Messy digging, weeing and humping!

[NeveNero]

Hi everyone, I’m new here but have a few queries about my new bunny Neve. She’s a 6 month old lop who we recently bonded to my black lionhead Nero after he had a fall out with his brother. They both came from the same rescue centre and now live with me in a combined hutch and shed.

So Neve loves to dig, she digs everything out of both litter trays within hours of making them up which means I have to sweep the shed a few times a day and fully clean it out every other day. To overcome this I made 2 dig boxes and also made 2 dig corners in the hutch but she still continues to dig at the litter trays! If anyone has any idea as to why I will try anything!

Secondly, she humps Nero all the time. The rescue centre said that it acts as a dominance behaviour, and Nero isn’t intimidated or scared by it but looks very fed up and when she does it she claws his back (by accident) and now he has tiny bald patches! The rescue centre assure me that she is neutered but these behaviours make me wonder!

Lastly, I am in the process of litter training her so this may not be a massive issue but she wees as she goes sometimes, only dribbles, and to be fair she is getting better at using the litter tray for her wees. But it also smells really bad! Nero and his brother were so tidy, well litter trained and their wee didn’t smell much, and they didnt wee as much as Neve does either. Could this be another issue that indicates that she might not be neutered?

Thanks for reading, I will appreciate any help or advice from anyone with welcome arms!

[Bam]

I think her behavior is a strong indicator of her needing to be desexed. She may be building burrows to house her (imaginary) kits in and dribbling pee so interested males can find her and father those kits. On a more serious note, rabbits have strong urges to reproduce, which in the wild is absolutely necessary for the survival of their species, since they are prey to so many other animals. In a domestic setting these urges are stressful for the bunny and inconvenient for the owners (and in your case to Nero who seems less than amused by your description) though, so I think you need to get her spayed.

The urine of desexed rabbits generally smells less. It is, as you probably know, very important for a female bunny to be spayed because of the risk of cancer in her reproductive organs.

[NeveNero]

The rescue centre assured me that she is spayed but I wasn’t certain as soon as I saw her humping so I will definitely get her checked over. Thank you for you advice!

[Bam]

Sometimes I think shelters don’t do full spays, i e they don’t remove everything. If they only take out the uterus, it means the bunny can’t get pregnant and she can’t get uterine cancer, but the ovaries are still there and produce sex hormones.

I don’t know how common or uncommon this may be, but it is a full spay ( a neuter) that you want to have done. It may be worth while to have it checked out, perhaps you could call the shelter and ask what type of procedure she’s had.

[NeveNero]

I managed to get hold of the vets where she was neutered and they said that they originally had trouble finding her right ovary but they won’t give me any more details unless I take her in for a consultation (ie trying to rob me of vets fees) so I will assume that she still has one ovary at least! Thank you for your help!

[Bam]

That would absolutely explain a lot!

Are there any other rabbit savvy vets in your area that you could take her to in order to get the job done properly? Great that they told you though, they could’ve just lied and said there wasn’t a problem.

[Author]

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