inappropriate urinating

Question
My daughter adopted a year old female dwarf rabbit from the SPCA.  Two months later, due to unforeseen circumstances I have now "inherited" Gertie.  She knew me well before coming to live with me so that's not a change for her.  I have her cage in the bathroom, which is a very large, sunny room.  At night I close the door to her cage but during the day I close the bathroom door so she has the run of the bathroom and when I am home she has the run of the house although she tends to stay on carpeted areas.  The problem:  she urinates on the bathmat if I leave it down.  Obviously, the solution is to pick it up after we shower but is this a way of marking it as hers?  She will also dash over to it when I stand on it.  She has also urinated on the bathroom floor a couple of times.  The other thing she has done is rub her chin on my feet then spray urine on them.  This was done with a leap and twist into the air and a spray of urine on my feet and the carpet.  She also urinated on my shirt while sitting on me today.  She made no effort to move off of me so it didn't seem like an accident.  Is she marking territory, trying to assert her dominance?  What can be done about this?
Michelle

Answer
Hi Michelle,

you'll need to reply to my answer to you, as I need more info to give you a better answer.

First, is your gal ever been spayed?  My guess is that she has not been spayed.  This kind of behavior is primarily hormonally-driven, and is very common in intact rabbits.  Spaying/neutering rabbits greatly reduces markings and sprayings (of you, other rabbits, etc).

You would need to go to a good rabbit vet for this procedure (not any old cat/dog vet will do), as rabbits are more touchy under gas and have different pre- and post-op needs than a dog or cat.  If you don't have one, go to:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society-recommended vet in your area.  They will do a pre-op visit with you before the day of the actual operation.  Make sure the vet confirms for you that she actually is a female rabbit (males tend to do the drive-by sprayings more than females, that's why I mention it).

It will take 4-5 weeks for her hormones to drop down to new, lower levels.  You should see a difference in behavior around week 2, generally speaking.

The marking like this is a territory thing and also a 'love' thing - they mark the ones they love or own.  Her marking you is a sign of affection.  Marking on you while being held is a comfort thing, she probably didn't want to leave you (if you were holding her) or if she was briefly sitting on you it was to mark you as 'hers'.  Chinning your feet is her putting her scent on you (they have scent glands under their chin).  You can't smell it, but they can.

So really the thing that will greatly reduce/eliminate this behavior will be a spay.  You will also be doubling her life span, as most females who are not spayed will have uterine cancer by 5 or 6 and die an unhappy death.  Spayed, she will have a good chance to live 10-12 years as a house rabbit.

In the meantime, you may want to put some old (but clean) cotton towels down on the bathroom floor instead of your mat, and rotate them out daily and toss them in a quick wash.

Lee