Neutering a rabbit how old should he be??

Hello..I have had my rabbits about a month..The store said my mini lop was a male 6 weeks old..Took them to a vet to have them sexed and the vet said I had2 female rabbits 6 months old...Took them to a different vet yesterday he told me that my white one was a female like we thought but that my blk mini lop was indeed a male..he showed me the difference between the 2..on Shadow his testicals had not dropped yet..the Doctor told me that they were both ok to be fixed...Plan on doing it sometime this week..so I'm doing some research on the internet about Spaying and Neutering of rabbits and I read that female rabbits should be spayed around 4-6months old and a male rabbit should NOT be neutered until his testicals have dropped..Now I am confused..the doctor said they were ok but I dont want to send him into have surgery if he is still to young..since I dont really know his true age and his testicals havnt dropped yet and that makes me think the original pet store was right in their estimation of his age at 6weeks old because they were right about him being a male?? Please help I'm confused and I dont want to do anything to Shadow that may harm him...

I wouldn't get him neutered until his testicles drop. If they go in now it will be much more invasive and riskier.

I agree, would just wait until his testicles drop. Will be much easier and safer. If he is only 10 weeks old (if the store said he was 6 weeks and you've had him for 4 weeks) you still have plenty of time. No need to rush before he's ready .

How large was he when you bought him? Was he quite small and very fluffy? That's quite a jump from 10 weeks to the 6 months the other vet thought they were.

Also just to note, are they living together? It may be safer to separate them soon if their ages are under question, better to be safe rather than end up with an accidental pregnancy!

Young males have the ability to suck their testicles up so you can't see them. The vet should be able to tell if he's sucking them up, and if so, when he goes under they will come back out. Also, if the testicles are just about ready to drop, the vet can often gently pull them out with out having to dig deeply.

I have had some of my foster babies neutered at 10-12 weeks old with no problems. For the girls, they got done around 16 weeks (4 months). With the little girls, if she is not mature enough, the vet can have a hard time finding her uturus to remove. Then she may go under, get cut open and not be able to get spayed. So you want to make sure the girl is mature enough.

I would, personally, get the boy done as soon as possible. If the vet is comfortable doing it at this age, then go ahead. For the girl, wait and get her done in a month or two. That way, the boy will be infertile by the time the girl reaches sexual maturity, and you won't have to worry about separating them.

--Dawn

Agreed with everyone here. If he is just "hiding" his testicles, it is time for the snip. If not, the surgery is a bit more invasive, so it's better to wait until they've descended.

Spring wrote:

I agree, would just wait until his testicles drop. Will be much easier and safer. If he is only 10 weeks old (if the store said he was 6 weeks and you've had him for 4 weeks) you still have plenty of time. No need to rush before he's ready .

How large was he when you bought him? Was he quite small and very fluffy? That's quite a jump from 10 weeks to the 6 months the other vet thought they were.

Also just to note, are they living together? It may be safer to separate them soon if their ages are under question, better to be safe rather than end up with an accidental pregnancy!

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Here is a picture of him I took 2 days ago..he weighs 5.2 pounds ( got weighed at the vets yesterday) from what I was told at the pet store his breed is mini lop..any guesses on his age?? They have seperate cages and there has only been one day where he tried tomount her constantly that whole day and I had to seperate them..since then he doesnt even try to mount her..its more her trying to mount him when the rare occasion does come up..Is that another sign that he is not old enough? The fact that he is not trying anything??

If he's a minilop, then at 5.2 lbs he's a lot older than 10 weeks. He is probably closer to 6 months or older, since minilops range between 6ish-7 lbs. Also slight chance he may be a french lop, although I don't usually see those in petstores. He'd probably be about 3-4 months old if he were a french lop at 5.2lbs. Though he looks more like a minilop, so I'm betting he's just an older minilop. Definitely not 10 weeks old though! So the petstore must have made a mistake. I take most information given from petstores with a grain of salt, since a lot of their employees haven't a clue .
I would definitely keep them completely seperate. At their age, they are old enough to breed. Not sure how old your doe is, but Shadow is definitely old enough!