I am a first time bunny owner. I have a male black rabbit named Lucious. Lucious actually started out as Lucy until his testicles dropped and I realized that he was a boy! Now that he has come of age he has started to urinate all over the living room. I can\'t even let him out of the cage anymore. I have an appointment to get him neutered next week, but will he still urinate in those same spots?
Beth: Its a good start by getting him neutered. How old is he? My Petey peed too before he was neutered, and since he was neutered in early November, he\'s only peed once. However he started pooping out of the cage in certain spots on the carpet, so I can\'t figure that one out!
I\'ve heard that if your rabbit is peeing alot out of the cage, you might want to limit his out of cage time for awhile. Hope this helps.
I\'m not sure exactly, but I think he\'s around 6 or 7 months. I have been limiting his outside time because as soon as he is out he pees on the carpet again. I\'ve been letting him out a couple times to run around in the bathroom. He also leaves piles of poop droppings everywhere too. I know that neutering him will probably keep him from marking new spots, but will it keep him from where he\'s already marked?
I asked my vet the same question and his answer was this: Neutering sometimes helps but not always. As your bunny ages, he may not be interested in peeing like he did before.
I bought some rabbit deterrent stuff at Wal-Mart for like $5, and it did help. He at least thought twice about it ... still pooping though.
Good luck. I really think once he is neutered and gets a little older he may settle a little.
Someone once gave me some great advice on litter training. It was a lot of work and it took a couple of weeks but once he figured it out it was great. When I trained my Tootsie boy, I started by letting him out SEVERAL times a day. Several meaning about every 2 or 3 hours. Maybe even more often. (not thru the night though) I only let him out for about 10 minutes at a time and watched him VERY closely. Whether he had an accident or not in that 10 minutes, he still went back in ten minutes. If I caught him in the \"pee\" position I would scoop him up, telll him NO and put him back in his cage. (I like to call it his \"bed\"!) Anyway, eventually I would increase his out time little by little still watching him like a hawk. AND, if he ever got in his box on his own, I would praise him up and down with pets and a little treat while he was in the box. even if he didn\'t go in it. Granted, he figured out that he would get a treat each time so he made regular trip eventually. That\'s ok though, I just gave him little bitty pieces of the treat so I didn\'t \"over-treat\" him. Eventually, he became very trustworthy. Only thing I wish I would have done is trained him to use his box inside his bed. I found a corner in his room that he liked. Which was fine but he makes a forever mess on the floor getting in and out of his box. Litter comes flying out all over. And, litter box in that corner or not, he still uses that spot. Sometimes I forget to take his box out when I let him out. oops. When I have the time, (In nursing school right now, BUSY BUSY BUSY!!) I think I am going to re-train him. Once he figured out the deal, It was overnight success. Also, you will get to know his \"pee\" stance this way. He will make mistakes but that\'s ok. Just make sure you don\'t yell \"NO\" loudly, just firmly and as you probably know, don\'t ever spank his little bottom. Just be patient. He will lose his trust he has for you if his gets \"spanks\". Hope this helps. Julie
Update on Lucious. He got neutered four days ago, and since then he has been very good, no peeing on the carpeting or pooping. Hope it lasts! I\'ve been watching him like a hawk when he is out though. He sometimes sniffs the spots where he has gone, but hasn\'t yet peed there. I also have been letting him out for shorter periods at a time - kind of retraining him. Before he started becoming more sexual and marking everything, he was out for hours on end, so this is a change for him, but he seems to be learning to behave better.
Sounds like you are on the right track with Lucious!! Petey continues to periodically poop right outside his cage (which doesn\'t make sense). Fortunately, he has only peed right inside his litter box for a long time now, so hopefully no more peeing problems here either.
It does seem, however, that he\'s always up to something new so we have to watch him closely. He\'s like a little kid sometimes .... hee hee
How old is Petey? And what color? He sounds a lot like Lucious. He gets into stuff all of the time. And he knows it\'s bad, but he likes to see what he can get away with I think. As soon as he hears one of us coming he runs into his cage. Sometimes I don\'t even know that he\'s doing something bad until he darts around the corner and into his cage. And then I know he was up to something. When I was first training him and I would catch him doing something bad I would firmly tell him no, and do go get in his \"house.\" So maybe that\'s why he runs in there on his own now - he figures he\'ll save me the trouble.
We have a pet rat (Francesca) too that thinks Lucious is her mother. Lucious does not like her though. Francesca will try to cuddle up underneath him, and his eyes will get huge with horror or disgust (not sure which), and then he\'ll run away, leaving Francesca dazed and confused, and sometimes running after him. She is a new member to our family and I think that that may have also been a cause for the sudden marking of his territory.
Petey is 8 months old and black. There is a cute picture of him under \"Pet Rabbits -- a picture of Petey\". He is very ornery and I swear he enjoys getting into trouble! When I clap my hands and say \"no\" after he\'s done something wrong, he does this little flit from side to side and jumps, as if he\'s having fun! I could only wish, however, that he would go into his cage when he\'s in trouble. He runs under the bed and its a real challenge to get him out--he\'s very sly.
I loved the story about Francesca! It would be neat if you could snap a picture of the two together and post it for us!
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attachment=71] This is the best one I have of the two of them. This is when they first met. I wish I could get one of Francesca underneath Lucious, but Lucious doesn\'t stand still long enough.