sexual maturity for my bun

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Captain Orange

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Jan 28, 2009
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Location
Portsmouth, , United Kingdom
I have 9 week old bun (Toffee) but we're unsure of what sex he or she is, we were told by a friend that it was probably a boy but now after more inspection i think that it may be a girl. While searching for websites on how to sex young rabbits i read lots of information about bucks being better pets, changing less during sexual maturity, being more affectionate and it got me a bit worried. At the moment Toffee is brilliant; very lively (loves jumping around wildly), toilet trained but also loves a good bit of attention. I was wondering if it's actually true that females are worse pets and can become really quite horrible after sexual maturity starts. This is my first post on the website, sorry if it's in the wrong place or too vague (or just a moronic question).
 
Welcome to the forum :D

9 Weeks is too early to tell the age for a bun, some vets and breeders can but you can't properly tell until they are about 4 months... you will be fine up until then.... After 4 months check then you can get him or her spayed or neutered :D


ETA: It can be true that females can get nasty but so can males thats why you can get him or her neuterd or spayed.

That will stop agression :D
 
Captain Orange wrote:
thank you for the fast response and the useful information, not sure what sex i want Toffee to be now, all i know is that i don't want his/her personality to change very much.
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His personality won't change too much :), all that will change is he may get a bit more agressive and protective and start chinning things and marking them. Though that can be stopped by neutering :D
 
Becca is right. It's good that you've chosen a gender-neutral name though!
 
Her/his personalitymay change a little bit ie. chinning, aggresion, spraying, bad litter habits etc. all of which can be usually stopped/prevented by spaying or neuteuring :)
 
irishbunny wrote:
Her/his personalitymay change a little bit ie. chinning, aggresion, spraying, bad litter habits etc. all of which can be usually stopped/prevented by spaying or neuteuring :)
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Exactly what I said LOL :)
 
I just took Toffee to the vets quickly and the results were a bit inconclusive, 1 vet and 1 nurse thought it was a girl and 1 other nurse thought it was a boy. So we're still leaning towards a girl, i plan to get her 'fixed' whatever happens though and was wondering, at what age are vets willing to do that at? (I'll obviously wait to sort the gender problem out first though). Thanks again for your responses.
 
If I were you I would be praying for a boy becuase it's cheaper to neuter LOL!!

Like I said it's too early to tell really no one can be sure at that age, I think most vets neuter or spay at about 5 or 6 months, I will need someone to back me up on that though I think its right :)
 
What vets do in terms of spaying and neutering differs from vets to vets. Some vets will neuter as soon as the testicles drop, some wait until 4 or 5 months. For a spay normally vets wait longer, but it can vary between 4, 5, 6 months.

When you look at the bottom, does it look like a slit or a donut? It can definitely be hard to sex, and often if you do sex them, the gender fairy seems to strike.

To be honest, I don't think gender makes that much difference when it comes to how friendly a bunny is, I think it comes down to personality. If you get them spayed/neutered then it erradicates the hormones which just leaves the personality. Often with adolescence they can become more independent, and sometimes less trusting, but if you are patient and work with her, then she should be happy, which would make you happy, hopefully.
 
Becca wrote:
irishbunny wrote:
Her/his personalitymay change a little bit ie. chinning, aggresion, spraying, bad litter habits etc. all of which can be usually stopped/prevented by spaying or neuteuring :)
Click to expand...

Exactly what I said LOL :)
Click to expand...
Hehe that's weird lol, I had gone into the reply and went off doing something else before I replied! Go us!
 
irishbunny wrote:
Becca wrote:
irishbunny wrote:
Her/his personalitymay change a little bit ie. chinning, aggresion, spraying, bad litter habits etc. all of which can be usually stopped/prevented by spaying or neuteuring :)
Click to expand...

Exactly what I said LOL :)
Click to expand...
Hehe that's weird lol, I had gone into the reply and went off doing something else before I replied! Go us!
Click to expand...
:highfive:


 
Flashy wrote:
What vets do in terms of spaying and neutering differs from vets to vets. Some vets will neuter as soon as the testicles drop, some wait until 4 or 5 months. For a spay normally vets wait longer, but it can vary between 4, 5, 6 months.

When you look at the bottom, does it look like a slit or a donut? It can definitely be hard to sex, and often if you do sex them, the gender fairy seems to strike.

To be honest, I don't think gender makes that much difference when it comes to how friendly a bunny is, I think it comes down to personality. If you get them spayed/neutered then it erradicates the hormones which just leaves the personality. Often with adolescence they can become more independent, and sometimes less trusting, but if you are patient and work with her, then she should be happy, which would make you happy, hopefully.
Click to expand...

i rang the vet about about my male5month old mimi lop. (well at thetime he was...)

the vet said wait till he is 6months . now he is. i think they respond to the anashic better...
 
Captain Orange wrote:
Well from what i can see, (s)he seems to have a slit, which is what made me think it was a girl. The vets seemed confused by how... pointy it was but it's definitely no donut.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a girl.

Do you have a rabbit savvy vet? do they treat rabbits a lot or just on the side of a dog/cat practice?


 
I don't know if they're used to treating rabbits to be honest, they gave us some poor advice about our baby rabbits, so i have my doubts about them really. I suppose they do see more dogs and cats, judging by the layout of the practice. On another note, Toffee has started scratching everything (including my clothes) as if she was trying to dig... is this normal / is there anything i can do to stop her / appease her.

Thanks again.
 
Yeah, mine all dig - it's like..... I need/I want/You're making me mad if they are digging on you. My boys do it to tell me they need to go potty when I'm holding them!

I'd see if I could find a rabbit savvy vet. Most vets that don't handle them can't handle them because they are so unique in some ways.
 
Like Bo said, definatley find a good rabbit savvy vet first thing. A vet that is not used to rabbits can easily make mistakes that can even be fatal. There are listings of rabbit vets by state here in our Library, if you want to look up one near you.
 
Other than the possibility of death due to improper anesthesia, there can be all sorts of problems if you don't do surgeries right. Pixiestixx (sp?) had a bunny that had a bad spay surgery (vet didn't know what they were doing) and she ended up having urinary incontinence for the rest of her life (Muffy).
 
Will this link help?

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sexing.html

-- will it work to hotlink or copy/paste?

Click on the hotlink at the bottom, "For some very nice photographs, ... click HERE. Zooms you over to a Debmark Rabbit Education Resource page.

WARNING: this is Graphic material. You must use caution.

There may be add'l links in the RO Library on sexing. HTH,
 
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