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litter training regression

22 11:14:23

Question
I am the owner of a year old mini lop who was successfully litter trained until about a month ago. Now whenever he is let out of his cage for a few hours of run around time, he uses the kitchen floor instead; relieving himself less than 4 feet from the litter box in his cage. I don't understand the cause behind this since his cage and litter box have never been moved nor has the size of his run area increased.  Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. I would prefer not adding another litter box since his area of choice is right in front of the kitchen sink, but I will if necessary.
Thank you.  

Answer
Hi Laura,

the question I always ask is: is he actually going to the bathroom, or is he just marking there?  That is the first thing to figure out.

I am assuming you have had him neutered.  If not, get him neutered and this will reduce or eliminate this extra marking behavior.  Only allow a good rabbit vet to do the operation.  See:  www.rabbit.org\vets    to find a House Rabbit Society-recommended rabbit vet in your area, if you don't already have one.

When you are talking about a fixed rabbit, marking usually involves less quantity of fecal pellets and urine.  They don't sit there for a long pee like they do in their litterpan, it is generally a smaller amount.  Since he knows a litterpan is a bathroom, I am wondering if he is just marking a boundary or something another animal or person has touched.  Even if people walk over that area, maybe it's a smell on the shoe that gets brushed in there and he wants to overmark that smell with his.  In front of the kitchen sink I imagine a lot of different shoes and people stand there and walk by.

Is there something significant about the spot he has chosen to do this on?  Do other animals do something at this spot?  

He could be making a statement to you about something (yes it's sounds funny but I'm not a touchy-feely guy).  Is there something you do related to him around that area?  

You should also sit down and write out any and all things that were going on with people in the house and events in the house about a month ago when the problem started.  Did somebody go back to school?  Was there a construction project in the house? Did you get another animal? Did anything move around in the kitchen?  Did you get a new garbage disposal?  Or something else that makes a new noise?  Put the list together and see if something doesn't stare back up at you as a potential cause (or causes).

As you know these guys are creatures of habit, and love their routines.  Even small changes that we may not think are big deals may be behind something like this.

The short answer and normal course to take is to give him a litterpan there and see what occurs.  In the meantime it will save you cleaning time.  Now if he avoids the litterpan and goes next to it or elsewhere, there's something else going on besides a bathroom thing.  I wold tend to lean this way at the moment seeing that he is litterpan-trained and isn't having problems in his cage. He could just be being 'naughty', he might be saying 'if you don't clean my litterpan every day I'm going out here' (I am not accusing you), it could require some behavior mod training on your side.

Feel free to write back anytime about this or anything else.

Lee