Loss of toilet training in 8 month old doe.

Hi all,

I have an 8 month old house rabbit called Tribbles. I have had her since 8 weeks old and she was successfully toilet trained until recently. Tribbles lives in my kitchen and she has a litter tray in her hutch which she wees and deposits the majority of her nuggets. When I am home, I leave the kitchen door and open and tribbles has open access to all the rooms I am in but mostly the living room. She does not have accidents and does not leave any nuggets normally.

However, in the past week, i have noticed that she has started running around mine and my partner's feet and honking. She has also been extremely affectionate such as jumping onto us and lying there for a long time. In the past she will sit on my lap briefly to get food and will leave immediately after she realises there are no more. she even lets us handle her which she never allows us to. My problem is that she is a nightmare at the moment. She leaves a huge heap of nuggets behind her and she has little accidents every where!! i have resorted to locking her in the kitchen because as soon as I let her out she leaves puddles and nuggets everywhere. She does this in the kitchen evcerywhere too!!! What has happened? Is it that we have been unable to spend a lot of time with her due to Christmas? This all started the weekend before Christmas. What can we do so that she reverts back to normal?

Hello :wave:

It sounds like territory marking like in this thread http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=112188

Has she been spayed? I suspect this will help as I'm sure it sounds like hormonal behavior

It sounds like she is getting hormonal, shes growing up! This behaviour will go away if you get her spayed. The loss of litter training is her marking her territory and the honking noise is a mating noise and the circling is also related to mating. She may begin to get aggressive, also caused by the hormones. The sooner she is spayed, the less likely it is that she will retain this behaviour. You will need to find a vet experienced in bunnies if you don't have one already. I'm sure people on her will be able to advise a good one if they live in your area I doubt the spaying will remove the affectionate nature of her, that might be due to you not spending as much time with her, or maybe she just loves you Hope that helps :wave:

Thanks to your comments. i will look at that link. No, she is not spayed yet! I am enjoying her affectionate behaviour. She is normally quite affectionate but not to this extent! She normally jumps on my bed in the morning and looks at me before leaving and she follows us around the house!It is only the accidents that I want to stop because i feel guilty not having her with us in the evening! And she has left yellow stains on my cream carpet and rug!!:evil:

yes it does sound like her little 'love presents' are going to be a problem - wait till she pees on your settee or bed! They will usually do this as these places smell most strongly of you. Spaying won't immediately cure her habits, but it will help a lot - just make sure a bunny savvy vet does the operation as many vets have no expertise with rabbits, and their medical needs are totally different to cats/dogs.