Age for Neutering Recommendation

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flemishwhite

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My two Flemmish baby girls are now 4 1/2 months old. They are already probably as big as most pet bunnies. They are sisters. 99% of the time, they are very lovey, dovey. They are bonded. They just love to sleep together side by side. One girl is dominant, and the other tends to be submissive. About two weeks ago, the dominant sister would ocasionally try to hump her submissive sister and pull out hair...I guess from the other rabbit's neck. Up until this time, we let them run loose in the house, but at night they had to go into a pen in the living room. However, about a week ago, the pen was really all disarray in the morning...looked like they'd been fighting in there. So now, they are free to run in the house all the time. At night I can sometimes hear them running...chasing each other I suppose...and in the morning..I can find an occasional tuft of hair on the floor. My wife said she saw the submissive rabbit trying to hump her usually more aggressive sister! Oh! another incident...the submissive rabbit one night built a birthing nest. Both of them have good litter box manners, but both are prone to leave a table spoon of pee here and there for marking....SOOO

I think it's time to think about neutering. They are now 4 1/2 months old. I'm wondering if they can be neutered at 5 months of age...I think they have already reached sexual maturity. They are Flemmish rabbits and I really want them to grow to a large size. Will neutering them at 5 months stunt their growth? (I want big rabbits so I can leave them in the back yard for hours by themselves and won't be attacked by feral cats, etc. They will always be brought back into the house after a few hours outside. Me and my wife really like to live with house bunnies. )

Thanks!!
 
Spaying them will not stunt growth. You're probably fine to get them spayed already, as for most vets they are comfortable spaying once the rabbit reaches a certain size, not so much at a certain age. So your best bet is to ring your vet and ask what that weight limit is.
 
Spaying them will not stunt growth. You're probably fine to get them spayed already, as for most vets they are comfortable spaying once the rabbit reaches a certain size, not so much at a certain age. So your best bet is to ring your vet and ask what that weight limit is.

Thanks for the response. In the middle of Feb, this month, they'll be 5 months old, so I think we'll do it for both.

Many years ago, our previous bunny, was a house bunny and sleeping under our bed. We had her neutered. I was afraid when we brought her home she'd be in pain and hide under the bed and I wouldn't be able to give her her pain meds. For her first two nights after the operation, I rented a Marriott Residence Inn hotel room. They had barriers to prevent under the bed access, so Bunny couldn't really hid..underneath the curtains worked for her.
I had to go to work, but my wife shared the room during the day with Bunny and we were easily able to catch her and give her her pain meds.
 
I wouldn't recommend that. Rabbits should be permitted to convalesce in the comfort of home and familiarity. I believe it promotes quicker healing.

Remember I said that Bunny slept under out bed, it's a queen sized bed. If she was in pain she'd hide under the bed. Bunnies are unfortunately, masters of hiding pain and fright. If she was under the bed, for me to pull her out for pain meds, would mean streatching her body to drag her out from under the bed. However, in the Marriott room, the bed had pleated skirt around the mattress that reached to the floor. Bunny slept inside the skirt and was completely hidden. She could hear our snoring in the above bed, so I feel she was very comfortable. It was easy to catch her an give her her painkillers. She spent two nights in the Marriott Residence Inn. Of course she used her litter box 100%.

She had her operation Tuesday afternoon. We picked her up Tuesday late afternoon. She was pretty groggy. We went to the Marriott. We were with her all Tuesday evening, my wife all day Wednesday with her and brought her home Thursday morning. Yes, Thursday morning, she immediately borrowed under out bed and hid, just as I knew. She was eating, but still hiding. I was worried about her. On Friday morning, I was working on my dining room computer, when I heard a disturbance....Bunny had jumped on the living room couch...she was OK!
.........................

Wasn't Bunny's first time in the Marriott Residence Inn. I had my house fumigated for termites and we all moved to the Marriott Residence Inn. The side of the room had a floor to ceiling glass window. Bunny liked to lay there and watch people walk by on the sidewalk outside. People walking by on the sidewalk could see a rabbit laying by the window. I was a little concerned there might be a fuss. We brought litter boxes for every night she was in the hotel.

Bottom Line: Bunny spent 4 nights in a Marriott Residence Inn, on two occasions of two nights each, ...and she never soiled the carpet!!! She exhibited 100% litter box manners... Just what you can expect from a pretty good bunny.
 
A rabbit shouldn't be in a lot of pain after a spay / neuter if the vet did his job - the rabbit needs to stay at the vet several hours after the operation to check that they are OK enough to eat, and a serious vet will give them an injection of pain meds before letting them go home (should last 24hours) If you give enough Metacam at the good times (twice a day), there is no reason for your rabbits to stay hidden under the bed. Some vets do recommend confinement for a few days after the spay so that the rabbit won't hurt herself, but I don't do it if the wound looks clean - hopping around helps to keep the guts moving and I noticed my rabbits (which are free in a room) were going nuts after a few hours in a cage so I felt like they would be more likely to eat their stitches or hurt themselves like that. It went without a hitch for me. I think it really depends on the rabbit - do what you feel is best. About the age, the recommended age for a female is around 7-8 months, nevertheless the reason is that a lot of rabbits are very tiny before being fully grown which will make the anesthesia more dangerous for them. So, it's more of a nethie problem ^^. If your girls are more than 2 pounds, it shouldn't be a problem. If I were you, I would phone your vet to ask, but considering that your rabbits are from a giant breed, 5 months should be OK. About the size thing, studies have proven that animals who are neutered before being fully grown grow longer than the others (because the stop of the growth is dictated by hormones) so they actually tend to be taller.
 
A rabbit shouldn't be in a lot of pain after a spay / neuter if the vet did his job - the rabbit needs to stay at the vet several hours after the operation to check that they are OK enough to eat, and a serious vet will give them an injection of pain meds before letting them go home (should last 24hours) I would phone your vet to ask, but considering that your rabbits are from a giant breed, 5 months should be OK. About the size thing, studies have proven that animals who are neutered before being fully grown grow longer than the others (because the stop of the growth is dictated by hormones) so they actually tend to be taller.

Thanks all for the thoughtful replies. Neutering female bunnies is a risk since it's such an intrusive operation and sometimes the bunny dies. I currently am thinking about their 5th month birthday. They are already much bigger than most people's pet bunnies.

When I have them neutered, I plan on having them micro chipped. I want them to eventually spend several hours in the backyard during the day, and run them back into the house in the evening. My previous bunny, Bunny, just loved to be outside. She would run to the front door and scratch on the door to be let out. But either me or my wife had to be with her all the time. After about 1/2 outside is was pretty easy to shoo her back inside the house. Bunny was about 8 pounds and I felt she was succeptible to a feral cat attack.
Our now two Flemmish rabbits are going to be easily large enough to thwart off a feral cat.
 
BUMP:
flemishwhite - I am currently in a similar situation as you were when you started this post. May I ask, how did the surgeries go? Did you get both of your bunnies spayed at the same time? We are trying to decide if it would be best to have both our girls spayed at the same time or separately. Also if you did get them done separately who did you have done first? We heard it best to have the larger bunny done first; but, our smaller girl is the dominant one of the two and perhaps spaying her first will suppress some of her dominating behaviour. All I seem to say to them these days is, "Stella. Quit humping your sister!"
 
If possible, I'd suggest getting two bonded bunnies done at the SAME time. That way, they are on restricted exercise at the same time, they both smell "funny" after being at the vet. If you do one at a time, you may have to "re-bond" them as they will each smell like a new rabbit to the other.
 

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