Hello! I'm new :)

[Dahlia-Romeo]

Hello! I think I may have possibly been on this site before but have long lost my username and password. No one would remember me anyway, I never posted! I normally just looked at posts.

But recently I've decided to make a decision with my bunnies so I thought I should come here and get some insight from fellow bun owners.

I've been trying to introduce my two rabbits for quite a while now. I read a few different ways to do it, mostly regarding taking it slow. And I've done that. Recently I became really busy and didn't have much time to supervise meetings between my two buns but I really want them to like each other.

Romeo is a neutered Netherland Dwarf mix (guess) and Dahlia is a female, unspayed mix (she's actually the daughter of Romeo... he managed to get a lot of the pet store females pregnant, hence why I named him Romeo.)

At the beginning, the meetings go well. The first few minutes they ignore each other and whatnot. Romeo likes to go up to Dahlia though (smells her, not much more) and she doesn't seem to like that. She tries to nip him so I immediately split them up and it ends the session. Is this normal?

I'm considering spaying Dahlia (it sounds like it has more pros than cons anyway) but my vet seemed hesitant to do it. He did Romeo's neuter no problem, but because spaying is always a more demanding surgery he seemed like he didn't want to do it. There isn't another local vet, unfortunately, so I would have to go with him to have it done. I've just seen so many neutered/spayed bun pairs getting along better than one neutered and one not neutered/spayed. Ideas?

So please feel free to give me any advice on the spaying and the introductions. So far I'm not doing so well on my own! Thanks.

 

[LakeCondo]

Hello & welcome.

With females, the main reason to neuter is to increase her life span. Unspayed females have a high rate of reproductive cancers by middle age. I really would recommend it. It IS a more complicated surgery than neutering a male, so I can understand your vet's reluctance,

 

[Dahlia-Romeo]

I did read about 80% of unspayed females getting uterine or ovarian cancer, another good reason to have her spayed. I just figured, on top of that, her hormones won't be as crazy and maybe she'll treat Romeo better and even bond with him.

Is it almost guaranteed that two altered rabbits will get along? I haven't seen anyone with two altered buns that didn't get along, but I suppose it's possible.

I'm willing to pay the fee to have her spayed regardless, it'd just be nice if she and Romeo could be housed together and be companions to one another!

 

[Imbrium]

not all altered bunns get along, but M/F has (by far) the highest chance of success. getting her spayed will significantly increase your chances of being able to bond them