Neutering / Bonding

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So a week Monday my Buck is going to be neutered so I can attempt to bond him to my doe. She is (for now) Un-spayed .

I know It will be a while after he has been neutered before I can even attempt it, but I am a bit worried for my doe! They are both Lops, but she used to be a breeding bunny, and I feel she is very small and fragile against him. He is quite a big Lop ( well for a lop!) He's that big, he scares the cats off!
She had her first vets appointment last week, and she is still underweight ( I got her on the 27th December, she is going on three - he is a year and a few months).
So what i'm trying to say , I guess, I don't want him to hurt her! At the moment, their hutches are beside each other, when one is in the other wanders the garden, so they do know about each other, and he has flopped by her hutch more than once, but i'm sure this is more him wanting to mate with her.
HAs anyone else got different sized bunnies which have successfully bonded?
 
I've seen multiple people bond giant breeds with dwarf breeds.
To give he best chance of a successful bond I'd allow him at least 6 weeks for hormones to settle before trying to bond. This way he shouldn't be interested in mating with her at all.
With her being unspayed, she's likely to be a little more feisty so should be able to stand her ground with him.
 
I've seen multiple people bond giant breeds with dwarf breeds.
To give he best chance of a successful bond I'd allow him at least 6 weeks for hormones to settle before trying to bond. This way he shouldn't be interested in mating with her at all.
With her being unspayed, she's likely to be a little more feisty so should be able to stand her ground with him.

Aye, Ithe vet said about or month and a bit after neutering. Hopefully by then she's put on more weight as well. :)
 
The size of the rabbits isn't a problem. The doe is likely to be the dominant one - I currently have a tiny blind quite old Nethie girl with a young male lop twice her size and she's totally the boss (rabbits' warren are matriarchies - females being top rabbits is completely normal).
On the other hand, I wouldn't put a male with an intact doe. Even neutered, he WILL try to mount her if she has hormones still (I call that phantom hormones ^^). I made that error when I first got rabbits. The male only stopped bothering the doe and trying to mount when she had been spayed too.
Considering that you would have to separate them anyway when you'll spay her (which will take you to square one in the bonding process), and since your doe is not in great shape, I would wait until both of them are neutered and healed before trying to bond them.
Of course, you'll need to wait until she has gained some weight before spaying her, but she's at an age when she can already have tumors linked to hormones. So it's better not to wait too much before doing it...
 
I agree with Aki. There is no point in even attempting to bond them until after she is spayed. Her hormones are still active and will affect both her behavior and his.

Neutering rabbits isn't just to prevent pregnancy, it is to rid them of those hormones that often interfere with bonding. Until both are fixed, I wouldn't bother with trying to bond them. The results could be disastrous and even prevent a future bond.
 
The size of the rabbits isn't a problem. The doe is likely to be the dominant one - I currently have a tiny blind quite old Nethie girl with a young male lop twice her size and she's totally the boss (rabbits' warren are matriarchies - females being top rabbits is completely normal).
On the other hand, I wouldn't put a male with an intact doe. Even neutered, he WILL try to mount her if she has hormones still (I call that phantom hormones ^^). I made that error when I first got rabbits. The male only stopped bothering the doe and trying to mount when she had been spayed too.
Considering that you would have to separate them anyway when you'll spay her (which will take you to square one in the bonding process), and since your doe is not in great shape, I would wait until both of them are neutered and healed before trying to bond them.
Of course, you'll need to wait until she has gained some weight before spaying her, but she's at an age when she can already have tumors linked to hormones. So it's better not to wait too much before doing it...



I was going to wait until March. Only because I can afford to only do him in January, a month for him to recover, then get her done in March.
 

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