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Rabbit with ADHD

J

JacknJess

Young Bun
Hello :0)

I have a female French Lop called Jessica. I already had a male Fench Lop called Jack when I got Jessica last November. I had Jack snipped the week I got Jessica, but the vet didn't tell me that it wasn't safe for them to be together for 5 weeks, so as a result, Jessica had babies on Boxing Day last year.

Here's the problem, since I got Jessica she has never settled. At first I thought it was because it was a new environment for her and also the fact she had Jack to bond with. Then then the babies arrived and I figured that her behaviour was down to the hormonal change while pregnant.

It's now nearly April and things aren't any better. She is ALWAYS digging in her hutch, it's almost manic how she does it. I thought she was unhappy at the fact I'm at work all day but over this weekend, I let her out for the whole day on Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday, to the expense of Jack and Jynx (the baby boy bunny I kept) getting out for a decent amount of time but still she was the same with her digging - acting like she's never out. She also goes onto her hind legs and yanks the top bars of her hutch like she's trying to get out, she yanks them so hard that they have actually bent slightly.

When I let her out at the same time as Jack (Jynx is too young to be snipped so he's kept well away from her), Jessica mounts Jack causing Jack to get distressed which all leads to a massive rabbit fight that I struggle to break up as she then starts chasing Jack around the room and I'm chasing Jessica (it would be comical sight if I wasn't so annoyed about it!).

Also, she absolutely will not use a litter tray to to her business when she's out. I managed to train Jack in a few days and even baby Jynx has cottoned on to it, but Jessica just refuses to use it, prefering do it wherever she happens to be standing at the time. The poo's don't bother be so much, but she pee's behind my sofa which is a nuicance for me to move and mop. I put up a barrier so she couldn't get behind the sofa but she managed to tear that down. *sigh*

Oh, she also jumps on top of the boys' hutch, I tell her "no" and lift her back down again but she's back there a few minutes later. She knows she's not allowed up there because if she see's me catching her at it, she jumps down and runs away. I swear she's doing it just to antagonise me!

I've got her booked in to get dressed next week (I had to wait until her milk had dried up after feeding her babies, otherwise it would have been done a long time ago!), and I'm praying that this will help a lot (I suspect it will with the mounting Jack problem), but otherwise, I'm really beginning to dislike her, I love her, but I'm not liking her very much and that in turn, makes me feel guilty.

Please help
:cry:
 
its probably her hormones.once shes been done she might calm down abit. hopefully someone more experienced will tell you better.xxx
 
I am praying it will calm her down, I'm losing my patience with her LOL

I wondered if it was her hormones going back to pre-pregnancy, but she hasn't fed her babies since the middle of February, so I would have thought she'd be back to normal hormones by now.
 
I do help spaying helps you. A lot of rabbits are affected by spring at the moment so that is probably not helping either.

You might also want to look at what sort of environment she is on. Is her hutch spacious enough and does she have enough things to keep her occupied etc. Is she with in smell and sight distance of the two boys as this may be aggitating her. Rabbits are often very territorial. This may also explain the litter training problem, if she can smell two rabbits who she doesn't accept as being part of her own bonded group she may be trying to over power their smell with her own.
 
Hi Deelove,

Her hutch is definately big enough for her, she has to really stretch up to reach the top bars in order to start yanking on them. She can't see the boys from her hutch at all.

It's funny you mention about the territorial part of her peeing because the smell of it is really strong, that's the only way I know she's gone and done it behind my sofa again (thank goodness for wooden floors!). That's quite possibly the reason she won't use a tray.

Would she still be territorial even though Jynx one of her own young?
 
I wouldn't let her play with the boys until she is spayed. It's obviously causing friction between the rabbits which will make bonding harder if you do try and get them together later.

She will be terretorial until her hormones dies down, independent of whether she is related to the other buns or not. She also may not be able to see them, but the smell could also be driving her wild.

How long does she normally spend in the hutch each day? i.e. does she have a run attached where she can run around unsupervised? Also although having a high hutch is great floor space is as important and as a frenchie she will need a lot of space. Most set ups on here I have seen for giants are shed size (i.e. six foot by 4 foot) or they have completely free range of a room/house indoors.
 
hm, I don't know for sure, but I believe that animals don't really recognise their young, hense why if you put them together it would be likely that they would mate. One of my boyfriend's rabbits had an accidental litter (of two, both boys) and although they were completely seperate until they were neutered she still became very aggitated if they were around.

Does she have lots of stuff to knaw on and hay etc to distract her? It might be an idea to get her a digging box filled with shredded towels or similar as it's less noisy that just digging at the hutch.
 
I'm sure she will calm down after she is spayed. Rosie was a bit of a monster to Leo until she was able to be done.
 
After the weekend debacle of Jessica chasing Jack and me chasing Jessica, I won't be letting them play (ha!) together until she's recovered from her op next week. I'd like to be able to move her hutch so she's not even in the same room as the boys until after her op, but I don't want her feeling excluded in the meantime and also, it would be into my bedroom and I know I will not be amused at constant digging in my room during the night :lol:

The digging box is a good idea, I'll take an empty A3 paper box home from work and put in an old towel for her to play until her heart's content. She does have toys in with her to play and nibble on though.

When she's not behaving like a terrible toddler, she's such a sweet little thing and I have witnessed her and Jack cuddling up together side by side, I don't see that side of her very often though.
 
Thank you, Deelove,

I work at the opposite side of the City to the vet, so they have agreed to take Jessica on Tuesday evening, keep her overnight and perform the op on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to an evening of peace and quiet and no battle of wills :lol:
 
I would imagine she'll calm down once spayed too, but it may simply be that she's lonely and wants to be with Jack - I have 5 unspayed girls and none of them act like that, and they are all litter trained but live outside as when I let them out of their accomodation they are NOT litter trained - it's all one big scent-marking spree of who can leave the biggest wee/poo pile on the patio - I absolutely could not exercise them in the house if they didn't live together as there'd be so much competition for territory!

Jess will not remember her son as being her son - he is just a male she wants to mate with, as far as she's concerned - and unless she lives with Jack 24/7, he is a competitor for her territory, especially as they can't even see each other for company when in their hutches - they won't be familiar enough to relax. Rabbits don't usually 'play nicely' together unless permanently bonded, or good neighbours - Every time you split them and reintroduce them, she has to go through the whole 'don't get any ideas cos I'm the boss' routine - very tiresome for both of them!

With her son, is he living with Jack? Only having a female around may cause the 2 boys to fight once the baby matures sexually.
 
elve said:
I would imagine she'll calm down once spayed too, but it may simply be that she's lonely and wants to be with Jack - I have 5 unspayed girls and none of them act like that, and they are all litter trained but live outside as when I let them out of their accomodation they are NOT litter trained - it's all one big scent-marking spree of who can leave the biggest wee/poo pile on the patio - I absolutely could not exercise them in the house if they didn't live together as there'd be so much competition for territory!

Jess will not remember her son as being her son - he is just a male she wants to mate with, as far as she's concerned - and unless she lives with Jack 24/7, he is a competitor for her territory, especially as they can't even see each other for company when in their hutches - they won't be familiar enough to relax. Rabbits don't usually 'play nicely' together unless permanently bonded, or good neighbours - Every time you split them and reintroduce them, she has to go through the whole 'don't get any ideas cos I'm the boss' routine - very tiresome for both of them!

With her son, is he living with Jack? Only having a female around may cause the 2 boys to fight once the baby matures sexually.
Click to expand...

So should I move their hutches side by side so the can see one another or just leave it as it is until after her op?

Yes, Jynx lives in the same hutch as Jack and I plan to get him snipped as soon as he's of age. Thankfully he hasn't shown much sign of his sexual maturity and there's only 3 months left until my vet will perform the op.
 
Spaying will hopefully help her. Are you going to bond them as a group? I agree with Elve, you will need to neuter the young bunny. If you put an unneutered bunny with a spayed one, he will bother her and it will cause fights.

French Lops need a huge amount of space. If she is in a hutch all day and its not very spacious, she could be unhappy. Although my frenchies sleep most of the day, they are free range house rabbits and like to potter around still. Does her hutch have a run attached? Are you able to modify the housing to give more space?
 
I think it's a bit of a tricky setup, with an unspayed female being allowed limited access to her one-time friend Jack, and with him living with an unneutered buck and going to and fro from one to the other - she will smell the unneutered boy on him, and that will set her off mounting and bullying too as rabbits generally tell their partner off for even looking at another rabbit.

If you put them so they could see each other all that's likely to happen is she will cause the boys to fight, or she will be massively frustrated at not being able to get to the unneutered one to mate - Most people would have kept a female baby with mum if they were keeping a baby - it's a bit awkward with the baby being male, so I guess you will have to play it by ear and see how things go once she's spayed - I'm not surprised she's acting up though - she's in a very frustrating situation at the mo :(
 
elve said:
I think it's a bit of a tricky setup, with an unspayed female being allowed limited access to her one-time friend Jack, and with him living with an unneutered buck and going to and fro from one to the other - she will smell the unneutered boy on him, and that will set her off mounting and bullying too as rabbits generally tell their partner off for even looking at another rabbit.

If you put them so they could see each other all that's likely to happen is she will cause the boys to fight, or she will be massively frustrated at not being able to get to the unneutered one to mate - Most people would have kept a female baby with mum if they were keeping a baby - it's a bit awkward with the baby being male, so I guess you will have to play it by ear and see how things go once she's spayed - I'm not surprised she's acting up though - she's in a very frustrating situation at the mo :(
Click to expand...

Oh gawd, I thought it would be easier for 2 boys to be together rather than 2 girls :(

Hopefully it will calm her down after her op and I've just another 3 months to wait before Jynx can get snipped too.
 
Don't lose hope. With my boyfriend's buns All 4 now live together with another doe in a group. :) Having said that the mum was the last to be added to it.

You may be able to get Jynx neutered a bit sooner, Chris got his two neutered as soon as their testicals dropped.
 
A lot of vets will neuter a boy at 12wks old - depending on how soon you can feel their testicles have dropped - I think bigger breeds maybe mature slower? It's possible the boys will start fighting once the baby gets to about 10 weeks old, and before he can be neutered. Even after neutering it will take a couple of months for his hormones to settle, during which time check both regularly for wounds - and remember they must not be split up at all once baby starts to mature - they need to go to the vets together so long as they're not already fighting. Puting Jack with a female and then returning him smelling of her is a recipie for disaster I'm afraid at the moment - too many hormones flying in all directions! Often rabbits will attack their cagemate if there's an unfamiliar rabbit within sniffing distance - they can't attack the other rabbit so they refer their aggression onto their pal - my group of girls do it when next door's rabbit's the other side of the fence :roll:

Be aware when you take Jess for spaying, the vets is a very stressful environment for rabbits - she may stop eating and it's vital that they eat as normal right up until surgery, as rabbits guts are extremely delicate and bruise easily during the op - this causes what's known as adhesions, where the gut walls literally stick to each other. It's very important to break up these adhesions by making sure the rabbit eats before and after surgery, to keep the guts functioning healthily.

Really a rabbit post spay needs nursing care - you will likely be up until 2am trying to get her to eat something, and the next day, and the day after that she will likely need extra painkillers - it's a hysterectomy for bunnies, so very major. Ideally shedule it for when you can take a few days off work to nurse her back to health, and ideally don't leave her at the vets overnight before the op - they won't do surgery until the afternoon of the next day, so that's a lot of time for her to be stressed and maybe not eat.

Also check your vet uses isofluorane gas and invisible, dissolveable stitches as rabbits often chew at ordinary stitches and struggle to recover from anaesthetics used on cats/dogs - check she has had painkillers before collecting her too as they won't eat when in pain.

(scuse the essay - I'm avoiding the washing up :oops:)
 
Thank you SO much! I just phoned my vet and they said they're happy to snip Jynx but only after he's been assessed and they're happy his testicles have dropped.

I've booked the latter part of next week off so I can be there for Jessica (see, I DO love her really!) and have changed the admission to the vet for the day of surgery so Jessica isn't more stressed than she already is.

I just assumed that all vet's wouldn't neuter before 6 months of age, but since the last vet didn't tell me to keep Jack and Jessica apart for 5 weeks after his op :)roll:), that wasn't such a great assumption to make on my part.

Hopefully the proper bonding process can start happening soon after and I can watch Corrie in peace :lol:

Oh, I asked the vet and they do use isofluorane gas and invisible, dissolveable stitches :)
 
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