Mother's Behavior After Weaning

[sp33713]

My dwarf rabbit had two babies. They grew very fast and although I had planned to wean them at 8 weeks, decided to wean them at 7 weeks because they are so big that it was getting hard for mama to feed them. They have been weaned for about 1 week now, and since they left, the mama has been tearing her cage apart! She dumps out her litter box and just generally makes a huge mess. Is this normal? Is she going through some type of depression? She also doesn't want to be held. She will come to the door of the cage and wants to be pet, but she won't let me pick her up like she used to. And she doesn't come out to run around the house like she used to. Any thoughts?

 

[BunnyLov3r]

She is just a little depressed and sad. I'd consider giving her as much attention as possible! I had one of my does do that. They do get sad. I know animals are not humans but put it this way. (And I know how breeding works. You can't keep them all even if you want to.) If you had two dogs that where your best friends and I mean BEST! and someone gets up and all of a sudden takes them both away. You would probably be sad. How I wean my rabbit's babies (I don't know if this was a one time thing for you or you are going to breed her again) I just take them away gradually that way she doesn't get depressed so bad and they are all taken at once! Just make sure you take the males first! Hope that helps!

 

[majorv]

Yea, we don't usually have a problem with does after weaning but sometimes taking them away gradually does help.

 

[RabbitGuru]

You'll probably need to wait a few weeks for her hormone levels to return to normal. Ask any woman who's been pregnant and she'll tell you that those hormones will throw you off!

Give it some time and keep being consistent with her normal routine, she'll adjust back to life again