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Rabbits pulling out their own hair

22 11:16:11

Question

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Followup To

Question -
We have a spayed female rabbit a few years old who lives with a smaller and younger male who is neutered and the female is pulling out her hair. Is this anything to worry about?

Answer -
Hi Gary, it could be several things.  You may need to respond with more info.

First are you certain the female is spayed?

Yes, we had it done ourselves and our two rabbits have been living to gether for a couple of years.


How long has she been spayed?

At least a couple of years.

How long has the boy been neutered?

The same amount of time.

Females pull their hair out generally for several reasons:  a real pregnancy, a 'false' pregnancy, they may have some kind of flea/mite/mange issue, or they are getting self-destructive b/c they're stressed or bored.

Do the two seem to get along okay?

They do.

Have you seen any fighting or nipping going on between them?

From time to time.

When you say 'live together' are they in the same house/separate cages, separate cages/common play area and times, what exactly is their living and housing situation?

Yes. they live in a nice, large hutch together and my wife lets them out to run around the sun porch on the weekends.

Have you seen the male mount her, and/or vice-versa?

Yes, they both mount each other.

I did a quick check on the House Rabbit Society (www.rabbit.org) web site and found this:

"A mature female will often pull fur to make a nest, with or without a male present and regardless of whether actual mating has occurred. This hormonal behavior is known as a "false pregnancy."

She has done this some before so we thought maybe it was just a cycle thing but she seems more obsessed this time and to have pulled more hair so we thought we'd try to find out if it was something we should worry about.

In short false pregnancies are not a big deal, but she may not want to be picked up or handled as much as she normally does (when not acting through this false pregnancy).  It takes a couple of weeks for them to go through this and have her hormone levels drop to regular (for her).

Well, we will keep an eye on her.

If you don't think this is it, I would examine both and make sure they don't have fleas or mites or any kind of infection present.

We are sure there are no parasites involved.

Thanks for the help.

Gary

Answer
Hi Gary,

I would just have you check a couple of things out, as I can only think of three realistic possibilities.

1.  As they do have some exposure to outdoors, I would just check them over and make sure you don't see evidence of mites or fleas or something not right.  I am sure you are more cautious anyways with checking them out because you let them outdoors.

2.  It could very well be another false pregnancy thing, she's just going at it a little more robustly this time.

3.  She could be feeling bored or neglected in some way.  I don't know if your schedules have changed, or that she is getting less time with you or something (maybe even a new baby in the house?) taking up more of your time.  I have seen this happen with a friends' rabbit soon after their first child arrived, she also started pulling a lot of fur out and they were quite worried because it was a lot and she was irritating her skin.  Have you had to put her on a diet recently?  Maybe review your schedules and see if something has changed that affected her negatively.  In my friends' case they made sure to spend a dedicated amount of time with her every day (she was 'the child' before the real child) and her behavior started to change noticeably.

Thanks, and let me know if/when you determine what the root of the issue is, or if you want to bounce more ideas or questions off me.

Lee