Training Troubles

[erinmoveit]

Buck is my 4-5 month old neutered mini rex. He has been with me for a month or so and was neutered the day after I got him. He took to litter training almost immediately. He had to occasional poo outside of his litterbox but that was expected and wasn't an issue in my opinion. On Sunday, I brought home a 6 week old unspayed female. They are close enough to each other to get acquainted but will not be bonded for a few months, until she gets spayed. When I brought her home, his litter training took a halt. He is pooing everywhere (not just territorial) and peeing everywhere. He still goes in his litter box, but pees all over her pen. He only pees in the area of his cage outside of his open area. He always has access to his litterbox. I cleaned his cage and neutralized any urine spotted area expect for his litterbox to help encourage him to go in there. His habits are getting worse and worse. Is there anything I can do to help him use it again? Is this because I brought a female home even though he has already been spayed? Due to his young age and the age of which he was neutered could he still have some hormones lingering that are in play during all of this? I am at my wits end with this. I am cleaning constantly to try to suade him to use his litterbox rather than his blanket.
Also, there is not one spot he is doing this is, so it's not a matter of moving his litterbox to accomodate

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Having a new rabbit in the house can definitely affect a rabbit and their litter habits. Since he is still young, he will go though some behaviour changes. While these changes are usually due to hormones, it can also just be part of becoming an adult and growing mentally as well as physically. It is possible for the neutering not to have been 100% effective and they didn't get all of the testicles. It can take up to about 6 weeks for the hormones to fully dissipate, but since he was neutered young there should not have been too many to begin with.

I would give him some more time to get used to her being around. Some rabbits are more territorial than others, so react more with a new rabbit around. Unfortunately, there can be issues with either they are fully bonded and living together or you move her out of his area. It does sound like he is marking his territory (neutered rabbits do this as well as intact ones) and hopefully that will go down as he gets used to her.

 

[saidinjester]

I'm confused, is he loose and peeing all over the place, or just in his cage? You say he "pees all over her pen." If I were you, I'd keep him in his cage and further apart from her until she's spayed.

 

[erinmoveit]

He has a cage that is connected to a large x-pen. He can come and go from his cage and his run all parts of the day. He has a litter box inside of the cage part. He does not pee in the x-pen run, just in his cage. When I exaggerated and said "pees all over" I meant inside of his large cage and usually just on whatever he has on the floor (blanket, towel). I just now realized that I actually did say "her" in that sentence which was a mistake on my part. The two are separated. They both have a cage and separate runs. They are close to each other, but have no interaction.

Is there a way to know if they got all of the tissue? I did not know how old he was when I first got him. He had gone from home to home, but it was evident that he was young. Based on how he has grown and how "little" his parts were when he got neutered the vet assumed he is now between 4-5 months old.

If a vet is the only option to find out if all the tissue was removed or not, how long should I wait until I bring him again?

 

[erinmoveit]

Does anyone have any input on how to know if he was fully neutered?