Two issues... oh, bunnies.

[KatandBuns]

I had posted previously about my male bunny's problem with lying in his dirty litter and getting huge clumps of poo stuck all over him. I took the advice and have been very diligent about scooping the litter several times and week and refreshing with new litter. It hasn't helped and he hasn't even been lying in it recently. It seems that was my assumption, but not the actual cause of the poo problem. I think what the problem is is that he doesn't properly dispose of his own cecotropes. The stuff that he gets stuck to himself is too goopy, too stinky and too massive to be the normal standard pellets. I just bathed him, which thankfully he loves, but my concern is being that it is January, it's cold outside! I can't keep giving him a bath every 1-2 weeks. He loves the hairdryer, too, and even though I keep my hand blocking the main flow of heated air and keep constantly moving the dryer as to not burn his skin, I can't get him 100% dry. Dry baths don't work because the poo is such a clumped, sticky, stinky mass it seems super glued to his fur. He gets bathed and then trimmed because even with the bath it doesn't all come off. It's horrible. I feel really bad for him because I would imagine that it is irritating to his skin. It's already a little red and angry looking. I am worried that it will cause some sort of skin infection. He is leagues more healthy than when I adopted him, but I am still convinced that he is geriatric. I'm not sure if his lack of cleaning himself and caring about proper nutrition from the cecotropes is something that could be affected by age or not. After all, he IS called Gramps for a reason... Should I go as far as to get him a bunny sanitary shave?

My other problem is my other bunny. She has managed to unlitter train herself and over the last two-three months, has been using the carpet as her personal litter box. It hasn't been a huge deal because I would just take the carpet out at least once a month, hose it down, scrub it, let it dry in the sun and bring it back. It was inconvenient, but I was thinking that they were just accidents or a phase. I didn't even realize that she was peeing on it (it's black and hides stains well) until this past month, when I pulled out the carpet to clean it and discovered that she had completely destroyed the hardwood floors underneath. She is has been banished to her cage now until I manage to properly fix the hardwood floors, it is after all, a rental and figure out how to solve this problem. I have had her for nearly 5 years, three of which she has been free-range and it hasn't been until recently she started this. Gramps came into the picture a year and a half ago, so it's not his presence or sharing a litter box that started this. It's almost as if she decided that anything outside of her cage was her own personal litter box. Crazy bunny.

All-in-all, these two are driving me nuts. I want them to be free and happy, but I can't allow anymore damage to the hardwoods. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. My boyfriend wants to give them away. I say no. He gets grumpy. I would love to solve the problems so I can avoid arguments over it.

 

[JBun]

First of all, you'll want to be sure that some sort of health problem isn't causing the peeing accidents with your girl bun. Sometimes when they have bladder sludge issues or a UTI, they will have trouble controlling their urination, and so will have accidents frequently. Now that you have her in her cage, if she continues to not use the litter box, and keeps having accidents, you may want to get her checked out at the vets. If she isn't having health problems, then you could try just putting another litter box in the other places that she likes to pee, unless it's not just in specific places.

With your boy bun having problems eating his cecotropes, there can be a few factors that play into this. Old age because it may be painful for him to try and reach under there to get them, being overweight can make it difficult for a rabbit to reach them, or getting too much protein in the diet can cause an overproduction of cecotropes. If it's age related and due to something like arthritis, making it hard for him to eat his cecals, then you could talk to the vet about it and maybe get him on some meds or a joint supplement. If it's a weight issue, then that will need to be solved by reducing the calories in his diet. If it is too much protein in the diet, then changing his diet by reducing his pellets, and feeding high fiber grass hay, should correct the overproduction of cecals. If it's not just cecals sticking to him that are just the problem, but that his poops are really soft and mushy, then you may need to try eliminating treats and veggies from his diet. If that doesn't work, then keep reducing pellet amounts until the mushy poops stop. Always feed unlimited grass hay(that isn't a grain hay), and pellets should be just a plain pellet without seeds or treat pieces in it. If he does have mushy poops, then parasites or bacteria are also a possibility, and if a diet change didn't fix the soft poops, or his condition gets worse, then you would need to see your vet to get the proper meds for that.

 

[KatandBuns]

Now that she is in the cage, she is only peeing in her litter spot, as she used to do prior to a few months ago. While she was free, I have seen her hop into the litter and I swear that she considers peeing in there, but then changes her mind and hops out and immediately pees on the carpet. That is when I realized that those weren't accidents on the carpet, but just pure bunny spite. She doesn't pee in one specific spot on the carpet, but all over so the litter box idea won't work. There are eight different black spots on the hardwood, so she is completely indiscriminate to where she pees on the carpet.

As for Gramps, the shelter told me that he was only 5 when I adopted him about a year and a half ago. He was super frail and bony, even though he was in a foster home for several months. I thought that they were wrong about his age because he seemed so old. He's gotten much healthier since I have had him, gained weight, has a better coat and seems generally happier. He's not overweight, but is generally a big bunny. He does have a large dew flap, which may inhibit cleaning a bit, but he seems to do pretty well on all of his body other than the underside. They do get unlimited timothy hay. Their food is pellet with some dried fruit, which I use because Miss Bun is spoiled and turns up her nose at plain pellets. I could switch to standard pellets with nothing fancy and make her deal with it. His regular poops are very dry and pretty much standard, normal rabbit poo. I am thinking that you are probably right about too much protein. It may be that since the two buns share everything, he is eating a majority of the pellets served for two, causing the excess cecals. It's hard when she is immaculately clean and he is just the opposite. I need to find a way to limit his access to the pellets, while still giving her the option. I'll try less pellets and way more hay to make sure that Miss Bun is getting her fair share of food. Again, being spoiled, she only likes FRESH hay. Once it's sat around for a day, she doesn't want it. Such a little princess.

 

[LakeCondo]

Sometimes if you rearrange the hay they think it's new, lol.

 

[JBun]

I doubt it's spite. Most likely she doesn't like the feel of the litter on her feet, and the carpet feels much better, so that's where she's decided she likes to pee now. What kind of litter do you use? You could try a different kind and see if that helps. I put a layer of hay over my buns litter and then a pile of hay in the opposite end of where my bun pees. If you don't keep hay in her litter box, you could try that as it helps them cause then she can poop and pee while she eats. You'll want to limit her free roam space for a while, until you're sure her litter habits have improved. If you have an xpen, you could put a tarp down and set the xpen up, and let her free roam in that, while she is relearning her litter training.

Do you feed them limited or unlimited pellets right now?

 

[ladysown]

for him... I'd be trimming back his butt hair and figuring out how to reduce the protein levels of his feed.

For her...if you can't trust her, I'd keep her confined or only on places where it's super duper easy to clean up.

 

[KatandBuns]

I wish it was that easy! She digs and pulls it out of any hay container that I try to put it in, scatters it all over the room and then wants more fresh hay in a pile to mess up again. If I try to gather up the scattered hay back into the hay holder, she ignores it until I refresh it. I'm telling you - spoiled!

 

[KatandBuns]

I use CareFresh for the litter. She's used it fine for years, so I don't think it's the litter, but I could try something else and see if she is more receptive to it. Their home base is an xpen. That is where the majority of her damage was done. Only two spots outside of that. Once I have fixed the floor under the xpen area (thank goodness for vinegar and hydrogen peroxide!), I am planning to put an old shower curtain or two down to protect the floor, put their dedicated carpet on top of it and keep them in there. I'll work with her on retraining without having to worry about the floor. I feel bad that Gramps has to also be contained because of her behavior, but he doesn't seem to mind too much, as long as they are together.

I give them a limited amount of pellets in the morning, if the dish is near-empty or empty. Sometimes it's each morning and sometimes it's every other morning, depending on how much they (or just he, perhaps!) eats.

 

[KatandBuns]

I do trim his hair down, but it still gets stuck. That's why I'm wondering if I want a sanitary shave for him. I would have the vet do it, at least the first time, if I were to go that route. I'm very nervous about serious bunnyscaping with the delicate skin.

If I can't retrain her, I am afraid she may have to be a bunny in lockdown. It wouldn't be a very engaging life and I would feel so incredibly guilty, but poor behavior earns consequences.

 

[ladysown]

one of the ways to train a rabbit not to be wasteful is to very carefully limit what they are allowed to have.

This often works with pellet scrabblers as well as the pull the hay out and sit on it types. Limit her feed.

not sure how old your buck is, but just like with people, older age can sometimes mess with digestive systems requiring a change in diet. What worked in the past might not continue to work. For a rabbit who is not digesting his cecatrophes a couple of different things might be happening.

1. too fat or stiff to reach them. (if too stiff can't help it will be an ongoing issue) if too fat a diet is in order.
2. might be having issues digesting protein...so reduce the amount of protein in diet.

sometimes feeding a higher quality pellet with lots of good fibre in it helps. that and reducing the amount of greens.