Bunny acts as if she is pregnant

Question
Hi,We have a female dwarf lop who recently has been exhibiting behaviour that she is pregnant.  Her mate is a mini lop but he was desexed over 12 months ago so pregnancy should not happen, although he still likes to hump her, but not as much as before he was desexed.
She pulled her fur out a few weeks ago, so we kept her in her cage a few days just in case, but nothing. Now she is gathering straw in her mouth, and is very keen to go outside.  We don't want to let her out, again just in case, but my head tells me that maybe she is having a "phantom" pregnancy.  She has been like this before, prior to the male being desexed, but we never saw any litters.  At that stage, we were unaware we were supposed to keep the male and female separate.  (They do not like being in speparate cages, being together since birth, and probably are siblings)

Answer
Dear Allabella,

Yes, your rabbit is having false pregnancies, which can occur cyclically every 17-21 days if the rabbit is not spayed.

It is actually more important, for health reasons, to have a female spayed than to have a male neutered.  Unspayed, unbred female rabbits have a very high risk of uterine cancer, and it is just not worth the risk to keep her intact.  Having her spayed may also reduce the male's urges to continually mount her, which are not only contributing to the false pregnancy cycle, but also stressful for her.

You can find a good rabbit vet for the spay here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and read more about this here:

www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html
and
www.bio.miami.edu/hare/spay.html

When you take your bun, her partner should go, too, to prevent unbonding and for moral support.  You can find useful pre- and post-op tips here:

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

I hope this helps.

Dana