dirty rabbit

Question
hi, could you help me ?. We have got a 7-8 month old rabbit ,who lives inside ,but we let it out in the garden to have a run round ,it comes in the house whenever it wants .It was litter trained but recently we got a 7 week old baby rabbit and they dont get on ,so we have to let one in the garden and the baby the run of the house .when the baby is in his cage oliver the big one comes in and poops around his cage and also wees its doing my head in as i am always cleaning up after it .It never used to do that ,is there anything i can do to stop it from doing this . thankyou  

Answer
Hi Tammi,

your older bunny is not 'going to the bathroom', he is marking his territory and telling you and the new bunny he's in his space.  And he's right.  You placed the new bunny in his space.

You should not relegate your older bunny to the garden.  What I would advise you to do is place the new bunny in one area of your house, perhaps an area not so much favored by your first bunny as much as other areas.  You will need to get a pet gate, like an 8-panel wire gate that you can set up a boundary and divide a space off for each rabbit.  It may sound extreme but there is much logic behind it.

They are not fixed rabbits so the chance of fighting would be very high.  They don't know each other so even if they are fixed (and more mellow) they would still probably fight unless kept in separate areas.  Rabbits need to be 'bonded' to each other and this is a process that can take months, and sometimes it doesn't work.  

The three things you need to do to stop this marking is:

1.  Get your older rabbit fixed.  In a month this behavior will greatly reduce - it is hormonally driven.
2.  When the little rabbit hits sexual maturity at 3-4 months, get him fixed.  You will eliminate his urge to do this kind of thing.
3.  Keep them in separate areas of your house to reduce the need of both of them to mark their boundaries.  Single gates are a must, and if they nip at each other through a single gate, you will need to 'double gate' them so that yo use two gates with space in between so they can't bite the other.  What you are dealing with now is what happens when you just put a new rabbit into an existing rabbits' area without considering what reaction might it cause the first rabbit to have.

The house rabbit society web site (www.rabbit.org) has excellent, detailed information on rabbits and getting second rabbits, and also can help you find a good rabbit vet (not all are experienced) in your area:

www.rabbit.org\vets

Feel free to ask anything else about your guys.