Opinions please - possible bondmate?

[Marrie]

Hello again all - yes I ask a lot of questions lol

My rabbit has been "bonding" with his own reflection in a mirror and I want to get him a friend. My plan was to wait until after he is neutered and healed up and then get a new rabbit.

However... a lady in town rescued a bunny from an owner who was not taking care of their pets. She bought a cage, toys, hay etc for the rabbit with her own money and is asking for only a fraction as a rehoming fee to make sure it goes to a good home, it would come with all the supplies she purchased. The rabbit is a female and my rabbit is a male.

Now, I know I would have to keep them apart until they were altered and could no longer produce babies. But, what do you guys think?

I could block off one half of the house for the new bun to run in for exercise time, but she would have to stay in her cage except for supervised play time until they could be altered/healed. I have the money for the alterings, but I know it takes a few weeks for them to heal up afterwards / have to take bonding very slowly.

How long does a female take to heal up after a spay? How long does a male take after a neuter? In short, how many weeks would it be before I could even _start_ the bonding process after their surgeries?

Do you think I should introduce this new bun to the house now, or should I wait until after my male is altered to bring a new rabbit into the house?

She is very cute and I feel very sorry for her - the lady who rescued her is not allowed pets, so is keeping her hidden from the landlord while finding a new home. And, I have been told she is mellow, even allowing children to handle her without scratching/biting, which I think would fit Powder quite nicely since he's such a calm rabbit.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Time wise, it takes about 10-14 days for both males and females to heal from the spay or neuter surgery. Females can take a bit longer as it is a more invasive surgery.
Males are still fertile for up to 6 weeks after being neutered, so it is best to keep newly neutered males separate from intact males until after this period.
Females are sterile as soon as the spay is done, there is not no worry about pregnancy afterwards.
It may take longer than 2 weeks for the hormones to calm down enough for real bonding to take place. It can take 4-8 weeks for the hormones to calm down enough. You can start the process, but expect there to still be some hormonal behaviours.

If you have the money, space and time to get the female and get both fixed, then go for it. You will need to be careful until she is spayed, so they cannot have direct contact and the barrier needs to be able to prevent mating through the bars.
The amount of time you would have to wait if you waited to get a female would be longer as you would have to wait for her to be spayed and healed. If you get this female and get both rabbit fixed close together, then the wait time is less as they are both healing at the same time.

I would try to keep them apart for at least a week incase she has a disease or parasites that need to be treated as you would not want these to be passed to your rabbit. This time also gets both used to the smells of the other rabbit so they don't freak out as much as first.

The one big risk you are taking is that they will not get along. You can't really introduce them without running the risk of pregnancy. If they do not get along even after being fixed and proper introductions, then you have 2 separate rabbits. While it can work, there is always a risk of 2 rabbits not getting along.

 

[Marrie]

Thank you for the reply, as always, very informative posts

If they didn't get along, I guess I would have an odd couple house (like in TV shows where they would tape off "this side is mine and that side is yours") with baby gates blocking off sections of the house for each rabbit lol

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

If you wanted to see if they might get along, you can try having them in a pen but separated by the pen. This allows them to smell and even groom without being about to have direct contact. While not perfect, it can be used as a gauge to see if they might have a chance. You do need to bare in mind that if both are intact they will probably want to mate rather than be friends. Rabbits can also be civil through the bars, but get into fights when there is no barrier.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[Marrie]

I discussed it with the boyfriend tonight and we decided to try - if they don't bond, well... we'll figure out a way to make them both happy away from each other. Money is there for the alterings and until they heal she can stay in the kitchen/laundry room area, which is well enough away from him that if she does have a parasite there won't be anything he can get into from her and there is only one door, which I can gate off from him to keep the possible mating-through-bars from happening. I figure I can add a second layer to the gate and let them sniff each other through the bars with enough space left that they can't mate, to let them get used to each others scents.

The lady isn't supposed to have pets, but she couldn't leave the baby in a home that didn't take care of her. She dropped the rehoming fee - and given the cage she bought at the pet stores is $80 alone, it's very nice of her to take the loss just because she felt sorry for a neglected bunny.