False Pregnancy?

[Chichi & Chloe]

Hello! I have two American Chinchilla rabbits and they are both females (and sisters). They are both about 11 months old. One of them started experiencing a false pregnancy, where she keeps pulling out her fur from her little bunny dewlap, her chest, and even the bottom of her foot, and placing it in her litter box. I’m positive that she’s not pregnant because we had gotten them both when they were 2 months old and the original owner had kept them away from all males. She is not spayed and I’m not sure when I can reach the vet because there is a lot of snow here at the moment, but I have a few questions to ask about this. 

How long do false pregnancies usually last? – I read online that pulling out fur was towards the last stages of false pregnancies so I’m not sure if this is accurate or not.

Do rabbits periodically get false pregnancies if they are not spayed? If they do, how long apart are each false pregnancies? 

My bunny’s behavior has been quite off these past couple weeks and I was wondering why until I saw the tuffs of fur everywhere! I’ve had many other rabbits before, but all were adopted from an animal shelter and were all already spayed so we have never seen a false pregnancy occur, only heard of it. We bought these two bunnies from an old neighbor who had to move to another country, so we took in her two baby bunnies! 

Oh, one more question! When we get our rabbits spayed, will their overall “personality” change? 

[Mirpanda]

Are you sure the Rabbits are properly sexed? Rabbits are extremely hard to sex when they are young so it’s easy for mix ups to happen.

[Muj Mom N Bun]

Hi, usually if it is a false pregnancy and the doe has begun pulling her fur and she is seen pretty much feverishly collecting hay and other goods in her mouth and stashing them then you are at the final stage of it and it should last 3 to 5 days at max… by that point, the rabbit will figure out there are no little buns in the oven and should return back to her normal self. That is, as long as there are no little buns in the oven! My girl also had a false pregnancy at about this same exact age. She has not had one since and it’s been a year now… she is not yet spayed.

[Muj Mom N Bun]

Have you taken a gander at the other bunny’s down under to see if there are any “little boys” popping out under there? by any chance? Mistakes in distinguishing gender when they are still babies happens very very often…

As far as periodic pseudo pregnancies, it doesn’t necessarily have to happen in any kind of pattern and may, or may not happen again. My vet told me that it was when BunBun had reached hormonal maturity that she began nesting and plucking her fur… and thankfully so far she has not repeated it. Although she has once in a while pulled a little of her fur, but not in conjunction with nesting behaviors.

[Asriel and Bombur]

I agree with the others. If they haven’t been to a rabbit savvy vet yet to confirm genders, you just may well have an actual pregnancy on your hands.

In alignment with this, it’s best to keep them separated as they could get into fights if one of them is hormonal. Bunnies don’t recognize family units, so being sisters doesn’t really matter. Hormonal bunnies can fight and it can get quite nasty. Females are known for being territorial and aggressive when they become hormonal, so if they aren’t separated I would do so for their safety, and to ensure a healthy bond can happen after they’ve been spayed because if they get into a fight they can hold grudges making future bonding difficult.

Spaying will not change their personalities, just calm them down a bit and make them a bit more docile.

[Chichi & Chloe]

Thank you so much everyone! I’ll be sure to take them to the vet as soon as possible to re-sex them! I’m pretty sure they’re female, but I have my doubts because they started humping each other a little while back and I know that can occur when they want to be dominant, but you can never be so sure! I’ve messed up sexing rabbits before so I’ll wait until we can reach the vet! I’ve also seen them in some really feisty fights, but now they’re separated in different cages. Thank you everyone! I really appreciated the help!

[Chichi & Chloe]

Thank you so much everyone! I’ll be sure to take them to the vet as soon as possible to re-sex them! I’m pretty sure they’re female, but I have my doubts because they started humping each other a little while back and I know that can occur when they want to be dominant, but you can never be so sure! I’ve messed up sexing rabbits before so I’ll wait until we can reach the vet! I’ve also seen them in some really feisty fights, but now they’re separated in different cages. Thank you everyone! I really appreciated the help!

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