Outside litter box poopsplosions

qtipthebun · Sep 12, 2013

Q is my good little bunny. She was easy to litter train: I got her, I put her in the box, and she got the idea. She's been good for the past two years. However, the past few weeks, when we wake up in the morning, she has pooped EVERYWHERE around her litterbox (yes, I know, silly human, be glad it's only poop). She makes some of them in there, but then poops next to it, and poops on the crate base I use to set her hay on (she'll poop in like three different places on that). If her litterbox needs changing bad, she'll pee on the crate base, but that's my cue to not delay and change the box.

But this is new behavior. Why is she suddenly forgetting where to poop? She knows full well where to pee...

JBun · Sep 12, 2013

Any changes in her life/environment that would cause the sudden poop marking? Anything/anyone new come into the home, maybe with the smell of a pet on them?

qtipthebun · Sep 13, 2013

Nah, she waited until we'd lived in the new apartment for like three/four weeks before she started it. It's really far away so we don't get many visitors, and the ones we have gotten are people she knows well, like my old roommate of two years.
The pooping isn't a huge deal. I'm just curious why a perfectly litter trained bunny would poop everywhere around her box during the night.

missyscove · Sep 13, 2013

Have you been petting someone else? I recently had a rotation at a rabbit rescue at school and my buns responded by digging my scrubs out of my laundry basket and pooping all around it. My fault for bringing strange bunny smells into the house!

Nancy McClelland · Sep 13, 2013

Ours seem to do whatever they feel like doing. Nikki used to be the neatest of our bunnies and then she started emptying out her litter box, after 4 years of perfect habits. This went on for a year, til I finally gave her a pan big enough for a Giant--shes less than 4 pounds. Now she's back to what passes around here for normal.