Doe's Changing Personality?

hollymh

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I have two does possibly pregnant, I have one at 13 days and the other at 12 days post-breeding. My dutch is generally a super lovey and friendly rabbit whereas she won't let me touch her and runs from me now, my polish on the other hand went from being skittish to loving to be pet and cuddled so I'm wondering if their now polar opposite personalities are a sign of pregnancy? I'm pretty sad my dutch isn't being sweet now, :(
 

nerissad

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hollymh said:
I have two does possibly pregnant, I have one at 13 days and the other at 12 days post-breeding. My dutch is generally a super lovey and friendly rabbit whereas she won't let me touch her and runs from me now, my polish on the other hand went from being skittish to loving to be pet and cuddled so I'm wondering if their now polar opposite personalities are a sign of pregnancy? I'm pretty sad my dutch isn't being sweet now, :(
I would write it off to pregnancy hormones. Try offering a small treat when you visit to distract her. My rabbitry is set up in such a way where they can hear us coming up to the house but cant see us. I don't think its still an issue since they have likely become familiar with the sound of the car alarm/horn and us coming up the stairs or opening doors but when we first got them all of those sounds were scary. To help keep them from startling we got in the habit right away of saying 'hi buns' or 'Good morning rabbits' clearly so they knew it was us and didn't work themselves up over our approach. Same with our dog, which shares a yard with our rabbits. When we first got our rabbits we kept him out of their sight when he had to go potty and would only allow him near the rabbits when we were out with them, he wasn't allowed under the cages (since they are the hanging type).

I'm betting your rabbits aren't new to their homes but are they new to pregnancy? If they are try to remember that they are new to this and its sort of scary, I assume. They are showing protective mothering instincts which is a good thing in my book as it hopefully indicates that they will be good mothers.

I hope that helps.
 

oneacrefarm

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I second what Nerissad said....and your lovey doe will likely go back to being better after she delivers.
 

pennylove

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I guess by now you know for certain whether they were bred successfully or not, but I wanted to say that pregnancy hormones can do crazy things to animals, doesn't matter the species. Complete personality changes like you've described are pretty common!
 

cattlequeen

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Like everyone else said, its probably because of the pregnancy. I wouldn't worry about it too much, they will probably return back to normal after kindling. I wouldn't necessarily like to be dealt with being a pregnant rabbit either! I have a doe who turns nasty when shes pregnant, and after having her litter, turns into a sweet, little girl.
 

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