Sudden change in behavior :/

[Kaylee182]

So I will just explain everything I feed my rabbit and our routine so everything is clear. I feed my rabbit Kaytee pellets, vegetables (kale, parsley, mustard greens, celery, etc.), and unlimited amounts of Timothy hay.
I brought my rabbit home about a month or so ago. She is a bit over a year old and she is a lionhead/mini lop mix. When I first brought her home, she was not shy and she would cuddle up next to me and fall asleep and was just generally a very well-behaved bunny. Now, she digs at EVERYTHING. she’s completely ruined my carpet. And she digs at her plastic bottomed cage, chews on the plastic covered wires, flips everything over in her cage, and when I let her out of her cage she heads straight for the underneath of my bed where she chews carpet. I don’t know what to do! I love her, and I want to let her out, but she destroys everything!

she is not spayed. I’m wondering if spaying will help with this sudden crazy behavior or is she too old now? She had a false pregnancy a few weeks ago where she was pulling out her hair. I just really need help because I do not want to get rid of her but I can’t handle this behavior..

[A Flying Brick]

Yeah she’s trying to nest, the best thing to do is get her de-sexed, it’ll calm her down.
Give her more toys. Riley has a old towel he likes to dig, chew and nest in. Also he likes Applewood sticks, the thiner ones are gone in seconds and the thicker ones get a good chew.

[Kaylee182]

Well I went to the store yesterday and I bought her a toy that kind of resembles carpet (it’s like a wicker ball thing for rabbits), a chewy apple flavored toy, a cardboard box that is full of hay, and yogurt drops. And then I took the larger play pen that I have and I circled it around the opening of her cage so she could get her exercise but can’t go under my bed. It really makes me sad because I want to let her roam the entire room but her behavior is absolutely horrible. She also puts her feet in her pellet bowl digs in there, which lets all the pellets out. She flips over her hay bowl every time I put it in there.

I think she is done with her false pregnancy because I haven’t seen any tufts of hair in there for about two weeks. Is this post-false pregnancy? This is my first rabbit and I’ve done so much research, i’m so confused. Also.. Because she’s a over a year old, is it too late to have her spayed and her behavior change in a positive way?

[A Flying Brick]

The behavior has just started so now is the ideal time to have her de-sexed. Really the best time to do it, before the behavior becomes a habit.
Once her hormone levels drop she should calm down. All my rabbits have been boys so idk anything about false pregnancys, sorry, but I can guess it caused a spike in her hormone levels, thus her instincts are to build a nest and start making baby rabbits.

Also a good way to protect your carpets is to put old carpet or carpet scraps over the areas, head to a carpet/flooring shop and ask very nicely if they have any offcuts/etc available. Most will just give them away since it saves them having to get rid of it another way, just remember to bring a car since it’s normally in huge bits. Always ask first, some places might have rules about what they can give away and because you should ask before going into someone’s dumpster. Yes it’s a dumpster but it’s normally just carpet in there. Some bits might smell, but if it’s an issue just leave it outside until the smell fades. Use a box cutter and cut it to size and place it over the areas you want to protect. Keep detering the rabbit from chewing/digging it so she learns not to. Just make sure she doesn’t eat any bits of it, since it could cause a blockage.

Also I’ve seen people use bird food and water bowls before, for small rabbits, and simply just drilling holes in exsisting bowls and tieing them down. That should make it harder for her to tip them. Riley has a drip bottle incase he does something to his water, currently his water is in a metal bowl with rubber round the base so it can’t slip or be tipped.

[Flopsie]

You want tonged her spayed. Both for behavior and health related reasons. Unfortunately what you are saying isn’t uncommon. It’s typical for bunnies to be very sweet and then the hormones kick in!

Digging and chewing may be a sign of boredom. Does she have appropriate things to chew? You can mak a dig box for her to dig in. Fill with paper, newspaper and hay. If she likes cardboard give her some boxes to play in and chew. How much out of cage time does she get daily? You might want to consider an xpen attached to cage to give her more room

Digging at the carpet can be a problem. Biting and ingesting the carpet strands is an even bigger issue. If she’s just digging, then protecting the carpet is important. You can get other carpets or rugs to cover up. If she is biting or eating it, then you need to block off or cover it with something like ceramic tile. Covering with more carpet is not ideal since she will still eat it.

Bunnies like to flip things. It’s fun. Give her some things that she can flip. For her dishes try to get heavy ceramic ones. Not small ones as those can still be flipped you can also try heavy duty Velcro. I did that snd she can’t flip her litter box anymore

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