Pulling out of Fur

[Nicole47]

Hi, our (nearly) 3yr old unspeyed Flemish Giant, Charlotte, recently pulled out all of her hair around the front of her neck until it was bald, with her teeth. She used the hair to line her ‘nest’ inside her hutch and then sat, seemingly broodingly, for quite some time.  I have seen her pull the loose excess fur from her body (tummy) in the past and use it to line what I can only think is a ‘nest’.  She does this occasionally and I had always thought it was a hormonal thing, as guess by now she would have had numerous litters of bunnies, but she is an only rabbit (no males in sight).  I have never seen her pull all her hair out like this and the skin did look irritated (literally no hair left)!  Now Charlotte enjoys a sizeable hutch which is open all day every day into a reasonable size enclosure (plenty of grass), and also has free range into our back yard every day when we are home.  Other than not having other bunny company, she has quite a range of things in the yard to keep her occupied (yard still in a state of renovation), so she can dig to her hearts content, has heaps of varied food, and human company (pats).  She has also recently stopped using her litter tray inside the hutch and only goes to the toilet in a corner of her enclosure (so holds on all night!). Was wondering if this was a maturity thing?  Just before she stopped she lined the (clean) litter tray which had hay in it with her fur.  I emptied it and ever since hasn’t used it as a toilet.  This is the first bunny we have owned, had her since she was a few months old.  Any advice or people’s similar experiences would be appreciated. Thanks Nicole

[JPetrucci84]

Hello, Nicole! As a fellow female rabbit owner, I can tell you that this is completely natural. What’s going on is that Charlotte is having a “false pregnancy”, where she goes through the motions of preparing for a litter, though there is no litter coming. The fur will come back, so don’t worry about that becoming a bald spot of sorts. Your best bet is to probably get her spayed, seeing as she is unaltered. This will curb her tendencies, as well as assist her in living a longer, healthier live with less chance of uterine cancer. I hope this helped!

Andrew (and Cinder)

[Author]

Messages