False pregnancy behaviour. . .

[Tigs]

Neither of my buns are fixed and they are both female, yet twice now, one of my buns has acted pregnant with full on nest building and even fur plucking on the last two days of the event. All in all the behavior lasts roughly a week from start to finish. I know they began humping as a dominance thing and now it's not a very common occurrence but is that in itself usually enough to trigger false pregnancy normally? Is it a kind of common thing for lady buns, perhaps a seasonal thing, or should I be concerned that my bun is perhaps neurotic? Does anyone have info or similar experiences with this?

She's spent the day today reveling in the destruction of the yellow pages and binking over the coffee table like a miniature hurdle jumping show horse
so I'm not sure I can just chalk it up to stress.

 

[aurora369]

Since rabbits are forced ovulators, and constantly have high levels of hormones in their systems, they are very prone to false pregnancies. With all those hormones raging, their bodies are very easily fooled into thinking they should be pregnant. They don't even have to have been humped to set things off, sometimes they just enter into a false pregnancy for no reason.

The timeline is about right, one to two weeks and then a big nest building, fur pulling frenzy to finish it off.

Spaying is really the only way to make them stop.

How old are your girls?


-Dawn

 

[Tigs]

My lop would be about 7mos however I am unsure how old the other is as the pet store seemed to have fudged about her age and she may be closer to 9mos.

I'm a little concerned about spaying as they are both extremely active and don't know if they'd pace themselves during the healing process, and the only vet in town that accepts 'exotic' pets (anything other then cats and dogs) is also very well known for charging outrageous prices.