Advice on weird Urine behaviour

Hello...

I am experiencing something quite weird with my Male rabbit Lewis... We have had him for 3 months now...
He is an indoor rabbit. Everything was normal, and for some reason now, he no longer wants to urinate in the litter in his cage (or in his cage at all)...

We let him out for an hour before we go to work, and 4 hours when we get home... The minute we take him out of his cage and place his litter (the same one that's in his cage) on the floor he pees in it... Its like he holds it in all day until he can go to the same litter, outside of the cage...

Today i was out for 10 hours, and came home to no urine in his litter... The second i put him down in his litter outside the cage, he released all that he'd been holding all day!!!
Tonight im going to try leaving his urine in the litter until the morning... Maybe to remind him that's his litter in the cage too???

Any advice? thanks !

Have no idea as to why he is doing this. Is he castrated?

How big is his cage? Is it possible to attach a run to his cage so he can have a litter tray outside of the cage too?

How peculiar. The only think I can think of is that he's acting like a wild bun would, insomuch that wildies tend to litter away from the burrow, so as not to attract the attention of predators to their home. Lewis may have this instinct genetically stronger than most?

It's only a suggestion, I don't know, but if he's unneutered, then neutering should help him overcome the instinct.

As Sixer suggested, you could attach a run on the cage, or get something like this that you can attach to the front of the cage to give him another room as it were, that he could wee in.

If he's unneutered, then I'd see if neutering would help too. Thy are easier to toilet train after that

How funny, My 5 month old female bunny has started to do this too in the last week, only she runs to the bathroom ans jumps in the cat litter, I do worry about how long she goes without

Cottontail wrote:How funny, My 5 month old female bunny has started to do this too in the last week, only she runs to the bathroom ans jumps in the cat litter, I do worry about how long she goes without

Yes, I have to keep the door where Tori's toilet is kept or else my buns head straight for it as well to use but also to play in . I'd try and remember to keep the bathroom door shut as I think cat litter can be bad for them.

Can Lewis get into and out of his cage freely when it's opened? If he can then I'd suggest leaving the litter box in the cage while he is out (but watch him as he may go to the usual spot litter box or not).

When I first brought Hippo home he didn't go to the washroom at all for 4 hours. I was starting to get nervous so I switched his new, clean litter box with the old, stinky, gross one he'd come with. Within seconds he hopped to it and relieved himself. After that I switched back to the new one and he used it just fine... so I think your idea about leaving some urine (and poop too) in it when you put him back in the cage is a good idea. He'll hopefully realize what to do based on the smell!

And boy does bunny pee smell!!

Success! By leaving his sent in his litter, he started going in it again!! Little rascal!
Hope he didnt do any damage to imself in the last week holding it in that long!!!

Unfortunately louis can't get out his cage on his own... He lives on the second floor of the rabbit condo Alfi lives downstairs
He has 2x4 feet of living space, wish is enough for him to hop a couple times, stretch, and messup all his toys that i always tidy in a corner
However we without fail take him out for at least 4 hours a day, if not more on most days... We have to make sure he can hop freely, its his favorite part of the day...

Thanks for the advice to all again!

Well i was a little too quick to celebrate... Tho he did urinate though out the night.. Nothing again during the day!

I called the Vet... They said that he just might be a clean rabbit that has decided he'd rather not do his business in his cage...
Or he might have the starting of a urinary track infection.... So he has an appointment on Saturday...
It was about time i bring my two little buns to get their first checkup...

I'm already writing a list of the questions i have been accumulating in the past 3 months

Oh well, I don't know what to say about this issue.

Good luck with the vet appointment, I hope nothing is wrong with your bunny!

Good luck at the vets, I'm sure it's nothing serious, it is an instinct in Rabbits not to mess where they live, but domesticated ones tend not to be so fussy

Good luck at the vets. Im sure its just that he is an exceptionally clean boy, although im sure its not good for him to be holding it!

daisy is the same though - hes very particular about doing his business in his tray. He has a cat litter box in the far corner of the room. If i move the tray he'll go to the same spot and do his business there. Even if he is playing in the garden he'll go back into the house to use his littler tray and then go back out again!

Well Alfi and Lewis got their first vet visit over with today...

The vet thinks that Lewis is fine... She recommended trying a special litter called 'yesterday's news'... its essentially compressed newspaper in pellet form...
She thinks that maybe because he cant dig and cover in his current litter, it may be stopping him from going... So we tried that, and it seemed to work!!! Glad it was not a urinary track infection! Hopefully he will continue using it! She also recommended getting him fixed soon... It could help some of his "behavioral" problems... (poor little guy)

I'm actually really happy we made the appointment because Alfi seemed to have a problem with her eye just this morning... The vet checked it out, and it might be something potentially serious... But we seem to have caught it at the beginning stages... A form of abscess is developing inside her eye... Which might be a sign of a more serious bacteria that she might be carrying

She's on anti-biotics for two weeks, and has a check-up scheduled once she has finished her meds... Hope we can beat whatever it is she has

So will keep a close eye on the both of them in the next couple days...





A couple of pics taken not too long ago

Sleepy Lew




Alfi's favorite dish

Lewis is fine!

But poor little adorable Alfi! I hope the anti-biotics will be usefull! *vibes vibes vibes for Alfi!*

glad lewis is fine.

sending vibes for beautiful alfi. Hope the anti-biotics sort her infection out, bless her.

K x x

What a fabulous picture of Alfi in her dish. She is just divine. Sending lots of vibes for her sore eye and hope that it doesn't lead to anything nasty.

Glad that Lewis is happier with his pee situation.

I'm glad you seem to have Lewis' problem under control. And Sorry to hear about Alfie, it sounds like the vet might be worried about EC? Unless I've read into it wrong, I hope shes OK though - Good to hear of another girl bun with a boy name! One thing I have to mention is that even with a minimum of 4 hrs out daily, 4x2ft really, really isnt big enough for them. Have you considered something more spacious? X

Thanks for the good vibes all!!

Alfi seems to be doing Ok... She's a little more quiet then usual, but i cant get paranoid...

As for the cage, unfortunately that's the biggest we can give them for now (limited room in our apartment, and actually no decent cages available in Canada!!! I had to fly this one in from the USA...)... They both have their own 4x2 cage... Its a double stacked hutch...
We try to give them the most outside time as possible... They usually get 5 to 6 hours a day... Hope that we give them enough

Sending vibes for alfi. She's a gorgeous bunny and in the plate as well!

Re hutches, we have the same problem in Aus. Even chicken hutches are not big enough. I've considered buying a mini-shed for them, but most are metal and this is NOT OK in the Aus summer with temperatures 40 degrees celcius and above.

What I've done is give the bunnies a "bedroom" in the house. This one room has been completely and thoroughly bunny proofed. They live in that room and when we are home we let them around the rest of the house. It's also easy to shut the door and hide all of the bunny mess I don't mean to be nosy but could it be possible to section off half of your apartment with a fence or something? They do enjoy the socialisation.

I think that giving them 5-6 hours excersize is more than a whole lot of bunnies get.

They are very loved and very looked after and therefore very very lucky buns.

Bunnies in the wild spend a whole lot of their days in burrows by their own choosing so I dont think you should worry.

You are doing a wonderful job and if all bunny owners out there were as considerate towards their buns as you are the world would be a better place.

Keep us updated on little ones eyes.

Katie

Thanks Katieb for the encouragement! I really do wish more people saw how much rabbits give...

We are hoping to buy a house in the next year or so... We will then be able to dedicate an entire room to our little guys Until then we'll continue giving them the most we can

Alfi's abscesses is still quite swolen It looks quite painful... She try's to keep that eye closed as much as possible... It breaks my heart...
Hope you heal real quick my little bun... You really worry me...

Vibes for the buns, and glad to hear that Lewis & Alfie got through the vet trip ok! What lovely bunstas I second what Katie says above, you're doing great with them It's a learning curve!

NSD wrote:What I've done is give the bunnies a "bedroom" in the house. This one room has been completely and thoroughly bunny proofed. They live in that room and when we are home we let them around the rest of the house. It's also easy to shut the door and hide all of the bunny mess I don't mean to be nosy but could it be possible to section off half of your apartment with a fence or something? They do enjoy the socialisation.

This is a great idea Would you mind putting some pics of the bunny room in the indoor housing thread in 'Property Ladder'? With housing, especially indoor, there's so many ways of doing it, and photos of the set-ups are really helpful to new owners