Bunny teenagers: panic attack!

Question
Hi. my little girl dwarf/mini rex is about 7months old, give or take, and I've known for awhile that she's hitting her sexual maturity, but we haven't had her spayed just yet.(we do plan to) But with in the last week or so she "fell in love" with a scarf of mine that is very very soft. before we got her we actually called it the " bunny ball scarf" (fake fur of course). anyway, she'd lightly chew the scarf, lick it and sit on it, and take it around with her, i don't particularly have a problem with this, we're using it as a "reward" with training her and it keeps her out of mischief. as of right now, she still "loves the scarf, but she has become very very very affectionate towards me lately, she always was since i got her at day one, but now it's overly so, she always wants to be in the same room with me, touching me, sitting on me, looking at me, just as long as we're within a few feet of each other, if i go to another room and don't call her to follow me, she charges after me and stamps her foot until i apologies and pet her, lol :) my concern however is, last night, at quarter to one, i heard her banging in her cage and i rushed out to see what was wrong. she was running all around her cage, and knocking herself into the side. i called her name and calmed her down and she sat there for a few minutes and stamped her foot before hoping out and going to sit in her favorite corner (it was a very scary thing to see for me, she had never done that before) anyway, after coming to the conclusion that nothing was "wrong with her" i went back into the bedroom and back to bed, a few minutes later, she was in bed with me, and stayed there until 4am when i finally convinced her it was alight to be back in her cage. i got back up at 5am and let her out for her morning play time and she seemed fine.

is her hormones the reason for ploughing herself at her cage? and is it something to be overly concerned about? I'm afraid she'll do it again and hurt herself. i thought maybe she didn't like that i had turned her fan off and there were no lights on in the living room (where her cage is). do you think she might be more comfortable if i moved her cage into the bedroom, where she can be closer to me? my house isn't entirely bunny proof, not all wires are covered, but i don't particularly want to leave her out all night even though she doesn't seem to bother with the wires in the bed room.

whats your take on this? any suggestions or am i just being an overly concerned bunny mom.

Answer
Dear Martha,

It sounds as if something frightened her so badly that she went crazy.  This can happen, and you're right that a panicky rabbit can injure herself, especially if confined.

I doubt this has anything to do with hormones.  But rabbits have extremely sensitive senses of hearing and smell.  You may be completely unaware of the raccoons, opossums, cats, and other predators lurking around just outside the door or window at night, but your bunny knows they are there.  And this one seems to have scared her so badly that she had a serious panic attack.

If there's a way to leave her cage open so she won't be confined, this would be the safest option.  The house should be bunny-proofed:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/rabbit-proofing.html

But that way she won't thrash around inside in a desperate attempt to get away, which could cause her so much sudden stress that she could have a heart attack.

I'm glad she's fine, and that she trusts and loves you so much.  That probably made a HUGE difference in her recovery from her scare.  But I wouldn't risk another episode.

I hope that helps!
Dana