Need help in deciding which one to neuter

[Abby]

I've got two rabbits, Abby(F) and Tim(M).
Now I want to put them together and for that one of the two needs to be neutered. And I need some help in deciding which of the two.
Tim is a calm and sweet male and Abby is also a calm rabbit but because of her hormones she's a little grumpy now. So I thought about letting her help, but the risk is so high.
What would you do and why?
If someone has experience in neutering female rabbits, I would love to hear them.
This way I hope to make the right decision for both the animals.
Thanks!

 

[agnesthelion]

Actually, it is best to fix both. I'm from the mindset that rabbits can't actually be considered bonded unless they are BOTH altered. Yes, there are situations where an unaltered rabbit bonds but it's sometimes by accident and then the risk for spontaneous fighting is much higher.

When it comes to reasons for males vs females, for males it's usually done for behavior reasons (ie humping, spraying etc) and for females it is a definite health benefit to spay. Cancer risks in unspayed females are up 85% higher than spayed females.

A spay is a bit more of an invasive surgery vs. neuter. You will want to find a vet who is rabbit savvy and who has fixed buns before. Simply calling around local vets or maybe someone on here from the Netherlands can give a reference.

Lastly, if it comes down to answering your question, you will for sure need to neuter your male. An unaltered buck will have one thing in mind if you try to bond him to your doe and that is mating. He will continue to mount and probably begin to spray so I don't see you being able to avoid a neuter. However, then with you saying that your female is grumpy because of hormones that won't go away either on it's own. So to go back to what I initially said I think you will need to alter both.

Good luck!!!

 

[Ape337]

Honestly, my first choice would be to do them both. IF you have a rabbit experienced vet available. I alter all of my pets so that's mostly a personal opinion. But I definitely would spay your female because the risk of her getting cancer is very high for an unaltered, non-breeding female. There are risks to surgery but I believe the cancer risk outweighs the anesthesia risk (and I've lost one in spay surgery, but I still have it done). I had a female bunny that already had a pre-cancerous uterus by age two when I had her spayed years ago.

Bonding is complicated and I believe best accomplished with two altered rabbits. Good luck with your decision :carrot

 

[FreezeNkody]

I would go with both. I know it can be expensive, but you don't have to do them at the same time. you'll have happier buns!

 

[agnesthelion]

Bonding is complicated and I believe best accomplished with two altered rabbits. Good luck with your decision :carrot

This is a very good point to bring up. Bonding is tedious and requires more than just putting two buns together. It took 30 days to bond my two and me personally I would never try to bond rabbits who aren't altered. So when you do get to the bonding part do some research or searching on here for some steps to get that done.

 

[FreezeNkody]

This is a very good point to bring up. Bonding is tedious and requires more than just putting two buns together. It took 30 days to bond my two and me personally I would never try to bond rabbits who aren't altered. So when you do get to the bonding part do some research or searching on here for some steps to get that done.

It took me about 5 days to bond my 2 dwarfs :upsidedown:
I must of been super lucky! I took them both out of thier hutches and put them in a car carrier and went for a drive every day. and also let them meet in the bathtub (no water of course) and they bonded very quickly.

 

[agnesthelion]

It took me about 5 days to bond my 2 dwarfs :upsidedown:
I must of been super lucky! I took them both out of thier hutches and put them in a car carrier and went for a drive every day. and also let them meet in the bathtub (no water of course) and they bonded very quickly.

Every bond is different and there are love at first site stories but I was trying to relay to someone who *might* not realize, the process sometimes required for a bond, lol, Not everyone is lucky so i didn't want to trivialize the importance of bonding correctly.

 

[LakeCondo]

If Tim is past the raging hormones age, then you could wait & see until she's spayed. You can try bonding then & maybe it will work. If it doesn't go well, then you'll know he needs neutering.

 

[Ape337]

Every bond is different and there are love at first site stories but I was trying to relay to someone who *might* not realize, the process sometimes required for a bond, lol, Not everyone is lucky so i didn't want to trivialize the importance of bonding correctly.

:yeahthat: boy oh boy could I tell a story of bonding gone bad! Nobody got hurt, thank goodness, but I'll never try that again. 3 separate bunnies is A-OK with me (unless I adopted 2 altered bunnies in the future that are already bonded) :surrender

I admire all the bunny owners on here that go through the bonding process which is not for the faint of heart (like me)!

 

[FreezeNkody]

My 2 dwarfs Knew of each other, She just pushed him around a bit. =) Now they are BEST friends.

 

[Abby]

Thanks for all the reply's. According to these story's I will have them both altered. I have read a lot on rabbits before I got them(bonding wise) so I know what can happen and I have a plan set out when it needs to be done, so no worries about that. I will do some calls, although I already have one vet in mind of which I know she's done some rabbits. So again, thank you all!