phantom pregnancy?

Question
hi there, my pet bunny is about 4 months old and recently she has become very very aggressive towards me and my partner. she will attack us for no reason, and she is damaging furniture so badly we have had to close off most of the house to her.
we had heard from a friend she could be on heat, thus the behaviour, but over the last week i have found large chunks of fur in the house and she has made a nest in a hole outside. the aggressive behaviour has now dissapeared and she has become very affectionate towards us again, wanting pats, cuddles etc...
i even came home to her yelping when i tried going near her.
i even noticed her nippes have become quite enlarged.
is this all signs of pregnancy? if so, we have had her for 2 months now and she has had no other rabbit interactions... could she really be pregnant?!

thanks

Answer
Dear Nadia,

Your poor little bun is showing all the signs of puberty, including false pregnancy.  She will become very cuddly *between* false pregnancies, but then become withdrawn and whimper when you try to pet her at the start of the next one, and finally will become very aggressive just before she delivers her "ghost babies" and builds the nest from her own fur.

The only solution for this cycle, which is not good for her health, is to have her spayed by an experienced rabbit vet.  You can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

You can read more about this here:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

Note that unspayed, unbred female rabbits have a very high risk of uterine and mammary cancers, so it is important to have this done as soon as she's old enough.  It's best to wait until at least 6 months of age for a female, if you can bear her behavioral swings that long, since the reproductive organs are usually very small and undeveloped before that time, and harder to completely remove.

Also, estrogen plays an important role in skeletal/bone development, so letting her have her hormones long enough for that is not a bad idea, either.  But if she's just unbearable, discuss the options with your vet and you can then make the decision that's best for everyone.

I hope this helps.

Dana