4 year old bunny has suddenly become a real handful

[nicheian]

hello there, this is my first post although myself and my partner have had a house bunny for the past few years. here is a photo of her:

she's about 4/5 years old and has always been quite well behaved and calm, doesn't mind being picked up, always housetrained quite well (apart from the odd poo around the flat). however lately she has become quite badly-behaved in a few different ways:

- constantly following us into the kitchen and trying to get in the fridge when we open the door (most likely to get to the carrots/greens inside).
- jumping up on the couch while we are watching tv. The worst is sometimes she even fearlessly leaps onto the coffee table, knocking things flying. She has also been climbing onto places like the tv table, the dining table and sometimes our laps when we are eating meals. She has never done this before.
- weeing in various places. this is the most worrying to us as she has always been perfectly housetrained before. she has done it a number of times in the kitchen, once on the couch and once on our bed. it isn't every day, it usually happens about once every 3 or 4 days.

I don't think she is in pain or ill as whenever she's been ill in the past she becomes withdrawn and doesn't eat, whereas now she is incredibly boisterous, running around and seems ravenous. She mostly seems to be trying to get food, however she can. We keep her cage stocked with hay, give her a small handful of food pellets every night and morning, a carrot or two every day, a small amount of greens once or twice a day. She is only small (a dwarf lionhead) so I feel this is enough, it has never been much of a problem in the past.

We take her to the vet once a year for injections and a check up and last time (about 4 months ago) he said she was slightly plump, nothing serious just a bit chubby, so I started to reduce the amount of pellets I gave her. Lately when we hold her she seems quite scrawny and we can feel her bones quite prominently so I've started giving her a bit more again, but there has been no major changes in diet.

We can't understand where this sudden change in behaviour has come from. Previously she never bothered going near the kitchen but now she hovers around there quite a lot, hoping to pick up scraps. The most worrying thing is the urinating in places other than her cage. Could this be related to the recent hot weather? It first started about 2 weeks ago.

Are there any tips on how to correct this behaviour? We don't want to start keeping her locked up all the time as she has previously led such a happy and free lifestyle. Maybe a water pistol to spray her when she comes near the kitchen? Shall we get her looked at by our vet? If anyone has any advice I would be very grateful.

Thank you and I apologise for the length of this message.

 

[Angie65]

Is she spayed? Hormonal behaviour can kick in at an time. Also at her age, if she wasn't spayed, I would be worried about uterine cancer - which may affect weight & behaviour

Also behaviour is learned - if you feed her scraps in the kitchen, she will come to expect it. Believe me - I have taught one of my buns to bite

 

[BobbleG]

Hi :wave:

You didn't mention her name but can I just say, she is absolutely GORGEOUS!

Pretty much everything you mention is perfectly normal - or at least in my case - for a house bun. Our bun Bob has flung himself inside the fridge on a number of occasions and when we do catch him in time, he'll still try stealing some veg. He will also follow me into the kitchen all the time too. They're grazers and foragers by nature so they'll do whatever they can to get their paws on some food. The important thing is that you're sticking to a proper feeding routine and don't feed her when she asks. It won't stop them trying it on though.....but she's not doing anything wrong. I'm not really sure why you're bothered about her behaviour (apart from the urinating bit) unless you're concerned it's not 'normal'.

It sounds as though she's playing and adventuring. My two are always running around and jumping on things. I love seeing it! And if she goes near your lap then you're one of the lucky ones.

Her behaviour, and certainly the lack of litter etiquette may well be down to having not been neutered (which you didn't mention). If she hasn't been then this is the likely cause. She will be marking her territory and she'll have lots of hormones fizzy around in her body. These signs can come later in their lives but for health reasons especially (uterine cancer etc), it's nearly always advisable to get buns neutered. Sooner rather than later.

Carrots contain a lot of natural sugars so that might explain the tubbiness. I only give our little girl an inch slice once a week. Perhaps slightly increase her other foods (good tasty hay gets them chomping away) - and check with the vet if they think she's underweight.

I hope that helps a bit. She sounds like a very happy little girl who is enjoying herself and behaving just like any happy house bun - and once neutered (if she's not) she'll be even happier - and so will you be when she's using her litter tray properly! If she is neutered then it could be a bladder issue in which case I would consult the vet and get a urine sample for testing.

Naomi x

 

[nicheian]

Thanks for the replies, she's called Rosie, but we generally just call her 'bunny'! Yes she has been spayed, about 3 or so years ago now. Before the spaying she was quite bad tempered, hissing and aggressive but afterwards she was really pleasant and placid and slowly started getting really close to us - running over when we enter the room, lying next to (or on top of) us if we sit on the floor.

I'm most concerned about the urinating in random spots, the increase in naughty/boisterous behaviour seems to have come about at the same time so I was wondering if the two are connected. We generally just put her down from the couch/bed and shoo her out of the kitchen (although she comes back relentlessly). It's a shame that at the moment we can't trust her to come and cuddle with us as there's a big risk she'll wee on us or the couch/bed.

She seems quite deliberate about the places she wees - in the kitchen near the fridge, on the couch where she'll get the occasional scrap of fruit from us - so I'm wondering if it's a territorial thing. ie. she knows she can get food from around this place so she's 'claiming' it as her own, does this sound right? I guess what's more important is how to stop her doing this in future.

Also the fridge issue, it's certainly learned behaviour as we'd often break a bit of carrot/parsnip off and hand it to her, so she's obviously wised up to it (just now we were making lunch and left the fridge open for a second and she quickly nabbed a huge carrot from the veg drawer). Is it worth trying to 'unlearn' this behaviour, by removing her from the kitchen, clapping in front of her when she approaches the fridge, trying out the waterpistol thing? Or will something like this be engrained into her mind?

I'll not post any more photos after this but here's another from a different angle (since birth she's had one slightly weeping eye, probably due to a blocked tear duct, we decided not to have it operated on as her brother, who we bought at the same time, died under anaesthetic when he was being neutered):

 

[Elena]

Funny what you say about linking the places where she wees with food as I think that may be what Mischa does. I can't figure out though if he does it for food or because he's 'claiming' me. He tends to wee on the duvet if I'm in the bed at about 6am or on a small patch of vetbed nearest my bed. Only those two spots.

So I have nothing to suggest but I will watch the thread with interest.

 

[BobbleG]

I'm sorry to hear about Rosie's brother. That must have been awful.

She is so unbelievably cute!!

Knowing now that she's neutered and from what you've just said, it does sound as though there's a link to weeing where she might normally eat.
Olive used to sit outside their house (cage) and pull bits of hay through from the other side. Then she'd hop off, leaving a little puddle behind her. I think because she's used to eat from her rack whilst being sat in her litter tray, she thinks it's normal to do her business whenever she's eating!

We covered the bars so she couldn't get to the hay unless she was sat in the cage and now she doesn't wee anywhere she shouldn't.

I don't really know what to suggest other than only ever giving her her food in one place and even if she gets a treat, only giving it to her in that same place too. I doubt it'll stop her trying her luck but she might learn that there's only one place she can go to to get food from you.
Bob will come and lie down on the kitchen when I'm cooking dinner but I refuse to give him anything (he's a bit of a chubster so it's for his own good). I was always taught never to feed dogs from the table because then they'll just sit waiting every time - maybe Rosie is like that too. Usually Bob just gets bored and lollops off.

He has learnt that a sharp "No!" means he's in trouble. And when he scrabbles at the carpet at the back door and I firmly say it and clap my hands...that usually stops him. So you can teach them some things.

Hopefully someone who may have experienced this will come along with something more useful......

 

[Homer]

Bart is being a git at the moment, yesterday evening he discovered how to move his litter tray - today has been fun for him!!!

 

[Domino27]

Bart is being a git at the moment, yesterday evening he discovered how to move his litter tray - today has been fun for him!!!

:lol: yeah mine learnt that a long time ago and that it tipped up at a certain angle emptying the entire contents all over her and the floor...she then binks in great amusement spreading the stuff everywhere...what joys.

 

[mistyrabbit]

I don't suppose you changed around any furniture lately? I can't begin to describe how upset my bun gets when we move something. Though I suppose you would have mentioned if you did. My bun is around the same age and surprised us the other day by jumping up on the spare bed. She never tried that before. She also jumped on the table two weeks ago and ate some of my student's copies. Try explaining that - "I'm so sorry,the rabbit ate your homework"!:lol:

 

[Tamsin]

It sounds like she's learnt some new tricks. Bunnies learn all the time and once they work something out they can get quite fixated on it. You could try excluding her from an area but that will make her put effort into getting there and unless it's permanent then she'll pick it up again once she's let back in.

Can you rearrange the fridge so the veg isn't easily accessible or is kept in a box?

My dad managed to successfully train our house rabbit to jump in a box to get the treat :lol: So you could try training her to jump in a box when the fridge opened and then pass her a treat.

Rather than upping her pellets, you could up her veg. Pellets are more concentrated so she can eat more veg than pellets to get the same number of calories but they will fill her up more.

With the toileting you could introduce extra litter tray(s) in the areas she's using and then gradually move them towards her normal tray with the aim of combining them and then removing the spare.

Tam

 

[Lib_n_bunny]

I'll not post any more photos after this but here's another from a different angle (since birth she's had one slightly weeping eye, probably due to a blocked tear duct, we decided not to have it operated on as her brother, who we bought at the same time, died under anaesthetic when he was being neutered):

and why on earth not?! we neeeed piccies, what a cutey!!

 

[prettylupin]

I'm most concerned about the urinating in random spots, the increase in naughty/boisterous behaviour seems to have come about at the same time so I was wondering if the two are connected. We generally just put her down from the couch/bed and shoo her out of the kitchen (although she comes back relentlessly). It's a shame that at the moment we can't trust her to come and cuddle with us as there's a big risk she'll wee on us or the couch/bed.

She seems quite deliberate about the places she wees - in the kitchen near the fridge, on the couch where she'll get the occasional scrap of fruit from us - so I'm wondering if it's a territorial thing. ie. she knows she can get food from around this place so she's 'claiming' it as her own, does this sound right? I guess what's more important is how to stop her doing this in future.

Also the fridge issue, it's certainly learned behaviour as we'd often break a bit of carrot/parsnip off and hand it to her, so she's obviously wised up to it (just now we were making lunch and left the fridge open for a second and she quickly nabbed a huge carrot from the veg drawer). Is it worth trying to 'unlearn' this behaviour, by removing her from the kitchen, clapping in front of her when she approaches the fridge, trying out the waterpistol thing? Or will something like this be engrained into her mind?

It sounds exactly like a learned response behaviour to me which you have reinforced by rewarding her with a treat! :lol: Sorry to laugh, rabbits are very manipulative for food and she's got you wrapped around her little paw!

The way to unlearn a behaviour is to stop reinforcing it - BUT rabbits learn quickly and unlearn very slowly so you will have to stand firm on the treats for a good couple of weeks before she will learn it gets her nothing. Clapping hands etc will just be confusing for her as she will not understand she is doing something wrong as this is something you have taught her to do with a positive reward at the outset. The best way to deal with it is to ignore her competely when she comes into the kitchen when you are preparing food. If she jumps on the sofa to begin with I would ignore her as well, just until the behaviour is broken. When she jumps up after this you can say hello and stroke her but do not give her any food, unless you want to encourage the weeing. Attention from us can be a positive enough reward to teach a bun a behaviour, this is why you need to ignore her completely when she jumps onto the sofa. If you talk to her and stroke her she is likely to wee to get your attention. Bear in mind that as you start unlearning the behaviour her weeing for attention will probably escalate. Do not react! Put a towel on the sofa to soak up the wee so that you don't rush to clean it in front of her. OR you can prevent her from going up there - this is another way to curb the behaviour. Once it's gone you can let her up there again (a few weeks minimum).

I suspect the weeing is all part of this process from a different point of view but is still learned behaviour yes. Buns use urine to make a point - that they are distressed about something, cross about something, letting another bun know this is their territory etc... it is a very expressive form of communication for an animal that is silent. The best way to deal with this in inappropriate places if it is being done for your benefit is to ignore the behaviour - when she learns she gets no response she will eventually stop doing it. Or you can block off the kitchen as you might the sofa - two ways to deal with it - take your pick. Good luck x

 

[lis]

Maybe she's jumping on the furniture because she's slimmer and therefore feeling more agile/energetic?

 

[nicheian]

thanks for the replies guys, some helpful stuff in there. the main thing i've gathered is that the urinating isn't a sign of anything serious - we initially thought maybe she had bladder problems as she was ageing (is 4 years old for a rabbit?) - and that she's probably not ill (the boisterousness does suggest she's healthy), and that the 'naughtiness' is my own dumb fault by thoughtlessly giving her treats straight from the fridge. the key thing we'll be doing now is only giving her treats direct into her food bowl (in her cage) in an attempt to unlearn the fridge-foraging

i am surprised how long it took her to learn all this though, she spent about 3 years of her life never daring to venture into the kitchen and now she loves mooching about in there!

 

[prettylupin]

thanks for the replies guys, some helpful stuff in there. the main thing i've gathered is that the urinating isn't a sign of anything serious - we initially thought maybe she had bladder problems as she was ageing (is 4 years old for a rabbit?) - and that she's probably not ill (the boisterousness does suggest she's healthy), and that the 'naughtiness' is my own dumb fault by thoughtlessly giving her treats straight from the fridge. the key thing we'll be doing now is only giving her treats direct into her food bowl (in her cage) in an attempt to unlearn the fridge-foraging

i am surprised how long it took her to learn all this though, she spent about 3 years of her life never daring to venture into the kitchen and now she loves mooching about in there!

It depends on breed but a well cared for bun can live up to 10 yrs and maybe longer if you're lucky!
She is spayed isn't she? Territorial peeing can be linked to increased hormones in an unspayed girlie.
Peeing such as dribbling and missing the tray and lots of little wees beside the tray is usually how a urinary infection presents I understand, not deliberate pees for our benefit! :lol: I totally understand as have been in your position a few years back... this is how I learnt what I learnt... through trial and error and studying my complicated stubborn mischievious gorgeous little Poppy bunny! It's natural to be frustrated by it all. I was at my wits end. What I found helped me most was to relax about the inappropriate peeing and find it funny and not be wound up by it - that in itself meant I was more relaxed and less likely to respond and in turn she did it a lot less as she wasn't getting a rise out of me!

It's not thoughtless to feed her from the fridge at all - it's sweet We all dote and spoil our buns and encourage their behaviour because they are so good at manipulating us! My two STILL get a treat out of me through the bars of their hutch sometimes at bedtime with their little frantic beggings.... and then I wonder why Nino starts chewing the bars again! :roll: doh! Will I never learn! We all do it :wave:

 

[willowholly]

Have you taken her to the vet to rule out any urinary problems as Barley suffers with cystitis & I always know when shes suffering a little as she wees out of her cage & is more badly behaved,in her case digging.Also shes on the move more as she cant settle.Yes bunnies do learn things all the time so it could be that shes just playing but I would rule out other things too just to be safe.

 

[elaine84]

i've read that animals urinate in different places to normal when they want attention about something. have you had her back teeth checked that she hasn't got any molar spurs? they can be painful when eating so she might be really hungry (hence going after food a lot) but then can't eat much when she gets the food cos it hurts.
the urinating might be her way of getting you to notice something's wrong?

 

[Elena]

i've read that animals urinate in different places to normal when they want attention about something.

I've found this to be true to some extent. Especially if they think they should be having food! We did have a spate of wees on every soft thing they stood on but that was when they were drinking and weeing an exorbitant amount when I was limiting veg due to tummy issues.