Neutered male harassing female?!?!?!

[vek555]

Okay so

I got my male neutered about five weeks ago. For the first month after the surgery he and my female (both mini lops) were BEST friends - they never argued and they always slept side by side and snuggled 24/7 (he occasionally mounted her but not very often). Suddenly for the last week and ESPECIALLY today he has been harassing her and trying to mate with her like all day long, and she would vocalize (which she never does) in annoyance and try to run away from him, something I'd never seen before - so I finally separated them. I thought his sex drive was supposed to decrease after the surgery? The female's not spayed but the breeder who gave her to me said she's probably "barren" (i.e. can't have babies, which is why the rabbit breeder gave her to me since the female rabbit wasn't getting pregnant). My female is around 8 months I think, the male is around 11 months.
What do I do? Will I have to keep them separated for the rest of their lives?

 

[Blue eyes]

Hormones can take as long as 2 months to dissipate after neutering. But why he's doing this just recently, I don't know. Maybe you will have to give them a short break and then try to bond them anew. :twocents

 

[vek555]

So after two months, will he stop harassing her? Like is it possible that this will contonue forever

 

[Imbrium]

hopefully he will... though it could be a dominance thing rather than a hormones thing.

if you want them to be (and stay) bonded, you really need to get the female fixed as well (plus, the average lifespan of unspayed females is HALF that of spayed females due to their proclivity for cancers of the reproductive system)... then you need to go through the bonding process with them.

great sites on bonding:
http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/matchups.asp
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

 

[JBun]

It sounds more hormonal to me, as he is keeping it up all day. If it is hormonal, then it should get better. Maybe it was just a one day fluke. You could try putting them together for a little bit, but if he keeps after her, I would keep them separated for a little bit, to give the last of the hormones to fade, but keep their cages right next to each other so they can maintain some sort of bond. I wouldn't let them be together though, if he is still going after her, as it could upset her enough, to the point where she won't like him anymore.