Do girl rabbits build nests even when they are not prego?

[palmettogirl]

I have this holland lop doe that I got when she was 3 months old. Now she is 5 months old and I let her out of her pen to run around in the spare room where I keep her. Usually, I supervise her when out of her pen but I left her for a few hours and when I returned she had found the halloween box and dragged a huge yarn wig and satin hat into her pen area. This was comical enough but then I noticed that the wig was half behind the pet steps that let her get up into the window. When pulling the wig out, I see she has built an entire nest under the steps. I noticed she had been tearing up the phone book in the pen. The nest has tons of shredded paper and a bunch of her fur in the middle. I guess she thought the wig and satin hat would make it more cozy....lol. I didn't realize does build nests even when they are not pregnant. I dug through it just to make sure there were no babies in there eventhough she has had no contact with any males...haha. Has any one else seen this behavior before? I wonder if that means she'll be a good mom?

 

[jessie15273]

Yes many does will build a nest. They usually do it if they feel in the mood for babies. I have had a few does start to nest randomly. That usually means they are ready to have a litter. Usually they will give up on it if they aren't pregnant. Give her a week or two and shell get over it

 

[palmettogirl]

Oh, it's probably b/c I brought my male into the room(in a cage) while I was cleaning out his hutch the other day. They were locked in their own areas but could still see and smell one another. That's probably why she started getting her house in order...lol. Eventually, I'll let them meet but I'd like to wait until she is 7 or 8 months. She sure is a funny girl. I don't know how she dragged that large long haired yarn wig all the way across the room. She only weighs about 3 lbs. Silly rabbit!

 

[Miss M]

You're sure she didn't get to his cage, right? Because... they can mate through cage wire if they're determined enough.

 

[palmettogirl]

Oh, that's funny and I thought hollands were hard to breed. No, they were not even close enough for through the wire mating...lol. However, this makes me think that I may need to do a bit of redesign on my bunny barn that I'm creating for them. Their pens are separated by one layer of cage wire and their outside runs are the same. I've been working weeks on this project and I'm near completion. I'm still on the fence as to whether to breed them or not. The boy was a stray that wondered into my garden and was living there until I could catch him. The girl was an impulse buy before I knew too much about the breed and she has a bad head. Her ears have not lopped and I affectionately call her "peanut-head"(her real name is Isabel). Her head is abnormally small to me. She was suppose to be brood quality but I'd hate to pass on that head of hers. She does have a lovely pedigree. The boy has no faults that I can find just no papers. I may just get them fixed and have two nice little pets. I'm keeping my options open for now. I do have some friends who would like to have one and hollands are rare in my state. I had trouble finding another one and that's one reason I ended up with "peanut head".