# Rabbit Peeing in his food bowl??



## jfinner1 (Oct 28, 2011)

For some strange reason, my rabbit has started peeing in his food bowl. He's an intact hotot mix, about 5 years old. Nothing has changed... Same cage, same litter in his litter box, same food, same amount of out of the cage playtime, everything is the same. But he's decided that his food bowl makes a great litter box. I don't even know how he manages to get his butt in the bowl, it should be too small. I'm going crazy, he's wasting food like crazy, and I don't know how to keep clean food in his cage, or if he eats the food after he pees on it, or if that can be harmful if he does eat it... Help???


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## Nancy McClelland (Oct 28, 2011)

You could feed him a short while in the am and pm and then remove the dish or get one that attaches to the side of the hutch and put it above butt level.


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## funnybunnymummy (Oct 28, 2011)

Have you tried putting his litter box where his food dish currently is? Or maybe he wants his litter box cleaned more frequently? I know if I let Gus's litter box go too long (which these days is more than 3 days... :rollseyes) he'll pee elsewhere in his cage.

Another thought: have you recently bought a new bag of pellets? Not necessarily a new brand, but the new bag may taste different or be off somehow or maybe they've changed the formula.

Or maybe he's having some type of mobility issue and hopping into his litter box to pee isn't as easy as peeing in his dish. Or maybe he's starting to get a urinary tract disorder or infection. Has been to the vet recently?

I don't know. I'm just throwing ideas out there. Hope something helps!

Rue


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## jfinner1 (Oct 28, 2011)

I've tried the am pm feeding thing before, for another reason (Basically I was trying to put him on the same schedule as my other rabbit) and after a while, he started to loose weight. He's always been a grazer, and he was just miserable when he didn't always have food. He always has hay, but for whatever reason that doesn't count, lol. His bowl is a small attach to the side of the cage kind, and I really don't know how he gets his butt into it. It really shouldn't be possible... I've tried re-training the litterbox by putting 3 boxes in his cage, and I thought it had worked because he was using the boxes and not his bowl, but as soon as I removed one box, he started peeing in the bowl again. His box gets cleaned every other day, so I can't see that being an issue. We're almost exactly halfway through this bag of food, though since this has been going on for a while, I can't say exactly where we were in the food when it started. I can't see it being a mobility issue, since it's got to be harder to fit his butt over that tiny bowl then it would be to use the litter box, and the bowl is higher then the box. He is due for his vet visit, but he's acting completely normally other then this.


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## Nancy McClelland (Oct 28, 2011)

We have one--Nikki--that is just a total brat.


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