My beautiful bun has been adjusting well to free-roam life. She is very sweet and seems happy as she loves pets and gets the zoomies and binkies a lot. She has free roam of the whole house (it’s a very small house) and is generally a good girl aside from when we’re careless enough to leave her favorite snack out (wires and anything valued above $100) generally she uses her litterbox (stocked with hay) and is very clean.
But sometimes we’ll find a collection of poops outside the litterbox. Not just one or two, but like 10. We’ve also found that for some reason, she LOVES peeing/pooping in our bed, so we’ve had to block our bedroom off. Is there any reason for this? As I said our house is super small so her litter box is literally the next room over, she doesn’t do this anywhere else.
I also noticed that her pee is a milky/chalky white which is a sign of too much calcium. I’m pulling her bunny kibble and switching her over to veggies and fruits. I know cruciferous veggies seem the way to go, is there anything else I should give her? I assume I’ll have to pull her salt lick too.
by Anima_et_Animus
3 Comments
there are multiple theories as to why bunnies pee or poop on beds. One is that they just like doing their business on soft surfaces which I dont think is true since clearly you have carpet and she doesnt do it on the carpet. Another is that the bed very strongly smells like the owners so a bunny will either assume its a litter spot (because naturally the litter box very strongly smells like your bun) or they try to mark their own territory like trying to claim it from the owner.
Either way the best thing you can do is just not give her access to the bed and if she isnt spayed yet, get her spayed and then you can try giving her access again and see if she stopped (after a few weeks when her hormones have adjusted)
Salt licks are useless and shouldnt be given to bunnies, as for veggies just give her leafy greens, try and change it up every now and then and she should be fine. Other veggies and fruits should just be given as treats. There’s a veggie guide by the house rabbit society that breaks down what they can and cant eat.
Peeing on bed. Read multiple theories one being bcuz it smells like you so they want their scent on it too. We had two of our buns do it. Immediatel when they do it I clapped (to indicate no) and brought thrm to their litter. If they repeated it, i didnt let them on thr bed and then slowly gave them back bed priviledges i.e. some limited supervised time. If they peed, same immediate action and revoked priveledges…started over again. Eventually they both stopped.
As for calcium one bun has this. We noted his pellets have alfalfa (very high calcium) and switched brands. We took out all foods high in calcium in his diet (kale, spinach, basil, parsley) slowly added back in to see if he could tolerate. He couldnt and it would come back each time. So for now he just doesnt have any veg high in calcium and is healthy.
I have 2 rabbits, and they have the exact same diet of hay, pellets, treats, etc. But my male rabbit always have calcium in his pee while my female rabbit has never peed calcium. After analysing, I narrowed it down to one reason: amount of water drank. My male rabbit don’t drink as much water as my female rabbit, and I think that’s why there’s a visible buildup of calcium in his pee. You can try getting him to drink more water (research it yourself, but I read about some sugar-free flavouring that we can add to their water). The only reason I have not tried it yet is because I still want them to drink plain water. Hope this helps!