False pregnancy and extreme nest making.

[whitelop]

Ellie is 7 months old, give or take. Yesterday she started making an EXTREME nest. She pulled so much fur out that she now has huge bald patches above her front legs.
She has made a great nest, but for no babies. I left the nest there yesterday because I didn't want her to freak out and rebuild it. But she just never stopped building it.

If anyone else has dealt with this, what did you do to snap them out of nest making? Other than the obvious, spaying or breeding. I'm making an appointment for her to be spayed soon, so no breeding in her future.
And yes, I'm positive she isn't pregnant.

Is there something else that could be causing her extreme nesting? Other than nesting behaviors everything else is normal.

Here is a picture of the nest.

Does anyone need a spare nest? Its got a blanket in there too. LOL

 

[Imbrium]

holy crap!!

and when the hell did ellie get to be 7 months old?? she was just a little bitty baby not all that long ago!

 

[woahlookitsme]

Nothing you can really do except just let it pass

I'm not really sure what causes it. We had a doe go through a nesting phase. She was getting to be 10months old and had never been bred. We just let it pass. I can't remember how long it took but I caught a pic of her with a very cute haystache

 

[DharmaBuns]

Wow that's really interesting, I was actually just going to post a question about this myself!

I have a 3 year old rescued Holland Lop that's never seen a buck but insists on making nests like that. I always feel so badly for her. I'm going to get her spayed very soon, but I was also wondering if maybe there was something that could be done to help her not be so "hormonal"

 

[ladysown]

she'd make a good little mamma making a nest like that. just wait it out.

 

[woahlookitsme]

LOL that's what I was going to say! Fufilling her baby wishes and she would make an awesome mom

With my doe I'm not sure if it made a difference that bucks were around her and also other does were kindling around her

 

[whitelop]

Well Ellie is a lone bun, so I doubt having bucks or kindling does around is adding fuel to these flames.
She seems to have calmed down a bit, no more fur pulling or anything.

I bet she would make a good mama, but there is an over abundance of unwanted rabbits in my area, and Ellie isn't show quality. So she's getting spayed and she can continue to groom and love on her elephant.

 

[woahlookitsme]

Sounds like a good decision. I wanted to just say it in case anyone else had this problem and wondered

Aw that reminds me I need to find my rocky a playtoy

 

[holtzchick]

I'm too afraid to give stuffies to my buns, I feel like they would instantly get destroyed by Mr. Grumpypants Hipster!!!

 

[holtzchick]

Oh and by the way, it's nice to read that she's no longer pulling her OWN fur and making herself bald