False Pregnancy?

[MousQwene]

Penny, our female rabbit, is about 3 years old. She has started to carry around hay and shavings from her cage in her mouth. She won't eat the hay and she won't drop the items except when she's allowed out. Then she drops them inside a plastic igloo that we have set up for our rabbits to play in/on. She's usually a very mellow rabbit, but whenever she has her things in her mouth she is borderline frantic about wanting to be out of her cage to get at this igloo. Is it a false pregnancy? Or should we be worried about some other problem? And is there a way to get her to stop?

 

[irishbunny]

Is there any chance that she could be pregnant? Has she been in contact with a male that hasn't been neuteured in the last month? If she has been in contact with an intact male then more then likely she is pregnant. If not, this is a false pregnancy and they usually pass within a few days.

 

[MousQwene]

Well she was near our male rabbit but they were under very strict supervision, ignored each other, and didn't engage in any baby-making activities.

 

[irishbunny]

Hmmm, where they supervised all the time, never left alone for even a minute? If you feel that there was a time that they could have got together then I would treat this as if it was a real pregnancy, just in case.

 

[Maureen Las]

they can mate in the bat of an eye so it's possible that she's pregnant if she was not watched for a second ..
but if it is a false pregnancy you shold allow her to continue making a nest as if she really was pregnant rather than interfere with it....

A unspayed female may reacting hormonally just to the presence of an unneutered male