pregnant doe

Question
We adopted siblings because all they new was being raised together.  We checked the one male and trusted the owners to know that the other was also male-of course not!  A girl and a boy means 1+1=6.  Both have been very loving until recently.  The doe is now barking and lunging at us.  Is this normal?  We have separated the two of them because last week she started lunging at him.  She basically sits in her cage, antisocial.  I am afraid that after the birth this behavior will continue and therefore she will have a less quality of life.  The male is out and about all day and even goes with us places, calm and well behaved, but playful.  Will she get back to her old self so she too can enjoy all that life has to offer?  What do we do in the meantime?

Answer
Hi,

her behavior is normal for a pregnant rabbit.  Try not to unnecessarily pick her up or move stuff around too much in her cage.  She is being protective of her warren.  It is all driven by large amounts of hormones.

Both of them will need to be fixed.  You will need to have this done by a good rabbit vet (not all are).  to find a good rabbit vet, go to:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society-recommended vet near you.

It is good you separated them, the male should not be with a pregnant female.  Too much stress/too cramped an area on the female can cause her to kill off her babies.

You will have to keep them separate from now on, until both are fixed and you have waited 4-6 weeks after the last one's fix procedure.

It will get better after the pregnancy, but don't change anything in her cage for 7-8 days (like putting new things in or removing things).  Do the normal food and water changes, and you can check on the babies and put them back in her 'nest' if they are out, or remove any that may have died.  After 7 days you can let her out somewhere to exercise, and then you can clean the cage and remove the nest.  You can replace it with some cotton tshirts or towels so that the babies have a little area they can be in.

If you keep the babies, they will all eventually need to be separated by sex, and fixed to prevent this from happening.  If you sell them, please don't give them away or $5 to 'a good home'.  Lots of people who have snakes and other animals look for this as a cheap source of live food.  They will claim to be rabbit lovers but they are not.  You have to ask for at least $20 to $25 or more for them, serious rabbit owners will understand.

Lee