Why is she haystaching?

[KenoshaRabbits]

I obtainetd two angora does last week. They are currently in quarantine. They have just started to haystache! They should not be pregnant. I asked the lady I bought them from if there was a chance they could be pregnant. Her response was her does exhibit pregnancy signs when they want to bred. She said some of her current, non pregnant does have started pulling fur.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I am taking her explanation with a grain of salt. It seems fishy, especially considering she had problems in the past with ARA's messing with her heard. In fact these rabbits I bought were the product of someone letting a buck loose into the doe pen. I put in nest boxes to be safe.

Just curious if there might be other reasons they have started haystaching? Maybe stress related to the move? Although otherwise they are doing quite fine.

Thanks.

 

[shazza]

could be a false pregnancy, which isn't unheard of...it happens often in spring when the hormones are high. they'll usually make nests and sometimes even pull fur, but once the nest is built they tend to lose interest in it after a day or so and go back to normal. apparently this period right after a false pregnancy is a great time to breed them, though since you said they were new i wouldn't recommend that. as always - better safe than sorry and it's good that you put a box in. you'll know in a couple days if it was real or not!

 

[LittleFluffyBunnies]

shazza is right.
An extra bit of input. I have heard of does doing that when wanting to be bred. I watch a breeder's YouTube channel, she's very thorough, and one of her does nests when it wants to be bred. Haystaches, pulls fur and everything

 

[DaytonHillRabbits]

I had this same experience with a doe I took in from a bad situation. I moved her in, and within days she started to haystache. I flipped out because I was doing this woman a HUGE favor taking in these two cross breed does she threatened to turn loose in the woods etc, and I told her I had NO cage space, she brought them with a teeny little 24x12 cage they were both stuffed into then on top of that, the haystaching! Well.. she wasn't pregnant.. just the move confused her and upset her hormones I think! Thank God..