Bunny Has Un-Litter Trained Herself

Hi everyone, I need some advise...

Just a quick background with Chloe as I'm not sure if it's related.

She was a very shy rescue bunny and was quite jumpy and didn't like strokes or to explore much. Her & Olly have their own room as a base but have access to most of our flat. They have a cage in there which is used as their litter tray. She never came out of that room no matter how much we tried to tempt her out with treats.

Anyway she gradually over the space of 6 months started coming out of her shell, she not too long ago started coming out and into the living room with us. This is when she seemed to stop using her litter tray and pooped everywhere in their room. Now she is a completely different bunny, she loves strokes and attention, follows me and explores everywhere she has access to, not just the bunny room and living room.

But she also poops everywhere in the flat now and has started weeing on rugs and carpet too! The tricks we used when we first litter trained her don't work (she used to poop when eating so temporarily took away all hay boxes etc apart by the litter tray which seemed to work). But as she doesn't just poop when she eats now, that trick doesn't work. I've tried keeping them shut in their room during the day while I'm at work, that also hasn't made any difference.

I don't know if she's doing it because now she sees the whole flat as hers now so she poops where she likes, or if Olly is stopping her going in their litter tray cage as he is trying to let her know he's boss now she's more confident, as I don't really see her in that much anymore.

Not really sure what to try tbh, I'm at a loss! Any tips on how to re-train her would be great.

I would provide more litter trays, you could use the long underbed storage boxes, then both bunnies can fit in them to eat and poop at the same time, if you had 2 of these then they could have one each if necessary. I would sweep up poops and put them into the trays regularly. You could try this whilst keeping them in their own room for a while to see if it will reinforce things. Mine are outdoor bunnies in a shed, but they always wee on anything soft, so I am sure they would do the same indoors on rugs/carpet too :shock:

I wonder if it's the feel of the carpet? Tarja did something very similar, litter trained very quickly, very well behaved, we moved house and moved somewhere she could come out into the living room and she pooed EVERYWHERE. And liked peeing under the sofas... :/ This from a rabbit who previously would run around with her legs crossed if she needed to pee and you were cleaning out the litter tray!

We moved them outside once their hutch/run was finished and it stopped. She refused to pee in the garden, instead running the entire length just to use the hutch.

Funny little bunny.

Thanks for the advice, I've put in lots of litter trays to see if that will help. Fingers crossed!


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It could be because the one room she has is secure and she knows its her territory whereas the rest of your flat is all new to her so she is scent marking to make herself feel at home. As suggested trays around the new areas should help, let us know how it goes :wave:

We have a really similar problem at the moment with one of our bunnys.
We've had him about 4 years and he has always been well housetrained. A few months ago we had new carpets put down and that's when it all went wrong!
He now keeps weeing on the carpet. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with him (urinary/kidney) as it's always the same place and he isn't dribbling urine or anything. He's neutered and eating and drinking fine.
He has a litter tray and an open cage, both with paper and hay in and he uses these when he feels like it, but also keeps weeing in one spot on the floor, right outside his cage.
We've tried rewarding him for weeing in the cage/litter tray (now when he does wee in there he jumps straight out and sits at our feet begging for treats), and shutting him in the cage for a couple of hours when he wees on the carpet, but now he just does it when we're not there.
I have cleaned the carpet with neutralising spray so to remove the smell of wee and also changed the piece of carpet (it's an off cut). I've tried moving his cage and tray which helped (previously he was doing it in 3 places, now it's just the 1), and have blocked the space where he is doing it, but when I do that he just moves somewhere else!
The only thing we can think of doing is shutting him in when we're not there (or at least at night when he is most prolific) but he's always been free range and is a big bun and I don't really want to do that - plus it doesn't seem fair on his mate.
If anyone has any suggestions I'd be really grateful to hear. I could put another litter tray down for him but since we already have a large cage and a litter tray in the lounge I'm reluctant to introduce another one as I might not be able to get rid of it in the future!!
Thanks in advance for any tips.

There are a couple of possibilities that I can think of

1) territorial marking
2) buns just love peeing on soft surfaces ( my bun used to pee on bathroom towels left on floor by the kids!)
3) litter tray not big enough to eat & poop in at same time, or litter tray not as clean (or not enough fresh hay) as a fussy bun would like it!

My buns particularly protest if I don't clean their underbed storage boxes out often enough. I also provided an additional litter tray in the bathroom when I got violet as she was the one that was peeing on the bathroom floor. Now she has gone Bugsy doesn't use the bathroom litter tray at all.

So I would try adding another tray in the living room where he/she is peeing to see if he/she will use it instead of going on the carpet.