Why does my bunny keep pooping on my bed?!

by Trina
(Northridge)

My dwarf bunny won't stop peeing and pooping on my bed. He knows how to jump onto my bed now and sometimes when I'm not looking he'll jump up and I'll find pellets and pee stains on my bed! but literally he's never on there for more than a few minutes before I see him and take him off. Also, I keep my room pretty nice, but if there is ever anything cloth-like on the floor, ex: clothes, towel, blanket, etc. then he will choose that area to also pee and poop.


Why does he do this?? Other than that he is pretty well potty trained and only goes in his litter box or cage.

***** Karen Sez *****
Your rabbit may be claiming and marking its territory. It uses its litter box fairly regularly, but feels compelled to let any other furry or unfurry creatures know that this room and/or bed belongs to it (not you).

Try dialing back your rabbit's freedom, keeping it within tighter boundaries using, say, playpens, gates, or a wire corral of some sort, until the rabbit clearly understands your dim view of its marking habits. (You can find plans for a somewhat collapsible wire corral in our Pet Rabbit Living Spaces ebook, or our complete housing ebook, Ideal DIY Rabbit Cages: https://www.raising-rabbits.com/world-of-raising-rabbits.html.

A second idea might be to place a second litter box on top of the bed during those times when the rabbit has the run of the room but you are not IN the bed. Perhaps teaching it to place its 'marking' activities in the litter box will satisfy its need to stake claim to the room and bed, etc.

Thirdly, there is an outside chance that the rabbit has kidney issues. A fairly common parasite, nosema, preferentially affects the kidneys and brain. If you run out of patience, perhaps a trip to the vet will be in order.

Lastly, spaying and neutering may help to reduce the hormones that drive rabbits' marking behavior. Just so you know, spay/neuter does come with health risks, such as a greater tendency to obesity.

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Apr 09, 2021
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starstarstarstarstar 		My bunny pees and poops on my cat's bed
by: Anonymous

Yeah, my rabbit sometimes poops and pees on my cats bed. Its either because they see the cat and think that's their litter tray or the rabbit is trying to be dominant. My cat and rabbit are both female. My rabbit is a house rabbit. The rabbit uses the cats litter tray for her poops, but she has pooped and peed on my cats bed twice. It think its because she is playful and maybe thought it was a litter tray because the cat was on it, but I don't know.
Dec 10, 2019
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starstarstarstarstar 		How do you stop marking?
by: Anonymous

I have the same problem. We recently adopted an 1 year old neutered male rabbit. We have a large dog kennel/crate (the black wire kind) that we keep him in when we are not with him, but when my daughter is home she lets him out to exercise (the crate is in her room). We were told he was litter box trained when we adopted him, and for the most part he seems to be. He will use his litter box when in his crate or hopping around the floor of my daughter's room and does not have any accidents. However, he has started jumping onto her bed and pooping/peeing. How do we stop him from doing this? She would like to be able to allow him on the bed with her so restricting access to the bed isn't really an option. From all the articles I have read it seems this is a territory marking thing? How do we stop it?
Nov 05, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		bunny poop
by: mary

My rabbit does the same thing. She jumps on my bed both when I'm in it and when I'm not and she poops n pees all over, now we have 3 other animals which were here when the bunny got here but everytime my female cat comes on my bed the bunny instantly has to mark her spot. This cat slept with me everynight til the bunny came. And when I change sheets or the comforter the bunny makes a point to mark them.

I put her in time out in her cage but she tries to get out of the cage by chewing on it, she got her door open by herself the last time I put her in time out. Can anyone suggest anything I might can try? I don't mind the bunny on the bed because thats her way of coming to us so we can pet her n play but I'm soooo tired of poop and pee. I also don't like how she will sit in her pee n poop.

Any suggestions???

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Peeing rabbit

by Eddie
(Scotland (UK))

My rabbit is a single male house rabbit who is very inquisitive. He does all of his pooh and pees in his cage which is 4.5 x 4.5 feet. All good so far, the problem is when I let him up on the sofa beside me he runs round doing the usual rabbit things sniffing scratching that sort of thing then he backs up to me and does a pee, this has happened twice now on the sofa. He doesn't do it ever anywhere else, even when I sit on the floor with him he always does the toilet in the cage. Any ideas would be appreciated thanks Eddie D

***** Karen Sez *****
Eddie, we don't have any experience with rabbits that have mysterious couch-peeing habits, but I'm fairly confident this is territory-marking, possibly influenced by a dominant personality. I can see how this behavior may be a bit frustrating.

Can you pick him up just as he shifts gears into reverse, and plop him into his litter box?

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Dec 18, 2020
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starstarstarstarstar 		Brilliant idea to save bed
by: Anonymous

We had the peeing on the bed problem also. My daughter has two male bunnies not neutered. So we use a new shower curtain and lay it over the bed. If they do pee or poop on it, it is easy to wipe off. By the way they still do jump up there and pee or poop but the bed is clean underneath. We liked the print and you can kind of see through to the bedding so it looks nice. You can use painters floor covering plastic as well.
Jan 04, 2012
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starstar 		Marking his territory
by: Anonymous

Marking his territory - that is what he is doing. And he has chosen that spot to do it in.

So.. figure out some way to remove that area as a point of interest to him AND if you don't need him for breeding get him neutered.
Jan 04, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Re: Peeing Rabbit
by: Anonymous

Marking his territory? I don't have house rabbits either, but it seems like the only thing.

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