Single doe building a nest?

[momofonly]

This forum has been very helpful for my puzzling rabbit questions.

Here is another thing I can't figure out. My lone rabbit (English Angora doe, almost a year old, unspayed and not bred) seems to have built a nest. She has a two-level hutch in my fenced backyard. There are two litter boxes of hay in her hutch, one for each level. She only uses the bottom one as a litter box. The other one is there for her to eat the hay out of, or do whatever she wants to with it. It's in the "nook" section- little cubbyhole covered on all sides where she can go to hide, etc.

It's the litterbox in this nook section where she appears to have built a nest. Not only has she moved around the hay, but she seems to have pulled some masses of wool from herself and used them to build up this nest.

She is the only rabbit I have, and I got her back in September, when she was less than two months old. We have wild rabbits on our property, but I've never seen them in the fenced backyard and the hutch bottom is a few inches off the ground. (So I can't see how mating through the hutch could work.)

Any ideas what this means?

Thanks!

 

[woodleighcreek]

She probably wants to be bred. Sometime when females arnt bred and are not spayed, they can experience a pseudopregnancy. This can cause does to build a nest and pull fur.

 

[momofonly]

Well, that's an interesting tidbit of information. I didn't know that. Thanks!

 

[M.R. Lops]

Its probably just a false pregnancy. Unspayed females will sometimes start building a nest and act like they're pregnant when they're not. Its just a sign of a good mother who wants to be bred.