Marking the house

Question
Dr. Dr Krempels,

We are the proud owners of a bunny (Sasha) that is now 5 mths old.  We are saving up to have her fixed.  Here in Canada it's about $250 CDN.  We have her litter trained and she does use the litter but she continues to pee and poop all over the house.  

1. After we have her fixed will she stop peeing and pooping all over the house?  

2. How do we avoid her becoming bord?  We give her boxes, sheets, cardboard, paper, little tunnels ect but want to know how to avoid her becoming board.
3.  Do you know any web sites that show how to make an outdoor exercize pen.  I've done alot of searching and can only find ones to purchase ($80-130) which are not in my price range.

Thanking you in advance.
Ellen and family
Ottawa, Canada  

Answer
Dear Ellen,

Congratulations on your bunny family member. :)

Once she's spayed, her litterbox habits should improve, but you can start training her now with the tips here:

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

Some rabbits are tidier than others, and I hope yours will turn out to be a good litterbox user.  No good way to predict that until after the spay.  But at least pellets are easy to sweep up, and they don't have much odor.  :)

For ideas on good ways to keepy your bunny occupied and not bored, please see the articles here under "mental health" for bunnies:

http://www.rabbit.org/health/index.html#fun

I haven't been able to find any web sites on building a rabbit pen, but I can offer you these tips:  

1.  If it's a permanent pen, be sure there are concrete footers at least 24" deep to prevent anyone from digging out or in.

2.  Use heavy gauge hardware cloth (square wires, galvanized) and *untreated* wood for the supports.

I think that if you do the pricing, it might actually turn out to be more economical to buy a pen, since the materials for building them are not cheap.  You can possibly find acceptable puppy pens at large pet supply outlets for about $75.  Unfortunately, I don't think even a home made pen is going to end up being much cheaper than that.

I hope this helps!

Dana