Random weeing!

Hello

I'm new to the forum as I'm seeking some advice please.

We have a male, neutered house rabbit who is four years old. He is a cross-breed, part dwarf and part something else! We've had him since he was old enough to leave his mother, and he was very quickly toilet trained. He has free access to a big room all day, which houses his metal cage and lots of toys. He goes in and out of his cage to eat and wee/poo during the day and is shut in his cage (it's quite a big one) overnight. He's never been ill (other than a brief chest infection a couple of years ago) and has always been clean, weeing and pooing only in his toilet tray. He gets lots of attention and play time each day.

Six weeks ago we moved house, and Badger is therefore in a different room (which is a very similar size to the old one) but everything else about his set-up remains the same.

Badger is very flexible as, since we've had him, he has regularly travelled between my daughter's flat in London and my home (first in Hampshire, now in Surrey). He's so used to his carry cage and loves it when people talk to him through the bars on the train! Again, nothing about this has changed, except that he's been with me, this time round, for slightly longer than usual (due to my daughter's current work commitments). At my daughter's flat and at my house he has exactly the same cage with exactly the same things in it!

The reason for giving you so much background is that I'm convinced the current problem is behavioural rather than medical.

Three weeks ago my daughter came home for the weekend. Badger had already been with me in the previous house for about a month so it was the first time he had seen my daughter for a number of weeks. That weekend, when my daughter cleaned his house each morning, he had wee'd both in his toilet and all over his house! In every other way he behaved entirely normally and showed no signs of ill-health. There was no wee in the room despite him being free range all day. I told my daughter that I would watch him carefully and take him to the vet if the weeing continued, but it did not, and for the following three weeks he was back to his usual habits.

This weekend my daughter came home again...... and Badger wee'd everywhere again! As before, in every other respect he is exactly his normal bouncy bunny self. Please tell me your thoughts on this, expert bunny people

Thanks in advance: Blaise.

Hello

I'm no expert (more of a keen amateur!) but it sounds as if he is scent marking his territory.

Hello

I think you may be right in that the weeing is behavioural and related to your daughter being about. Did your Daughter visit Badger in your previous house and did he exhibit the same behaviour there ?

I decided to move my bedroom furniture around once and my buns punished me by pooping and peeing all over my bed. Sometimes right infront of my face and sometimes when we were sleeping in it!!! We tried to persevere and we even slept under a tarpaulin for a week :lol: We thought that they would stop but they didn't. They won in the end, I moved the furniture back where it belonged and they stopped just like that.
So yes, this certainly sounds behavioral to me!

Wow! Had no idea rabbits were so naughty!

Yes, my daughter did visit Badger in the previous house, but he spent much more time with her in London than with me in Hampshire, generally speaking. This time I've had him for quite a while, due to her work commitments.

So, maybe it's a double whammy - he's annoyed that we've moved and he's cross that his mummy hasn't taken him home yet!