Rabbit trashing hutch

Question
Hi,

We have two rabbits both 18 weeks old. A male lionhead x and femal mini lop - both bought as females! The male was castrated 2 weeks ago they have now reintroduced to each other and they have got on fine which was great as we'd had them separated for 5 weeks.

During the last week the female has started absolutely trashing their hutch by pushing all the straw and sawdust out (particularly from the toilet area) and then ripping up all the newspaper lining  and again pushing it into the next compartment. They now have a huge hutch as we ended up buying a second one for use when they were separated and removed the ends then joined them together with mesh between them so they could still sniff each other. So now the mesh has been removed they have loads of space (an 80" long hutch!).

In the area that they seem to like sleeping in she also objects to having any lining in and pushes it all out! Why is she doing this and does anyone have any suggestions please?

Also she seems to produce excess caecotrophs (probably spelt wrong?) during the morning/afternoon which are left uneaten. When I asked the vet about this she didn't think it was a problem but the male doesn't produce any during the day.


Many thanks for any suggestions!

Answer
Dear Sue,

It's normal for a healthy female rabbit to want to play and dig, and your bunny is showing the normal signs of intelligence and activity by excavating her place.  She's not just a big toy that sits in a cage.  She's an intelligent, social animal who needs stimulation and lots of free running time.  If she doesn't get it, she'll make her own exercise by "trashing" her hutch.

Animals who rearrange their surroundings are generally the most intelligent!

I would not worry too much about the excess cecotropes.  Some rabbits leave them if the diet is too rich.  Please see:

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

The male is probably just eating all of his, so you're not seeing them.

Dana