Help with bunny peeing & pooing where she shouldn't!

Hi, I seem to always be asking for help on here lately, sorry! I would appreciate any advice. I have Sammy & Gingerbread. They are not bonded. They have a room each with baby gates on with wire mesh over. They take it in turns on being in the hallway which is between the 2 rooms, 1 gate it shut and the other open. About a year ago, Gingerbread peed a couple of times outside Sammy's gate but then he stopped. Every day he 'chins' everything along the hallway and at her gate, like he has to mark it again every time. Sammy wasn't bothered but then she also started chinning near his gate. Then she started peeing at his, just a little bit every day or so. I put some lino down as it was staining the carpet. I tried some of that pet remedy calming spray but she kept doing it. If anyone has been following my other thread about Sammy, you will already know, she has been very poorly since July. Because of this I have taken over the hallway with her, trying to encourage her as much as possible to eat. Gingerbread hasn't been left out in the hallway because of this. Sammy has been getting worse and worse with peeing and now pooing a lot out his gate. She knows exactly where her litter tray is and does most of her business in it. If I catch her at it, I make out I am going to pick her up and she runs off to her litter tray. I have tried putting food bowls in the way of the corners where she was peeing but she just does it further out. This morning I found 2 pees outside his gate. I had been doing a lot of bonding sessions with them having them both in the hallway stroking them together. They are both tolerant of each other now unless one of them moves too suddenly. With Sammy being ill, I hadn't been able to do this as much, although each time she was feeling a bit better she wanted some snuggles with him (he's not too bothered, as long as someone is giving him some attention!) Has anyone got any suggestions of how to try to get her to stop? thankyou

Sorry to hear you're having problems with peeing! I don't know if maybe it's a territory thing, if it is I don't really know what to suggest. My boy Teddy stopped using his tray when he got ill earlier in the year and it took a long time to get him peeing where he should be! I put puppy pads down where he kept peeing and then every couple of days would slowly move the pads further towards the litter tray until eventually he got the message. I don't know if this will work with your girl, but maybe it's something you could try. I hope you can get it sorted eventually, I know how annoying it can be.

No advice really but things would probably improve if the rabbits were bonded. So you might have this problem until then.

Orenoko said:

Sorry to hear you're having problems with peeing! I don't know if maybe it's a territory thing, if it is I don't really know what to suggest. My boy Teddy stopped using his tray when he got ill earlier in the year and it took a long time to get him peeing where he should be! I put puppy pads down where he kept peeing and then every couple of days would slowly move the pads further towards the litter tray until eventually he got the message. I don't know if this will work with your girl, but maybe it's something you could try. I hope you can get it sorted eventually, I know how annoying it can be.

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It's frustrating but she's been ill lately so I will have to let her off! Hopefully I can try to bond them again and hopefully calm her down a bit!

Hi, now Sammy is getting better I am going to try bonding them again. When we got Gingerbread, he was a rescue bunny, we got him to be a new partner for Sammy when Patch died (they had been bonded for a couple of years). we tried bonding them but Sammy was very aggressive towards Gingerbread and both of them wanted to be the top bunny. Patch was the underdog, Sammy was the boss. Gingerbread has a very sweet nature so I thought he would let Sammy be boss but he is just as bossy as her! They were meant to be sharing a room but luckily we had another spare room he could have as my partners kids are grown up and moved out! We had to put mesh over the baby gates as Sammy would try to get Gingerbread when he went near. Slowly she had got used to him and seemed to be accepting him being around, I could do smooching sessions with them but he would keep pushing his head into her and she would get annoyed so I had to be very careful and always have my hand there. Suddenly in May/June this year we saw a real improvement, she really seemed to want to be cuddling up to him, she would go up to him and put her head to his head. I had been doing long sessions with them and was able to trust them a little. Unfortunately she is happy sitting there with him even if I stop stroking her, but Gingerbread moves pretty much as soon as I stop which then makes her move too. In July Sammy was ill so it's all fallen apart since then. Although even while she was ill she still was ok having time with him when she was a bit better. One time she did get aggressive but that's when he suddenly jumped over a box and gave her a fright. Other than that there seems to be no aggression now. Hopefully if Sammy continues to improve, I can try some more intensive bonding!