ever tried to put to protect the bars was destroyed by the morning. I even tried putting lemon juice on the bars to try to make him not bite anything, because of his teeth, but he would gladly lick off all lemon I put as an entertainment before he got to work. Now, he doesn’t even try to bite the cage bars unless he sees me getting his food and can’t wait.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I would really appreciate some advice. I forgot to mention that I tried letting him out during the day several times, but he would still pee or poop on the bed (only on the bed) whenever he gets the chance. I should also mention that it’s not a mobility issue, or that it doesn’t have anything to do with me removing his litter box after he stopped using it and how he doesn’t feel like going to the cage. I watched him lay down and just chill, and then just jumping suddenly and running on the bed when he feels the need to pee, several times. When I’m close by, I make him get down immediately and after that he just walks off to the case and does the deed there. Also, its just on the bed too. He takes more effort to get to the bed to pee than to go to his cage, and if it was a mobility problem he would just pee or poop in the place where he is. Although I have to say, those jumps he made when running to get to the bed were one of the most impressive jumps I ever saw. Almost a meter high jumps from half of the room, and he’s a dwarf.
He doesn’t seem to be minding spending time in the cage, but I would like to build that close bond again, is it because I never neutered him? Or maybe it was a breeding period for rabbits at that time, but why would he continue doing it? I was thinking that he feels the need to pee and poop on the bed only after I change the sheets and they don’t have his scent on them anymore, but how can they if he continues to make an absolute mess each night, I have to change them every morning, and to frank, I don’t find sleeping in rabbits litter box comfortable. For all those wondering why I don’t let him out only when I’m present and in full supervision mode, I do, but I’m rarely 100% free to be completely committed to sitting in my bedroom close by or on my bed, waiting to push him off when he gets up on it, I would prefer solving the problem. Also sometimes I feel like he’s very intelligent, just a bunny doing bunny mischief. When his period of acting crazy started, he would get up on the nightstand and push the coffee mug off by bopping it with the nose if it bothers him and blocks the other way, which he would use to jump on the sofa. He knows very well I don’t let him do that, and gets up on it only when I exit the room for a minute or two, when I come back he just lifts up his little ears and stares at me for a second like my appearance surprised him, and runs off like speed of light as if nothing happened. Again, I appreciate every advise I could get, thanks.
My bun’s a year and a half old, and he’s been litter trained for a while now. At first, he had his litter box and his cage in which he was closed during the night, and had water/food/hay in. During the day - his free roam time, he had access to the cage as well, obviously. After some time, he got free roam time always, as I felt bad locking him in the cage during the night, I like I was punishing him, as if he did something wrong. I didn’t do so immediately because I was worried, since when I let him put of the cage he tries to jump very high surfaces and ends up falling or something like that and during the night I can’t supervise him. At this point he stopped using his litter box, I guess he didn’t want to be in a “dirty” environment, his cage was now both, his litter box, and feeding space. I let it be there for some time but he just didn’t want to use it anymore. Also, his free roam space was my bedroom, since it’s really spacious but still less work to bunny-proof, unlike my living room and kitchen area, in which I always open terrace doors or have Internet cables in, and I was always scared what might get on the floor while cooking. Anyway, lets cut to the chase, eventually he was living in my bedroom, and had no cage time, even when I wasn’t at home the whole day. I mentioned that I was worried to let him be unsupervised, but he turned out to be doing great, and that he only had silly ideas when he didn’t know what to do with himself after I let him out after a long night being locked up. He often came to bed with me for some cuddles before sleep time, but never wanted to sleep on the bed, which was great as I was worried I might scare him or hit him accidentally, in my sleep. He slept at night, and played during the day, he was great. Before I had problems with him marking territory by peeing on my bed, but I guess he already felt like the whole territory was his after some time. We did a little bit training on bed peeing, like not letting him up unless he wants to be petted or leaving him his spot on the bed, and it worked, for some time at least.
After some time, he started simply acting crazy. He started both peeing and pooping on the bed, even jumping on my face from the headboard, several times during the night, also biting my boyfriends clothes while he slept, waking up covered in bite holes, but he was never my boyfriends fan anyways. I would wake up in bed full of poop and 3-4 pee puddles, and to be honest I found it utterly disgusting. I tried to forget about it and changed and washed absolutely everything, still giving him time to kind of smell the new scent and the sheets, lay around on it and come up in the bed, so he doesn’t mark his territory again as it doesn’t smell like him anymore. He did it again, and I couldn’t do anything but start locking him during the night again. He was also running round like crazy and jumping on places he never was before. I should mention he’s not neutered, but he also never started humping things, or running around us in circles, the territory marking problem was overcame as well, or at least I thought so. I never plan to breed him, and when I went to the vet to get him neutered, they advised me not to do so as the procedure can be really complicated on smaller animals. I did express my worries about the procedure as I didn’t want my decision to put his life at risk, but I also didn’t want to risk his health because of not wanting to neuter him. The vet told me that neutering or not-neutering has no connection to his health benefits since he’s a male, and that the only real reason would be excessive humping or behavioral issues, and again, advised me to not neuter as the procedure can be risky and apparently has no benefits. He was a great bun, he still is. He was so calm and easy to work with at the vet, with any vaccinations and even grooming time with me, he does get a little pissed off after a while, but I try to calm him down and not push it if its too much for him, like for example when clipping his nails, he never tried to bite me or some at me for whatever reason. Figured that he might feel more comfortable to be groomed at home, in a place he knows and recognizes and with me if it means anything to him, than taking him to the groomers although it took more time. He bit me once, by mistake, when I was giving him some pellets, but quickly let go as soon as his teeth toughed me and apologized by licking my finger and carefully taking the pellet from me.
I really hate having him locked in a cage, I feel like we don’t have the same connection anymore, although he seems not to care as he doesn’t even bite the bars anymore, and before that used to be a big problem at night, I would put stuff on the bars all the time but he would just tear it off and bite through it, with unbelievable force until be manages to reach the bars. I was getting scared that he will hurt his teeth, anything I ever tried to put to protect the bars was destroyed by the morning. I even tried putting lemon juice on the bars to try to make him not bite anything, because of his teeth, but he would gladly lick off all lemon I put as an entertainment before he got to work. Now, he doesn’t even try to bite the cage bars unless he sees me getting his food and can’t wait.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I would really appreciate some advice. I forgot to mention that I tried letting him out during the day several times, but he would still pee or poop on the bed (only on the bed) whenever he gets the chance. I should also mention that it’s not a mobility issue, or that it doesn’t have anything to do with me removing his litter box after he stopped using it and how he doesn’t feel like going to the cage. I watched him lay down and just chill, and then just jumping suddenly and running on the bed when he feels the need to pee, several times. When I’m close by, I make him get down immediately and after that he just walks off to the case and does the deed there. Also, its just on the bed too. He takes more effort to get to the bed to pee than to go to his cage, and if it was a mobility problem he would just pee or poop in the place where he is. Although I have to say, those jumps he made when running to get to the bed were one of the most impressive jumps I ever saw. Almost a meter high jumps from half of the room, and he’s a dwarf.
He doesn’t seem to be minding spending time in the cage, but I would like to build that close bond again, is it because I never neutered him? Or maybe it was a breeding period for rabbits at that time, but why would he continue doing it? I was thinking that he feels the need to pee and poop on the bed only after I change the sheets and they don’t have his scent on them anymore, but how can they if he continues to make an absolute mess each night, I have to change them every morning, and to frank, I don’t find sleeping in rabbits litter box comfortable. For all those wondering why I don’t let him out only when I’m present and in full supervision mode, I do, but I’m rarely 100% free to be completely committed to sitting in my bedroom close by or on my bed, waiting to push him off when he gets up on it, I would prefer solving the problem. Also sometimes I feel like he’s very intelligent, just a bunny doing bunny mischief. When his period of acting crazy started, he would get up on the nightstand and push the coffee mug off by bopping it with the nose if it bothers him and blocks the other way, which he would use to jump on the sofa. He knows very well I don’t let him do that, and gets up on it only when I exit the room for a minute or two, when I come back he just lifts up his little ears and stares at me for a second like my appearance surprised him, and runs off like speed of light as if nothing happened. Again, I appreciate every advise I could get, thanks.
