Naughty Rabbit

Question
My husband and I have a rabbit who is 1 year old.  We've had him since he was a baby and we got him from a petstore.  The store did give us a certificate telling us his bday and that he had been neutered. We have also taken him to the vet twice for basic checkups.  He said that it does seem as though he had been neutered. We wanted to check because we understand that neutering rabbits calms them down and may stop bad behavior.  We LOVE our bunny and let him hop around when we are home for a few hours each day. (He's like a "child" to us....but he is super spoiled...)He does the occasional poop on the floor, which we can deal with cleaning up.  BUT, our problem is that he loves to hop on our bed and after a few minutes he always urintes and goes to the bathroom on our bed.  This is a bit much for us!  We've had to change the sheets multiple times because of this little bugger and we're wondering if and how to stop this behavior. We understand that it's territorial, but it's gross. For now, he is not allowed on the bed.  Since he seems to have been "fixed" and is healthy, do you have any advice of how to reverse this territorial behavior?  Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hi Beth,

well, it's good you checked that he is neutered.  Most pet stores do not sell neutered rabbits.

The occasional pellet on the floor is about marking territory, not going to the bathroom.  That does not go away with neutering.  The excessive marking and spraying you that males do goes away.

On the bed:  When he's out playing, put an older, large towel down over the area he seems to pee on, rolled up on itself once or twice, then place a litterbox on the towel in the spot where he seems to go normally.  See if he will use the pan.  

He may be doing this more now because it's spring and one of your guys' pheromones are triggering him.  He may be trying to 'overmark' an area of the bed where he smells one of you, trying to claim that spot as his.  If the litterpan/towel combo can work when he's out, that is the solution.  Otherwise don't let him in there for awhile (few weeks), and try and see if he will behave better later with a towel/litterpan over his favorite marking area.

Lee