Bunny keeps thumping?

[LittleThumper]

Hi all,

As some of you may know I got a new bunny 3 months ago. Female, Hotot Dwarf, unspayed – Name’s Estee (Lauder).

I wanted to have her spayed, unfortunately, my vet told me they will only spay a female rabbit if she’s at least 6 months’ old. She was perfectly obedient, tame, and friendly at the start. Recently, for the past 2 weeks, I noticed her behaviour has changed for the worst. She starts pooping and peeing everywhere and she lunges at my hand when I try to clean it. She even sprays her urine around the cage at times. Initially I was okay with all these nuisance as I could tolerate it….

However, for the past few days she has developed a worser habit. She has began thumping randomly and loudly in her cage. The worst part of all is my cage is the Zoozone 2 cage that has an empty platform underneath. So whenever she thumps the sound is loud enough to give a scare. Nothing new was introduced around her environment. Nothing new that would scare her at all. She just thumps for no reason! Few nights ago, in the middle of the night around 4 AM, she suddenly made a ruckus in her cage – slamming her body against the sides of the cage and the food bowl. Then, she thumped the cage’s floor loudly for nearly 20 times in less than 3 minutes. I was so worried my neighbour (I live in an apartment) would complain about the noise that I had to put her in a pet carrier cage to prevent her from thumping any further.

She’s currently only 4 months and 1 week old. I still can’t get her spayed for another 1 month and 3 weeks!!!

And as I’m writing this, she is still thumping in her cage for no reason.

Any ideas why? Is this just her hormones acting up?

[Sr. Melangell]

It could be her mood swings, or she could be telling you something is going on, like some rain coming or a dog has got into your garden, bunnies bang for a reason, reasons only known to them sometimes, what I do is when my bunny bangs his foot is check everywhere, then if he carries on I just say calmly. “Oh dear, never mind sweetheart, thanks for telling me.” He knows when I’m ill, he sniffs my mouth then stamps his foot, next day I’m at the doctors with tonsillitis.

[MrBun&Daisy]

I do believe it is her hormones acting up. Make sure you check for anything that could be out of place or alarming her. unless you find something that would be upsetting her, hormones is your answer. they could also be making her extra sensitive/easily annoyed so anything she hears outside could just be making her extra mad. unfortunately there isn’t much you can do other than reassure her. So do a thorough Check of her surroundings to be sure nothing is harming her or has changed and after that if you’ve found nothing you’ll just have to find ways to cope with the noise. maybe some blankets or padding?

[LittleThumper]

Thank you, everyone!

Yes, over the past few days her behaviour has improved… still have to wait for another 6 weeks’ till getting her spayed.

[Author]

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