Male making a nest?

Question
I have a 2 year old male rabbit. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt he is male since I had him neutered over a year ago.

I was cleaning his room today and looked in one of his favorite boxes and there is a perfect nest filled with pieces of cardboard, hay and his hair. I have seen him carry hay to that box before but never knew why.

Why is my male making a nest? He is the only rabbit I have as well he hasn't been around a female since I got him at 10 weeks old.

Answer
Dear Marcia,

Wow, that is really a weird one.  I have to say I've never heard of this before.

There is a remote possiblity that your bunny might be a hermaphrodite, and have both male and female reproductive tracts. If he was neutered, then the effects of the testosterone to dampen female behaviors would be removed, and he might revert to female behavior.

He might also have a hormone imbalance for other reasons (e.g., adrenal or other type of tumor), but in my experience, this usually exacerbates *male* behaviors, and doesn't elicit typically female behaviors.

Have you discussed this with your vet?  If you don't have a good rabbit vet, you can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

But for a case like this, I'd suggest you join EtherBun, a free listserve with over 6000 rabbit lovers (many of them experts and at least one veterinarian who posts regularly) with collective rabbit experience that is truly staggering.  You can get more information and join from here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/etherbun.html

This is an interesting case, and I'll hop over to EtherBun, too, to see what Rami and others might have to say about it.

Hope we can help.

Dana