Best buddy for Romeo?

[Romeo-Girl]

I have high hopes to get Romeo neutered. I just have to find a good place for it to be done. Soon I'm going to ask my vet if he does rabbit neutering (we've only ever had cats and dogs spayed/neutered with him). He seems to know a good deal about rabbits, now we'll just have to see if he's up to neutering one. I'm only going to get him to do it if he has good experience.

After that's done and over with (if it becomes official), I'd like to get him a companion in spring. He has a history of aggression towards males. If he's neutered, this could change, but then there's always the outcome of the other male being aggressive, right? So I was thinking, get him neutered, and then get a female. No babies and it's the most likely pair not to fight, if I'm correct...?

I've never owned a female rabbit before. My sister has a male dwarf mix that we wouldn't like to have around Romeo because of his past aggression.

There's a litter of mixed bunnies that was born on Valentine's day and I'd like to pick a female from it (they'll be ready by spring). The mother is such a sweet, laid-back albino lop.

I'd like all rabbit owners' opinions on this... Male or female companion? Of course, the female is only possible IF the neutering is a done deal.

 

[elrohwen]

Conventional wisdom is that the easiest pair is male-female with both rabbits fixed (this is important). Especially if the female is introduced into the house where the male is already living.

However, I know an experienced bonder who says "There is always trouble when females are involved". Haha. Females can tend to be more dominant and territorial, so sometimes they make bonding more difficult. Males can be aggressive too, but in my experience it's the females who can be difficult.

I would take him to meet both males and females at a rabbit rescue or shelter and see how he gets along with them. Whichever gender you pick, the second rabbits will also have to be fixed to have a good chance working out.

 

[MiniLopHop]

I took my spayed female to a shelter for a few speed dates. I was expecting to come home with a male, but she had other ideas. I ended up coming home with a female. The heart wants what it wants. *shrug* I think having them pick makes it a bit easier.

 

[PeppyTheHare]

I recently went to adopt a wife-bunny (not as nice of a ring as husbunny lol) for my male bun Peppy and we found that they were nearly flawless together. They fought once when we first brought the shelter bun home but of course they were both fixed before meeting.

I'm relatively new to the rabbit world but from what I could tell it had a lot to do with personality.

Peppy could have become more aggressive if she resisted his dominance more but she is really quite shy and sunk into the submissive position without a fuss.

 

[MiniLopHop]

She's a bunwife

or in my Becky's case, a lesbun

 

[PeppyTheHare]

bahaha lesbun. I knew someone had to come up with something better

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We've had all three options--two males, two females, and a male/female pair. Depends mainly on temperament.

 

[Romeo-Girl]

Nancy McClelland wrote:

We've had all three options--two males, two females, and a male/female pair. Depends mainly on temperament.

That's what I figured. Romeo has a good temperament with other rabbits as far as I can tell. He's never shown aggression to intact males or females, only dominance. He'd probably be better with a more submissive bun.

 

[Kitju Kat]

I'm going to hi-jack this thread as I'm thinking about doing a similar thing.

I just lost 3 of my bunnies to myxo. And my soul surviour, Sprocket is looking pretty lonely. He had always been with his brother Star (thought he was a girl hence the lame name for a boy). And Sprocket had always been very protective of him because Star got vertigo at the ripe age of 9 weeks. I had Sprocket fixed, then when Star was better him to and they never fought. But as you know, bunnies are pairing animals and they had brotherly love.

Now Star is gone, Sprocket follows me everytime I walk past the cage. I thought about getting him a female as him and Star used to always attack their dad Keiko. I have to put Sprocket back outside soon as I'm not supposed to have animals in doors as we're renting, seeing as the myxo threat seems to have died down.

So how do I go about this? Was hoping for a smaller breed of rabbit, maybe a mini lop

 

[Romeo-Girl]

Romeo is OFFICIALLY going to be neutered. We called up our vet today and asked if he had good experience with it, and he does! I was really excited that I had an easy option instead of having to go out oftown just to have it done.

I'm almost positive on gettinga female buddy for him, it sounds best.