urinating on floor and sitting in urine

Question
My daughter's bunny Moses is a 4 year old mini lop and we've had him for about 3 years.  Moses was playful, fun and used his litter box with only an occasional accident until my daughter went away to college several months ago.  Now he pees around his litter box and sits and steps into it so that I have to wash his back feet and legs to keep him from tracking it all over the house. When she came home for Thanksgiving and carried him around and petted him he kept the floor of his sleeping pen dry for almost two weeks. Now he's back to wetting up everything again and smelling like the zoo.  What can I do to help our bunny? We've tried adding an extra litter box, scolding, praising and rewarding, all with little or no improvement.

Answer
Dear Lanniece,

Because your bunny reverted to his good litterbox habits when your daughter was home, it's possible that he's acting out partially out of depression and missing her.  Poor bunny is lonely and missing his "mate."

But it's not normal for a rabbit, even one who's acting out, to sit in his own urine.  This suggests there may be a medical problem at the root of this behavior, and that this needs to be addressed.  Please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/urinary.html

E. cuniculi can cause incontinnce, too, which is something you might want to ask the vet about.  You can find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

If this is just a litterbox training matter, then this might help:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/training.html

but truly it doesn't really sound like just a loss of litterbox habits due to "carelessness."  It sounds as if it's at least partly psychological.

I know this might be the last thing you want to hear, but one very good way to cure his depression would be to call up your local rabbit rescuer:

www.rabbit.org/chapters

and set up a "blind date" for Moses with some of their eligible bachelorette bunnies.  I know this may sound odd, but two rabbits are often less trouble than one, since they will keep each other entertained and happy while you're away and unable to pamper them as much as they would like.  The food expense difference is negligible between one and two rabbits (you can read about proper, healthy diet here:  www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html), and the only real commitment is to provide any necessary vet care for two rabbits instead of one.

But Moses will be incredibly happy once he's bonded to another rabbit (with help from the rescuer; this must be done very carefully), and you will LOVE watching the two bunnies snuggle and love on each other.  It really could be the cure for his loneliness, and it will be great for the whole family.  He won't love you any less.

I hope this helps!

Dana