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Backsiding on litter training or acting out?

Britannia

Warren Scout
I adopted Kizzy from a Rescue Centre on 20th Aug, best guess from the vet is that she's around six months old. Within a couple of hours of getting her home she was litter trained. She has the run of the dinning room which we shut off from the rest of the house whilst we're out with a rabbit pen panel. If we're in, she has the run of the ground floor plus she can run up and down the stairs and on the upstairs landing. (She also gets supervised time in the garden).

Ten days ago I took her to the vet to discuss her upcoming spay op which is booked for this coming Friday. On our return, for the first time she pooped in the living room. Just a couple of healthy looking pellets. I put it down to the stress of leaving the house. However since then she has started to poo (never pee) in the living room, only one to three pellets of poo. Not necessarily in the same place but always where she will usually flop out. Just in front of the sofa, in front of the telly or between the living room and the dinning room. Never in the corners or actually under furniture - always in plain sight.

At first I thought it was because she was too far from her litter tray and had forgotten where she was meant to go - but over the weekend she spent several hours in the kitchen with my partner whilst he was cooking and there were no accidents and she spent a couple of hours on the upstairs landing while I did some paperwork in the study/box room where I have a sort of baby gate set up so she came see me but can't come in as I'm concerned she might be hurt - wheely chairs and rabbits being a bad combination in my book.

At both these times she left the kitchen or the landing to go to her litter tray and then came back a little later. She only seems to poo in the living room when we're spending time in there with her, but have let our attention drift. I've not yet caught her in the act. She still seems to be using the litter tray even in the evening when the pooing is most prevalent.

Is she trying to claim the living room as well as the dining room (it's a 'through' living room/ dinning room) She seems perfectly happy and healthy in all other ways - very active, lots of Binky runs around house and garden, flops out in the middle of the room for the most part so she seems quite relaxed. Eats and drinks well.

So what's going on? What should I do?
 
I'm no expert by any means, but Roxy went through a phase of doing this around the time she was spayed, so about 6 months old. It continued for a little while after she was spayed and then stopped completely all of a sudden, so I'm guessing it is hormonal.

Kizzy sounds adorable :)
 
Sounds like her hormones have suddenly arrived. After a few weeks after her spay she'll probably go back to how she was before. :)
 
I do hope you're right.

Since I got home she has pooped on the coffee table - yes, on it, not under it! To add insult to injury she must have done it whilst I was changing her litter tray and giving her fresh hay. She then picked up her hay tray and flipped across the room. She has chewed and raked at the sofa. She was tugging at my trouser hem which usually means she wants to sit between my feet, I moved my feet she sat down and lowered her head which usually means "scratch behind my ears - NOW!" I lent down to do my duty and she moved off about a foot in a clear "talk to the paw!" gesture. I left her to her own devices for a while then went bearing dandelion leaves as a peace offering, (she is usually very affectionate to anyone bearing the gift of dandelion I've never been naive enough to think it was me) instead of eating from my hand as usual she just grabbed it and ran into one of her little network of nylon tunnels. Although her head did pop up a couple of times to see if I was taking notice of her not taking any notice of me.

Well as long as she's not ill - that's the main thing. I was worried that it might be an indication of ill health.

Now I'm off to find the water spray bottle, which come to think of it, I haven't needed since the last full moon! Maybe I've adopted a wererabbit!
 
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