Problem bunny

Hello, i'm new to this forum thing, but as i have such a troublesome bun thought i would pick your brains on some stuff.

I have a 3 year old black french lop, he came from a good breeder.
He is neutered and litter trained (or so i thought) and once upon a time used to be a model bunny, only pooed & wee'd where he was meant to (of course except sofas and our bed, oh and the dog's!!). We now have an incredibly naughty bunny who poos everywhere as if he isn't litter trained and also likes to give us token wee spots beside his litter tray and occasionally in our living room when no-one is looking. We have moved a few times since having him and so i put this down to his disgruntlement at having to move around so much, but we have been at our recent house for over a year now and he is getting worse!! He is a total house bunny with no cage as even the biggest doesn't seem fair to leave him in all day so he lives in our spare room when we are out or in bed. This used to be fine but at the moment it is becoming a bit scanky, as you can imagine.

He has an ongoing problem with teeth that don't align and so regularly has ops to file them down and as a consequence has weeping eyes all the time. He refuses to eat hay, and is also quite a large lad, 7kg when we last had him weighed, not sure if this is fat or if he really is just a huge rabbit with loads of fur. He moults a lot, but i think this is fairly normal for buns with his thickness of fur.

He is a such a lovely boy, full of character and great to live with (except when you have fluff up your nose) and i worry that he seems to be getting worse and worse, i would love another house bun but with the probs we are having at the moment am put off because the house is such a state.

Wondered if anyone had any ideas about the litter tray situation and also how to get him to eat hay? He is on Excel at the moment but reading other people's questions think i may put him onto the lite because he seems to be so chubbly!

Hiya and welcome :wave:

Just a quick thought on the hay front, how about mixing some fresh herbs in with the hay, someone suggested it on hear not so long ago.

Look forward to seeing some pics soon

hi

I think moving house will be what's upset him - bunnies love routine. Your new houses may have had animal smells from previous owners, which set him off, or he may just have been confused by it all...
Did you restrict him to a small area, like a crate, when you moved houses? This would help him to feel secure and get the idea of being somewhere new - if he's had instant freedom to roam a large room then he may have been scentmarking it all as he felt insecure?
Maybe going back to square one with litter training, by putting him in a crate with a litter box, will help, but only if you can get rid of the scent where he's been already with vinegar or biological washing powder.


Edana and the boys

hi

with his teeth, have you thought about having them removed, or is it his molars that are skew?


Edana and the boys

Mine never used to eat much hay but love the dried grass you can get.. how about branches.. would he gnaw on that?
Have you looked at dog crates? these are big.. mine is 4foot by 2foot i think. Could be an alternative altho he does sound a very big bunny!

You could also try feeding him one of the many dried grasses available on the market. Grass is just as good as Hay for helping to keep teeth in check.

I think Elve's suggestion of restricting the area he is allowed in to try and get him litter trained in a confined area is good. You could then gradually extend his freedom as his toilet habits improve.

Louise

MandyM said:

Hiya and welcome :wave:

Just a quick thought on the hay front, how about mixing some fresh herbs in with the hay, someone suggested it on hear not so long ago.

Look forward to seeing some pics soon

Click to expand...

yes i think its the move, try starting fresh and re train him pretend he is a baby bunny again and start fresh a new routine!

mandy m i went on your webbie and your pics are great!

Welcome the the forum

I think the first thing that might be an idea to do is get him a check up at the vet. They'll be able to weigh him and also tell you whether he is over weight and give you a target weight to get him down to if he is. It might also be an idea to check there is nothing physically causing problems with his litter habbits such as a urine infection.

What sort of poop is he leaving lying around? Is it the normal round pellet like poop or the softer ceacal type? If its the second the problem could be that he's to podgy to reach around properly to eat them or is filling up on other food instead.

Whats his diet at the moment? Rabbits will often ignore hay if they have no much other yummy stuff to eat. I'd certainly recommend switching to the lite pellets and also limiting the amount. Make sure for at least part of the day all that is available is hay. Hay, of course is just dry grass so if he won't eat hay you might have more luck with grass. Timothy grass is meant to be one of the best for wearing down teeth, you can order grass seed here: http://www.westwaleswillows.co.uk/bunnytoys.html try growing a couple of pots/trays which ou can bring in for him to play with.

You can make the hay more interesting by mixing in other food, as suggested herbs or even just hiding his pellets in it.

If it is his front teeth then as Edana said it might be worth considering removing them.

Confining him to a smaller area are retraining him is a good plan, you could also try giving him extra litter trays. You can always try reducing them again later.

Tamsin

Thanks for all your tips, we had trip to the vets on Saturday who is aware of his fat problem but we can't seem to solve it, even when he has more outside exercise in the summer he put on more! He has a large cage which is 2m by 1m, i think, so think he may have to go back into that to solve his naughtyness, but the dog crates are a good idea as they have more height to them, poor old Ted!

Never heard of adding herbs to the hay, we've tried everything but this is a new one to me, gonna give it a go! Unfortunately it is his molars that are the problem, which the vet originally thought was because he wasn't eating enough hay and so not getting the correct chewing action to wear them down, but he now thinks it may be a hereditary problem. He is booked in next week for a filing op so i am going to ask them to do other checks to whilst he is there.

Will try and get some pics on soon!

Re: hi

elve said:

I think moving house will be what's upset him - bunnies love routine. Your new houses may have had animal smells from previous owners, which set him off, or he may just have been confused by it all...
.

Click to expand...

This could be part of the problem of his weeing everywhere.

A single buck I was recently fostering was kept in our carpeted conservatory. when I let him out in there for exercise he 'marked' all the territory he could find :shock: :evil: , but did not do this in our living room. I'd prevouisly had a baby doe in there and before that my 2 bucks (which are now housed out doors)

Oli used to mark around our hallway. He seems much better now.

Are you putting hay into the litter tray to encourage him to eat and poop in the same place?

I have a french lop, and they can be a handful. Sylvia was very naughty when she was by herself as she got lonely. Do you think he is lonely and perhaps that is why he is misbehaving? You might actually find that some of the problems sort themselves out if you add a female bunny... esp with the eye thing, another bunny is always useful to clean the eyes out regularly. Probably best to get the litter tray thing and diet thing under control first...

hi

Oh that's a really good point - he's lonely!! Having a partner would not only keep him occupied and cleaner, but give him security too - less need to mark his territory everywhere. Might be worth a month or two of hassle if you can get him bonded to a lucky lady bunny?

Think a lady would be great!! But just got to convince the other half that he is lonely enough! Funny you say that about the eyes, his eyes are always much better when our dog gives them a good clean, sounds very weird and a bit horrible, but true!

Thanks for your help

I think runny eyes are a trait of french lops. I used to sit for ages and pick the boggies out of sylvia's, but now she has oli he does it for me

Other than that, you may see an improvement in behaviour if you add another bunny. Oli certainly solved the problem. As I put on another post earlier, Sylvia was waking me up all night every night, I started to hallucinate and sleepwalk as a result! Then we got Oli and all this business seemed to improve or stop altogether. She's still little madam sometimes, but she is far less naughty than she used to be and she no longer keeps me awake all night (phew!)