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Male rabbit, nesting or playing?!

~ILoveMyBunny~

~ILoveMyBunny~

Alpha Buck
Well I'm a little confused at the moment.
I'll get the obvious out the way first; He is definitely male and he has been neutered (back in June this year)
Long story short we have no heating again and it's been freezing here so tonight I've given the buns large piles of hay to help keep them warm. Now they always love it when they get extra large piles of hay and most do love to play in it. Pixel absolutely loves playing in hay. However tonight he's been doing something new. He's doing what I can only describe as nesting behaviour! The only time I've ever seen one of my rabbits nesting was Willow, which she did from time to time as she was never spayed. What Pixel is doing is pretty much identical to what she used to do, minus the fur pulling. He's grabbing huge piles of hay and litter in his mouth and running around with them.
It seemed random at first but appears to be more methodical now, he seems to be putting it in a particular spot. He's also going over and picking up some litter to mix in with it.
I can't tell if he's just playing or if it actually is some kind of nesting behaviour? He is certainly incredibly happy, the happiest I've seen him in ages (and he's generally a happy, cheerful little bun anyway).
He also appears to be on turbo mode! He's incredibly hyper (and this is a rabbit that normally zips around like a housefly anyway so to say hyper for him is saying something).
I'm assuming it's just him playing and being incredibly happy but it's a new behaviour to me (for a male)!
He's been at this for somewhere between 3-4hrs nonstop and it's now wearing me out watching him!
 
Aw bless him! Sometimes when it is really cold they do become more hyped up. As for the nesting behaviour I have never read any conclusions as to why the odd male rabbit behaves in this way. As far as I know no-one has ever figured it out. It's one of the quirky things rabbits do :?
 
aww bless him, I'd love to watch him right now. Joey once did similar. I'd filled their litter box (a huge wooden deep thing back then) with loads & loads of hay hoping they' burrow. He gathered very neat mouthfulls (looked like a big hay tash :lol:) & carried them upstairs & placed them under the bed. I like to think the behaviour is he really, really likes it :love:
 
~ILoveMyBunny~ said:
Well I'm a little confused at the moment.
I'll get the obvious out the way first; He is definitely male and he has been neutered (back in June this year)
Long story short we have no heating again and it's been freezing here so tonight I've given the buns large piles of hay to help keep them warm. Now they always love it when they get extra large piles of hay and most do love to play in it. Pixel absolutely loves playing in hay. However tonight he's been doing something new. He's doing what I can only describe as nesting behaviour! The only time I've ever seen one of my rabbits nesting was Willow, which she did from time to time as she was never spayed. What Pixel is doing is pretty much identical to what she used to do, minus the fur pulling. He's grabbing huge piles of hay and litter in his mouth and running around with them.
It seemed random at first but appears to be more methodical now, he seems to be putting it in a particular spot. He's also going over and picking up some litter to mix in with it.
I can't tell if he's just playing or if it actually is some kind of nesting behaviour? He is certainly incredibly happy, the happiest I've seen him in ages (and he's generally a happy, cheerful little bun anyway).
He also appears to be on turbo mode! He's incredibly hyper (and this is a rabbit that normally zips around like a housefly anyway so to say hyper for him is saying something).
I'm assuming it's just him playing and being incredibly happy but it's a new behaviour to me (for a male)!
He's been at this for somewhere between 3-4hrs nonstop and it's now wearing me out watching him!
Click to expand...


It sounds like he loves the novelty of what you've given him!

Now you know what to give him for Christmas :love:
 
~ILoveMyBunny~ said:
Well I'm a little confused at the moment.
I'll get the obvious out the way first; He is definitely male and he has been neutered (back in June this year)
Long story short we have no heating again and it's been freezing here so tonight I've given the buns large piles of hay to help keep them warm. Now they always love it when they get extra large piles of hay and most do love to play in it. Pixel absolutely loves playing in hay. However tonight he's been doing something new. He's doing what I can only describe as nesting behaviour! The only time I've ever seen one of my rabbits nesting was Willow, which she did from time to time as she was never spayed. What Pixel is doing is pretty much identical to what she used to do, minus the fur pulling. He's grabbing huge piles of hay and litter in his mouth and running around with them.
It seemed random at first but appears to be more methodical now, he seems to be putting it in a particular spot. He's also going over and picking up some litter to mix in with it.
I can't tell if he's just playing or if it actually is some kind of nesting behaviour? He is certainly incredibly happy, the happiest I've seen him in ages (and he's generally a happy, cheerful little bun anyway).
He also appears to be on turbo mode! He's incredibly hyper (and this is a rabbit that normally zips around like a housefly anyway so to say hyper for him is saying something).
I'm assuming it's just him playing and being incredibly happy but it's a new behaviour to me (for a male)!
He's been at this for somewhere between 3-4hrs nonstop and it's now wearing me out watching him!
Click to expand...

Occasionally neutered Bucks will show nesting behaviour and it is seldom a problem, especially if the Buck is still young. The only time that nesting behaviour in a neutered Buck could be indicative of a health problem is if it happens a lot, gets more frantic and/or the Buck goes on to exhibit other hormonal type behaviours eg spraying wee/excessive humping etc. In such cases a check up with a Rabbit savvy Vet would be a good idea as there are a few rare health problems that can cause hyper-sexual/hormonal behaviour in neutered Bucks.

In a young recently neutered Buck the behaviour is very unlikely to be cause for concern x
 
It was incredibly cute to watch :lol: I did try to record a video but everytime I got near he stopped :roll: I tried pictures too but he was too quick :lol:
I'm not sure when he stopped but he was going for a long, long time. I think he was just playing rather than nesting as such but it was so odd to see! He does love playing in his hay anyway, I think it just got him super excited to have to much :lol: At least the exercise kept him warm lol.
It was so funny to see, on one occassion he had such a massive mouthful it was all falling out and he pushed against his wooden hut to push it back in his mouth! :lol:
He's such a cute, happy little thing it's impossible to be miserable when you're watching him play :love:

Jack's-Jane said:
The only time that nesting behaviour in a neutered Buck could be indicative of a health problem is if it happens a lot, gets more frantic and/or the Buck goes on to exhibit other hormonal type behaviours eg spraying wee/excessive humping etc.
Click to expand...
He does still do this a little bit but it's nothing new - I think it's because we had him netuered late (my fault but there was something about putting such a tiny rabbit through that - I just kept putting it off).
As always with any new adorable behaviour it's cute to watch and brings just a tiny bit of concern with it so I'm watching him but he hasn't been doing anything unusual today so I think it was just pure excitement in this case. But as ever I'm cautious - just in case :)
 
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~ILoveMyBunny~ said:
It was incredibly cute to watch :lol: I did try to record a video but everytime I got near he stopped :roll: I tried pictures too but he was too quick :lol:
I'm not sure when he stopped but he was going for a long, long time. I think he was just playing rather than nesting as such but it was so odd to see! He does love playing in his hay anyway, I think it just got him super excited to have to much :lol: At least the exercise kept him warm lol.
It was so funny to see, on one occassion he had such a massive mouthful it was all falling out and he pushed against his wooden hut to push it back in his mouth! :lol:
He's such a cute, happy little thing it's impossible to be miserable when you're watching him play :love:


He does still do this a little bit but it's nothing new - I think it's because we had him netuered late (my fault but there was something about putting such a tiny rabbit through that - I just kept putting it off).
As always with any new adorable behaviour it's cute to watch and brings just a tiny bit of concern with it so I'm watching him but he hasn't been doing anything unusual today so I think it was just pure excitement in this case. But as ever I'm cautious - just in case :)
Click to expand...


Lots of bucks continue to spray, as another member here is finding out!

Is he still nesting? x
 
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