Is she pregnant?

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Showes88

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I have 2 rabbits (male and female) which we have been keeping separately. We have recently spoke about getting them neutered so they could live together but we thought before we did that, we would see if they get along so we let them out together.

The male obviously wanted one thing and he did mount the female a couple of times but we moved him off. The female kept rolling over and laying ready for it too!

Its been a couple of weeks or so now but the 3rd time we let them out together, the female has no interest in the male at all and grunts at him whenever he is near her and goes to bite him and has done for however many times ever since! She is also occasionally grunting at us when we go to stroke her and she is not liking her back or sides being stroked. She is also not liking being picked up!

She has always been a bit of a grumpy rabbit but she seems to have gotten more grumpy recently.

I've had a feel of her tummy but couldn't feel any movement but her tummy felt a bit harder then normal..... Is that right?

Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance :)
 
In another week you should be able to tell if she got pregnant from the first time, but not from the 2nd or 3rd.

Usually if you don't want them to be pregnant, you keep their cages a few inches apart & see how they react.
 
Welcome to RO!

I'd say its very likely she's pregnant. Whenever you let a male and female out together, they're most likely going to breed, so letting them out together wouldn't be the way to tell if they got along well. LakeCondo had good advice, try putting the cages a few inches apart, not touching, because they can breed through cages (I know, sounds crazy)
 
I'm a little unclear on your goal with the rabbits. Are you intentionally breeding them?

If not, don't allow the buck and doe to have contact with each other. Mature, unaltered rabbits will breed when they have contact. It's a matter of when, not if. Putting them together now, while their minds are on reproducing, is not an indicator of how they will respond to each other as an altered pair. In fact, unaltered buck/doe pairs often get along really well with each other.
 
Thank you for your replies.

We have made her a nest box just in case and its in her cage. They are in a 2 tiered cage so can't really seperate the cages but she is on top level and he is on the bottom. We are prepared so if she is going to have babies then we have the right things in place but was really just wondering if what I said in original post sounded like she is pregnant or not.

I haven't palpated her as I don't know what I'm doing but I have put my hand on her tummy to see if I could feel anything. I don't want ppl to think I'm doing stuff to hurt her or babies cos that's not the case.

I would love her to have baby bunnies and they will b looked after what ever the outcome. Some people on other sites I've asked the question on think its irresponsible of me but that's not the case at all I just want to make it clear. We obviously knew when putting them together that there would be a chance of her getting pregnant but like I said before, I just wanned to know if they were clear signs?
 
You do have to be careful palpating as you can accidentally injure the babies if you don't know what you are doing. Her excessive grumpiness certainly sounds like she could be pregnant. My doe was super grumpy when she was pregnant. She would lunge and grunt at me, and as soon as she had those babies she was a perfect angel. Her not tolerating your male rabbit can also be an indication of pregnancy as well. Generally you put the nest box in at about day 27 of pregnancy, but if you keep it in there then you will just want to make sure that she has plenty of hay for her nest and that she isn't pooping or peeing in the nest box.

The only way to know for sure if they will get along is after you have them spayed and neutered. Because of hormones, that's not something you will be able to accurately gauge beforehand.
 
Showes88 said:
I would love her to have baby bunnies and they will b looked after what ever the outcome. Some people on other sites I've asked the question on think its irresponsible of me but that's not the case at all I just want to make it clear. We obviously knew when putting them together that there would be a chance of her getting pregnant but like I said before, I just wanned to know if they were clear signs?
Click to expand...

I'm only asking because there are more precautions to take than just being prepared to care for babies. One of my first pet rabbits lived to be 10 years old and suffered severe arthritis from the age of about 5 and over. She was a pet bunny bred by someone who probably didn't take things like overall health, longevity or conformation into consideration, even though they may have cared very much about their rabbits. That's part of the reason responsible breeding programs focus on purebred, pedigreed rabbits, or intentional mixed breeds from pedigreed rabbits. That pedigree provides you with a history of the animal, its parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The genetic outcome, from color to conformation can be predicted.

If you're interested in getting started with raising rabbits, I'm sure everyone here in the show room forum would be happy to help. :) But I'd recommend separating the two mentioned in the above post to prevent anymore breeding, unless you're a step ahead of me and have already looked into the issues mentioned above. Rabbits are induced ovulators, so there's a good chance they're pregnant even after just one breeding. It's just not best to encourage breedings between a buck/doe unless they're chosen with a specific outcome in mind.
 
We have separated them already so no further breeding will take place.
 
I agree that the aggressiveness and attitude towards the buck are probable indicators that she's pregnant. If you don't know how to palate then it's best not to try. We will put some hay outside the box when we put the box in, on day 28. If the doe starts gathering hay in her mouth and building a nest, that's a pretty good indicator she'll kindle soon.
 
He kinda slipped off and started stamping his feet one time but it was literally 3 secs the time it took to get over to them! But the other time we interrupted it.
 
Thank you all for your replies its nice to know some people are out there with some helpful advise! Anything else I should know? Is it ok to pick her up etc? Anything she should b eating more of? She has plenty of water which she appears to b drinking loads of at the moment and plenty of hay.
 
Nothing in particular. Pellets hay and water is perfectly fine. We give horse quality coastal to all of our rabbits preggo or not. I try not to pick up my girls when they are pregnant just because I don't want to put too much pressure. We just moved a doe who is about to pop and i scruffed her and supported her back feet to move her. She can be pretty spastic too. Just make sure when she has them they eat within the first 48hours. Babies won't survive past then without food. I usually will see their plump bellies at night or early morning. Moms only feed once a day so if you check multiple times in the day that will give you an idea of what time she feeds them.
 
There really isn't anything you need to do since you've already put a nestbox in, except wait. Rabbits are pretty good about having kits without intervention, though some first time mom's don't always get it right.
 
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