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Bad Behaviour..

Chesterx123

Young Bun
Does anyone have any advice for me?

My male conti is now just under 6 months. I've had him to the vets and he hasn't "matured" enough to be neutered yet but as soon as his teabags have dropped he will paying the vets a visit!

I'm not sure if this is hormone related because he has done it since i first got him but he keeps peeing on the bed! Its not so much spraying. He is litter trained and will run back to his cage to go unless he is sat on the bed! Sometimes he jumps on the bed just to go as if he thinks this is also an acceptable litter tray!
I've had to put a plastic sheet over the bed every time he is having free time because i can't keep up with changing the sheets every single day. But this is also so annoying having to fit and remove the plastic sheet all the time.

Any ideas on why he is doing this and also how to stop him would be very useful!

Thank You!
 
ah yes, My Storm used to do this, sometimes while I was actually in bed :shock:

I think it is because the bed smells of you, some bunnies like to pee on something which smells of their owner :?
 
Boris did this too and with him it was 100% due to hormones. He stopped doing it almost immediately after he was neutered.
 
There may be an underlying behaviour other than simply hormones.

There is a member on here, Elena, who I'm sure will be along soon to confirm or correct this, but her bunnies were weeing on the bed, and she found it to be because one didnt like to jump down so sort of got stuck up there, and the other thing she found exaberated it was feeding them in bed. It then became a habit so she put a tarpaulin sheet over her bed which discouraged them I think, and built a ramp for the bun that didnt like to jump down. I'm sure she'll come and elaborate on this and correct me if I've gotten it wrong.

My own experience of this was in the summer this year. I had moved into a small room with the rabbits so, whilst they still were free-range and had a lot of space compared to some rabbits, it didnt meet the rwaf standards and so wasnt what rabbits need. Whilst they were in this smaller space, my bed (and myself!) was constantly weed on. It continued when I moved house and put them in the box room, even when they were out of said room, and did not lessen until I put them back in my bedroom and they had a lot more space. In this case, it was my rabbits telling me that they were unhappy, something was wrong, even though they seemed fine. I suspect a mixture of a lack of space and boredem which led them to also attention seek. I also think the upheaval of the move upset them. Once I sorted their lives out, they went back to being litter trained gradually but stopped weeing on the bed immediately.

What I'm trying to say is, your rabbit could be trying to tell you something.
 
Nessar is completely right. :thumb: i found a tarp easier to put on and off than a plastic sheet and secured it with large pegs. I would think though that until he's neutered you're going to struggle. How confident are you in the sexing? Could he be a she?
 
Nessar is completely right. :thumb: i found a tarp easier to put on and off than a plastic sheet and secured it with large pegs. I would think though that until he's neutered you're going to struggle. How confident are you in the sexing? Could he be a she?

Phew, glad I got it right, was worried I'd leave something important out !
 
Phew, glad I got it right, was worried I'd leave something important out !

:lol: well if you did, I did too. i just remembered that waking up and feeding them immediately after was also triggering it. They worked out that weeing on the bed woke me up, which then meant I fed them. Very clever how their minds work!
 
:lol: well if you did, I did too. i just remembered that waking up and feeding them immediately after was also triggering it. They worked out that weeing on the bed woke me up, which then meant I fed them. Very clever how their minds work!

Annabelle is doing something similar at the moment. They are not allowed on the table as there are things on there that they push off and I have nowhere else to put them. If they figured it out (luckily they havent yet) they could also jump from that to the boxes and then from the boxes to the sideboard, which currently is the only place they cant get up on so has a tv, xbox kinect, all their meds and their pellets up there, so I'm very insistent on nipping any climbing on the table in the bud.

She jumps up, I say 'Annabelle get down' a few times, then I clap and say it, then I say no, clap and say it... she just sits there, not doing anything bad, but not getting down. She does know what 'no' and 'get down' mean. Then when I go over there to shoo her off, she jumps down and runs over towards me. I always praise/feed her for getting down on command so I wonder if she is attention/food seeking in this complex way, like yours were.

Clever little things! I think she might be training me !
 
Thank you for all of your help.

I'm hoping its a hormonal thing and he will stop when hes been neutered. He seems to do it mainly when my partner sits on the bed. I keep saying its probably a dominance thing because he doesn't live with me and when it's just me he never does it.
 
Here's a thought, for months when I first got Barney when he was out of his cage he would not go back to his cage to pee, he would only wee out of his cage. I had to always provide a tray outside of his cage for him. It might be worth trying?

Also, when you clean up any wee, clean it up with, or spray it after with, white vinegar, as it will stop him smelling the wee there and thinking that that is the place he should wee.


edit: or it could be he doesnt like the way your boyfriend smells, buns are known for objecting to humans when they dont like their perfume or shower gel. Or he could be getting a bit territorial, basically saying 'no this is my territory and thats my girl' - does he run round your feet in circles honking or spray you? If so he may view you as 'his', he is courting you.
 
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