Going outside the litter box

Question
I have a 15 month old girl who was spayed last August. She's litter trained, and though she's never been perfect with her poops, she's always been very good about her pee. Lately though, she's been peeing once a day in front of her hay box. She leaves piles of poops there too. I'm guessing this is a territorial thing as her litter box is nearby. She still uses her litter box, which I empty every day, but not exclusively anymore. The whole area is covered with plastic, so there's no danger of her damaging anything, but I still want her to go in her box. I have no idea why she would develop a territory thing all of a sudden as there are no other animals around.

Any ideas as to how I can get her to go in her litter box exclusively again?  I'm not around when she pees outside the box, so I can't discipline her in the moment.

Answer
Dear JoAnn,

Since she's spayed and usually has good litterbox habits, I would get her to a good rabbit vet to rule out any organic/medical conditions that might make her avoid the box.  A bunny with joint pain might not want to jump into the box.  If you've recently changed litter, she might not like its texture or smell.  And sometimes a bunny with a urinary tract infection will develop unreliable litterbox habits:

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

To find a good rabbit vet, please go here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

If all checks out okay, then this might help you retrain her to the box:

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

Hope this helps!

Dana