Phantom Pregnancy

[WinnietheLops]

Hey guys, it’s been awhile!

Well, my sweet bunn is experiencing a phantom pregnancy. We have her on the wait list to be spayed, but it’s about a month long. I called the vet today to let them know she was experiencing one and they said they’d do their best to bump her up the list.

Yesterday I noticed her picking up huge mouthfuls of hay and putting them in a certain corner of her playpen, digging in it, and burrowing it. And then when I was giving her water and food, she charged me which she has never done when it came to food. And that’s when it clicked, she’s going through a phantom pregnancy.

Any advice? I read up some blogs just to be supportive with giving more hay and water, even some food since she’ll be using a lot of energy nesting and such. Lessen hands on care unless she asks for the attention which is fine by me since her hormones are on fire right now. Some blogs even said to provide maybe a towel or a blanket you don’t mind getting ruined except when I tried to give her the towel, girl was straight up attacking it and causing herself to throw herself onto her back and biting at it as if it was a dog playing tug of war, so I took it out because I didn’t want her to stress herself out over something that was supposed to be comforting.

So any tips or tricks until it resolves in the next few weeks would be great.

Thank you!

[Hazel]

It’s best to just let her do her thing, make sure she has plenty of nesting material. Allowing her to go through this undisturbed is going to minimize stress.

As far as they spay goes, I think it might be best to stick with your appointment a month from now. I don’t have first hand experience but as far as I recall it is not advised to spay while the rabbit is going through a phantom pregnancy, so that extra month will give her time to work through it and get back to “normal”.

[HipHopBunny]

I’m so sorry that you’re going through this. 🙁

I, too, had my ladies experiencing false pregnancies before I got them spayed as well. 🙁

What I did, was I separated them – since they were pulling fur from themselves and others – and gave them each a box to start storing their materials in. For materials, I gave them extra hay, as well as cotton, trying to minimize the amount of fur that they were pulling from themselves. Another thing, was I also made sure that the area where they were building their nest was plenty dark and sheltered. Anything that helps to reduce stress levels and work from them really goes a long way. 🙂

About her being aggresive – you might have to wear gardening gloves when you go in there. 🙁

As mentioned above – I think that waiting that month for her to get spayed is probably a good idea as well. When my girls had theirs, they usually bounced back within that time frame.

Hopefully she gets better soon!! It’s hard seeing them in so much stress. 🙁

Sending big hugs!!

[Author]

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