The snarly monster

Hi buddies! :DI'm here to ask you some advices about my little and cute tyrant. I would like to show you some photos of him, but I have to wait a week before post external links.  

He's a neutered male, healthy and full of life. But, he's giving me some troubles for some nasty behaviours I will explain you.

First, the littler. He know how to use it, but he just like to pee on the ground even if he have two litters in the same room, and another one for emergencies in another one. The funny thing is that he use this last one without problems, he never pee on the ground in this room... maybe it's because me and my boyfriend pass almost all our time in that one. Our marble floor is completely corroded by his damned pee!  we tried with some hay in the littler, but nothing. We don't understand what's the cause of this. My boyfriend suggested to keep him away from the room for a while so he will start to use the litters once forgot about his behaviour, but I'm not so sure...

Secondo problem: aggression. He's very territorial and this is normal for a rabbit, but sometimes he really become a little snarling monster. It's like he want to keep control of us, and cut in fron of us with great danger. I know he's not so aggressive after all, when he's relaxed he love to be cuddled and enjoy our company, but.. I don't know. My fear is that we're not passing enough time with him, and he react with this bad behaviour. We already know that the best solution would be get a female rabbit to make a couple, but our economical resources are not so high lately. We can barely have care of him alone.

Any suggestions?

Has he been neutered Lory? Much of the behaviour you describe would be consistent with a buck with all his intact hormones. So my advice would be

1. get him neutered.

2. when he comes back from the vets make a pen in one room and keep him in there until he is consistently using the litter tray.

3. one he is doing this allow him more space and again make sure he is using the litter tray. Repeat until he is using the tray wherever he is

The aggression is going to be partly hormonal. I think in order to better advise you how to cope with it we are going to need examples of when you get this behaviour.

That's the problem, he is neutered! :(sometimes we're afraid that the operation has not been done well. But before that he was a pee sprinkler, now he don't do it anymore.

He usually become aggressive when we walk around his main room (it's our hall, it's not small) like when we're getting ready to get out, and he try to stop us blocking our way. We always ignore this, we never answer screaming or getting angry. But it's pretty dangerous, we always need to pay attention on our steps to not hurt him. He start to snarl even in our bedroom, when he usually can't get in (because he already made some pee on the bed  ) it's the only room where he still gnaw the furniture. And when I try to carry him away, he really get angry and try to bite me. Same thing when he jump on the bed, he don't want to be touched.

Does he have an area in his room where he can hide? Or can you give him a different room that you don't have to 'invade' when you want to go out? If you are backwards and forwards through his room when he does not want you to be, I can understand that he might get cross.

I agree with Sparky. Does he have a place that is just his? A quiet corner where he can sit and be guaranteed not to be disturbed. This can be a simple as some sort of indoor cage that is open all the time so he can retreat into it.

But the rules are that when he is in his area you leave him alone. This will mean that you need to shut him out of the room when you need to clean it out. I would suggest you use this as his base and put his litter tray in there and use it to restart his litter training.

Yes Sparky, he have a little wood house where he can hide, but he rarely use it. He rather to jump on it and rest on the roof to keep an eye to all his territory, haha XD mmh no, the hall is the only way to get out, we can't do nothing about it. :(sigh, I really would like a home with a garden one day... it would be absolutly better for him.

Mmmh you know Cheryl, I had a similar idea in the past. It would be useful even when we have some friends in home, it would be more safe for everyone. Thank you!  just in case, how should I introduce this to Hazel? Should I build everything when he's not in the room and show him everything once finished? And should I give him food in it too?

I would get a big a cage as you can afford and will fit in the space - I have a giant dog crate for my pair. Then you can put him in there and shut him in there for 24 hours to reinforce that it is his space. I would put hay in there for him but not pellets as food is another thing for him to be territorial over. I have found that my pair have reduced territorial behaviour over food when they use a treat ball to have food. I use a normal dog treat ball. It has the added benefit of encouraging exercise as well.

Only 24 hours? Good, Hazel loves to walk around our home, it would be stressful for him to get closer for too long. I'm afraid he would be scared from this, and refuse to get in by himself he already hate to get in his wood house, he's a real free spirit!

Being 24 hours if that works - ultimately it may take a few days for him to use the litter tray properly. The idea is that he needs to see it as a safe place, everything he needs he still gets in the safe place.

The RWAF do a leaflet - http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/leaflet_pdfs/biting_hand_may_05.pdf

We are going through the litter box problem with Rory-STILL and it has almost been a year. He knows what to do. He just still chooses not to.