My bunny is a poop machine!

[thegooch69]

My Reeses has been so good about only going to the bathroom in her litter box. But lately she keeps leaving poops all over the place, usually where I go, and likes to eat a lot of them!

It's extremely annoying having to keep picking them up. Why is she doing this all of a sudden? And more importantly, can I make her stop?

 

[Phinnsmommy]

I she spayed?

It may be her hormones making her "mark" her territory

 

[thegooch69]

The store where I got her said she was spayed. I thought it be her marking her territory, but I've had her for months and she's never done this. Is there any I can make her stop?

She also loves to come up to my feet and nibble at them and poo whenever I'm sitting at the computer.

 

[Phinnsmommy]

Hm.. it sounds just like "un-spayed" behavior. I would take her to a vet just to make sure she IS spayed.

Other than that, pretty much the only thing you can do is pick up those poops, and put them in her litterbox. Hopefully she will learn

 

[iluvmybuns]

My spayed girl did that when I moved furniture around.

But I agree, I'd go to the vet just to make sure.......

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Bo does it periodically and it's just him being lazy, territorial over something or just being Bo.

Clover will do it over bo's and Heidi is now an angel about her litterbox now that it's bigger.She will hold her poo while playing if I forget to place a box in her play pen.

 

[aurora369]

Was the bunny spayed at a very young age? I believe it's Marshal's breeds rabbits and spays/neuters them at a very young age before they go to the pet stores.

Many rabbits who are spayed that young still go through puberty. They become territorial and moody.

The only thing you can do is keep picking up the poops and putting them in her litter box. Be grateful it's only the poops and not pee too... A little hand vacuum might be handy for sucking up the stray poops.


--Dawn

 

[Pipp]

Yeah, some ofmy guys will do that if anything changes -- move things around, a strange human or cat invades their territory, they catch a glimpse of a bunny living in another area... As long as I clean it up and wipe it down with vinegar (and the offending whatever is removed), they go back to normal in a few days (although it used to take weeks, they're just giving up more easily these days).

And as Dawn said, it just may be that the baby spays -- which is the horrible pet shop 'bunny mill' trend these days -- don't put an end to the adolescent bunny-from-heck issues. (Which means that not only are the bunny mills very likely losing tons of babies by spaying them so young, they're not preventing the puberty abandonment problem).

I'd say at least the poor things won't reproduce more sad cases, but that's just not enough in my book.

But sorry for the rant! :rant:

Your bunny will get over it, so hang in there.



sas :bunnybutt:

 

[ec]

Agreed on the advice Pipp and Dawn gave you - and it might be easier for you and your bun if you keep a few extra litterboxes in the area where she plays. I did this for the first few months after I brought Nibbles home, and it really helped - she was spayed but very much a "teen" bun at the time.

 

[slavetoabunny]

Sparky and Scooter will both poop outside of their box; but only in the pen in the immediate area around the box. They never, ever poop outside the pen and 100% of pee is in the box.

Ever since my first bout with stasis, I stopped complaining about having to pick up bunny poop. I always make sure to praise the girls for all the nice, healthy poops they leave for mommy.

 

[swanlake]

my fuz has been doing the same thing, but she pees everywhere too!! shadow is sooo good and will always go in the box but for some reason fuz will just let it out wherever she is!! she has recently peed on both my sister and brother! it was funny to me, but not to them! she also poos when you hold her sometimes too. i even put another litterbox in their area but she just does her thing. i am tired of sitting in wet pee!! i think it has something to do with her being in gi stasis before, but she has been better and had her surgury two weeks ago so i don't know what to do with her. i feel bad cause i can't let her run around as much as shadow cause she goes everywhere and my parents get mad if she pees on the carpet.

any suggestions/help?

 

[ra7751]

Interesting thread....especially Dawn's comment about Marshall Rabbits. I have several of them here due to "behavior" problems. Oneis named Thunder...and I will let you guess why he was named that. It is odd that we see so many behavior problems with these buns. It has been reported in other buns too...but the Marshall rabbits seem to be quite prone. I know of one doctor that is doing research on treating post-neuter and post-spay behavior issues with Lupron. That is a hormone that is used in human females with endometriosis in which the drug alters the hormone balance. I know it carriesa lot of baggage in human use...time will tell on use with rabbits. Makes one wonder if the body "relearns" hormonal behavior after such early spaying/neutering. It is amazing how well animals recover and adapt. Something interesting to follow.

But back on topic....we also have a rabbit named Scoots (and she will appear in our blog soon...be watching Mary Ellen) that is a true pooping machine. She is not as bad now. My usual feeling is that it's better to have lots of poops all over the place than no poops at all....but Scoots was very good at it. We found she had hookworms....first time we ever saw hooks in a rabbit. She is much better now after weeradicated her friends.

Randy