Advice on where my bun is toileting please.

Mushroom has been with us just over a week and is THE friendliest, cutest wee dude. He has an indoor cage for the moment til the weather gets better and then he'll be moving outside to a purpose built enclosure and run and once he's neutered we will get him a girlfriend.

When he's in his cage overnight, he's quite happy to toilet in the corner of it. But when he's out free, he heads straight for the nearest cushion, dog bed and this morning the sofa to pee and poop on! Not sure why he's decided fabric equals toilet but what can I do to encourage him elsewhere? Should I get a litter tray for him? Any advice much appreciated. xx

The best thing is to try and get him trained to go in a litter tray, so he will always go back there. This could take some time and the best way to get them used to a litter tray is to put newspaper at the bottom and the hay on top as bunnies like to chew their hay whilst toileting. It should be easier to litter train him after he has been neutered. How old is he?

Thanks. He's just 3 months. To start off with he was jumping back into his cage for the toilet but then I noticed he'd decided the dogs bed was a good place which I thought might have been cos it's behind the door in the kitchen under a worktop so is very covered and secluded. But now he's happily jumping up onto the sofa to pee. I'll get a litter tray asap and keep that out for him. Should I put the tray in his cage at nights when he's put to bed?

bun: ah, this is a nice, soft place. its mine. i'll show those other bunnies that might call round here anytime that its mine. i'll pee and poop on it. that will show them. and those big funny-looking bunnies too. they'll know its mine and keep away.

He really needs a run to be attached to his dog crate as it is too small an area for him to be shut in overnight. I suggest then putting the litter tray in the run.

Just waiting for a puppy pen to arrive so he can have more room overnight. Thanks.

I love the name :lol:

Rabbits mark their territory with wee/droppings and at three months he'll just be hitting the hormone stage which makes things worse - you'll probably see a big improvement after neutering. He'll also be worse and it's all new to him and he'll be making it smell like him to help him feel at home. I can take a few weeks for the marking to tail off a bit when they get to a new home.

I take it the dogs bed if for dogs not him? If so it probably smells very strongly of them and he's adding his scent

The litter tray will help and you'll probably find things improve once you get the pen as that way he can learn in the slightly bigger but still contained area to use his tray. You might find adding an extra tray near the bed helps whilst he's out too, or if the dogs don't mind pop the tray on top for now.

Thank you Tamsin. That's a great reply. Yeah the dog does use her bed so it will be pretty stinky in between washes. I'm understanding a bit more now what motivates him! Planning to get the litter tray on fri as I'll have the pen by then so hopefully that'll give him a bit more structure as to where to toilet. Many thanks.

You're welcome

You'll probably find, until he's neutered you'll have to put up with the marking to a certain extent. Males tend to be very keen on making sure their boundaries are well sign posted. If you're unlikely they get really over excited and start marking their favourite people too!

I've an article that goes into litter training in a bit more depth that might help too: http://www.therabbithouse.com/behaviour/problem-litter-training.asp

Just to add that mine all have 32litre underbed storage boxes as litter trays. Nice and deep to keep all the newspaper, hay and poos contained.

Thanks for the link, that's great!

Under bed storage boxes sound like a fab idea! Never occurred to me to get those but they'd definitely be so much cleaner. Many thanks!