Rabbit poops!

Question
Is it normal for her to mark everyday? We let her out about 7am and leave her out til 5pm and she will poop all over the house, you can barely walk thru without stepping on her poops? I've only had outdoor rabbits, so one who poops all over the house is unusual to me.
Thanks!!
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hello, my 7 month old splay-legged Dwarf Hotoe rabbit is pooping all over the house. She has litter boxes we clean out regularly, she gets plenty of love and affection, she gets 1/8 cup pellets in am and pm and timothy hay all day and 'greens' at night. We have had her since Sept 06 and she had been able to not poop all over the house. We have to older cats that like her. She has had her run of the same area, we have brought in no new animals, and we haven't moved any furniture. We are trying to sell our house and she sees other people coming in when we aren't' around. My vet says she's marking her territory, but we thought she had already done that. Help please!! She's going to be spayed in 2 weeks and the vet will xray her to look at her leg.
Thank you!
-----Answer-----
Hi Paige,

at seven months she is sexually mature.  Combine it with this time of the year and the hormones are fired up, causing her to mark her territory.  Again.  Just because they mark once does not mean they will not ever have to mark again.  The scents can fade and go away over time.  They will re-mark again when they feel they need to, and also at certain times of the year.  All of our guys, feeling spring-ish, have elevated their markings.  I hear this from our friends as well who have rabbits.  

And both intact and spayed/neutered rabbits will do this.  The spayed/neutered ones often will do it less or will not spray, but they will still drop pellets.  You may see them digging a lot more in their bedding or on rugs/carpets.  Especially females.  They are the primary warren diggers and spring triggers this behavior in many of them.

You probably cleaned the house up a bit for showing.  In the process you may also have removed some of her scent markings and she's just putting them back.  

The spaying will reduce her hormonally-driven behavior a lot.  You basically get your pre-sexually-mature rabbit back.  Just know that some of the behavior you are seeing is them just being a rabbit, regardless of if they are intact or not.  Rabbit gals are always interested in marking their real estate.

Lee

Answer
Hi Paige,

well, like I said, there are several things at work here.  One, you probably cleaned the house for your showings, which will probably have taken away some of her prior marking scents.  Second, you got her before sexual maturity.  Now that she is sexually mature she will mark.  Third, this time of the year rabbits get more active with their marking and digging.  Finally, I didn't mention it but with other animals in the house combined with reasons 2 and 3, if they have marked anything she will overmark their marks.  She will do the entire house (or as much as she is allowed to be in, because female bunnies will want as much land to be marked 'theirs' as possible.

You are just experiencing an intact, sexually mature rabbit that is more active because of the time of the year it is.  She'll mark every day to reinforce boundaries, or mark things she hadn't marked the day before.  

The good thing is that they have the nicest solid waste to deal with than any other pet like a dog or cat.  As it's 95% hay, the rest greens and a bit of bacteria, it has hardly any offensive properties.  The smell it has (if it has any) is from their scent glands coating them with their scent, it's not the pellets themselves.

Don't worry, she will get better as spring goes on and her hormones go down from the spay.  Make sure your vet doesn't make you fast her (not needed for rabbits prior surgery), and that you absolutely want pain meds (like metacam) so she will not be in pain and stop eating, and post-op antibiotics (like baytril) to prevent any post-op infections.  Good rabbit vets know that rabbits in pain won't move or eat, and what a serious problem it is if they don't eat.  She also shouldn't be running full speed or doing a lot of jumping for a week or two after the operation.  She'll probably be less active for a few days after the operation, but then she should start getting back to normal.

Lee