litter training again ?

Hi all,i have two male rabbits,brothers both 2 years of age.They have a large hutch in the living room where they are kept in at night but have the run of the living room when ever someones in at home.Both use the litter tray in the hutch with no problems and no mess outside in the living room.That was until about two months ago when Fudge started leaving droppings around the living room and all over their hutch.They both seemed not as active,not binking and charging round the living room as usual so a trip to the vets it was.Both eating and drinking fine,the vet said they seemed fine,gave me a course of anti biotics to give them to be on the safe side.Took them back a week later for check up,no change in Fudge,vet checked him over,said he was fine,could be a mood or weather thing reguarding activity.Happy that rabbits in good health but cant understand why Fudge is still leaving droppings everwhere.Picking droppings up off the carpet is one thing but Fudge crossed the line last week when he started urinating randomly everwhere,where he sleeps and on the living room carpet.The other rabbit,Caramel is using litter tray still with no problems but its getting where i dare not let the rabbits out as iam constantly cleaning up after Fudge.Has anyone else had this problem or got a solution,could it be a medical problem vet has missed ? Again both were fine untill two months ago,hope someone can help,Neil.

Hello and welcome

Are they neutered? My two were damned near impossible to litter train until they were neutered.

Hi Neil, this sounds like territorial behaviour to me. It sounds like they are both trying to claim the space as their own.

Are the boys neutered? If not, I would advise getting this done ASAP as it can, and is quite likely to quickly escalate into fighting.

My first bought was neutering too. I think it would be a must with two bucks to prevent fights. Another thought is to get a separate litter tray to put in a place away from the original one so that they have choice to go. Basically have as many litter trays as animals. It works with the cats

A very warm welcome love.

Hugs
Jo xx

Thankyou for your responses and yes both rabbits are neutered.Will have to try the extra litter tray in living room (although i didnt want one on show) and didnt want to confuse Caramel as he uses the one we have just fine.As i said both were fine with single litter tray up until two months ago and they both get on great together,maybe it is "the terrible twos ".

How very odd.

I would put ban extra litter tray out and if they have an accident pop them in it with a firm but gentle "no". Once they are using it again move it slowly ( a couple of inches a day) back into their hutch.

It could just be that they don't want to do their business in their hutch. Are you using a different cleaner in there or anything?

What do you have in their litter tray Hun? I would recommend a paper based litter with a layer of hay on the top... They like to eat while they poo.

Hi

Did your vet consider a UTI? My girl suffers re-occuring UTI's and this sounds a lot like how she is when going through a bad spurt. Worth looking into...

Hi,litter tray has wood pellets with covering of hay,also hay rack above litter tray but Fudge messes in hutch as well,vet gave him a course of anti-biotics in case he had picked up a bug so would that of cleared up any UTI ? Will continue to keep eye on him and see how he goes.

Maury I couldn't be of more help Hun .... I hope the little monkeys remember their toilet manners again soon - in the mean time I'm sending them both a head scratchie x

As i said both were fine with single litter tray up until two months ago and they both get on great together,maybe it is "the terrible twos ".[/quote] Could well be.

Hugs
JO xx