When will I know it is time to spay?

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BethM

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
2,294
Reaction score
1
Location
Shawnee, Kansas, USA
I just adopted Opal on Saturday. She is young and not spayed yet. The first introduction with Benjamin went REALLY well, she groomed him a lot, and didn't seem to mind much when he mounted her. (He's neutered.)

Yesterday's bonding session was ok, but today's was pretty stressful, as all he wanted to do was mount her- and she did NOT want that, and was just trying to bite him. I got them calmed down and ended the session early.

I am keeping them both in Benjamin's cage, with a divider down the middle. Since going back into the cages, all he does is sit and stare at her, and thump. Every few minutes, *THUMP* Sometimes she sits on her side of the divider and grooms in front of him. At one point, he was walking along the divider, and she growled and lunged at him. I put up a second layer of NIC grids on the divider, off-set, so their noses can't get through as easily. (They were fine until the humping started, sniffing through the divider without hostility.)

I am wondering if it's her hormones that are making him so totally crazy, he pretty much ignores every other bunny he's met, and all of those were speutered. He thumped last night, too. All night long. Is there anything I can do to calm him down? He's not aggressive towards her- he just wants to hump her.


So, how will I know it's time to spay Opal?
She is young, but I don't know exactly how old she is. She was dumped by someone's mailbox in a cardboard box, along with her brother and sister, maybe 3 weeks ago. They were taken to a shelter, then taken into HRS foster care 2 weeks ago. Her brother will be neutered in about 2 weeks, his testicles are just starting to show.
I don't want to spay her too early, and make it more risky, but I don't want to put it off for too long, either.
 
Are you taking Opal back to the shelter asa promise to spay when she's old enough or are you taking her to your own rabbit vet? If you're taking her to the shelter vet, I'd wait a little longer, maybe a month or so, I don't usually trust shelter vets with a really young spay. If you have a good rabbit vet, you might just want to take her in for a wellness check and ask if they think she's old enough to be spayed. They might be able to tell how old she is or if she's not very old at all by her teeth. If her brother's testicles just dropped, and it's suspected that they're of the same litter, you might be looking at a 4-5 month old girl which is borderline when she can be spayed.
 
if it were my bunny then i would take her to my own vet first. it's as helen says - if they are from the same litter then she is a tad young for spaying.

i went thru a similar thing with roxy and her first husbun. i got her on the saturday and her spay wasnt booked for another two weeks due to her vaccinations. even tho' hartley the first was neutered he behaved in a similar fashion to benjamin.:?
 
Ok, thanks. She came from the rescue, not the shelter, so she won't be seen by the shelter vet. I just didn't know if there was some sort of tell-tale behaviour when it was time.

Opal will see the pricate vet that the rescue uses. I take all my bunnies to him, he's very good.

I got an email from the rescue woman this morning that I have to wait 3 more months to have her spayed, and something about "if" she's a girl. OMG, this woman TOLD ME ON SATURDAY that Opal is a girl.

I know she's still too young to spay right now, but I was hoping it would only be one month. I don't know how long I can take Benjamin acting like this.

ARGH. I didn't sleep well, because of Benjamin thumping all night, and now this...... My house is in a shambles because of the LAST bunny this woman told me was a girl but is now a boy, I just want to scream.




 
This is so much drama.... I think it's pretty irresponsible of them to let you adopt her if they are not even certain she's a girl... this is the 2nd time around already. 3 months is a pretty long wait to me though! I really think that your vet should see her and gauge for himself whether he's comfortable with doing the surgery on a bun of that size and age.

As a side note... Our rescue won't adopt out a bun unless it's already been spayed or neutered. Period.. and there's no question about the gender at that point. :? This all seems weird to me.
 
This was an "unofficial" adoption because my husband and I volunteer. Usually they don't adopt un-speutered buns. We got Tobi and Benjamn from there, too, no adoption fee or contract. Same with Cody. For Opal, we will be getting the discounted spay price, the vet will bill MOHRS and we will pay her back. We haven't had a home visit since we adopted Nick and Amelia from them three years ago, though they're welcome any time.
I used to love being a volunteer there, but lately it's all very chaotic and supremely disorganized. The chapter manager wants more members/volunteers/ foster homes, but few people around here know we exist. There's no PR, we do one event per year, max. She constantly forgets to bring adoption contracts to the meetings. She invested in t-shirts, but the only way to get one is to come to the meeting which is held at a shelter that is totally out of the way for a lot of the city, etc. It gets very frustrating.
/rant. (for now)
 
Another issue with the unofficial adoption is that they just have too many rabbits right now. We lost our main foster home two years ago due to a personality conflict between that woman and the chapter manager. We used to be able to take in up to 30, plus a few individuals, now we are overfull with 10. The chapter manager pretty much uses all her space for elderly buns and other special needs buns. Which is great, she knows TONS about medical things and gives them great care. But we end up begging people who have previously adopted to take one or a pair, and they can't always foster long-term so bunnies get shuffled around, and there are always more coming in to the shelters...,

I was really being pressured at the meeting to take Opal AND her sister, thank goodness I only took one. (Plus, that would have left their brother alone, another single male when almost all our singles are male.
 
:hug: That is really frustrating. As a volunteer, I also get to adopt my bun for free of charge, but I do sign adoption papers and such. The manager let me take Penny as a foster until I officially bonded her with Kirby and signed her adoption papers a few weeks later. I know all about the frustration that comes with missing paperwork/contracts... I started out as a volunteer for the rescue but I've become part of the smaller subset of members who have been tasked to clean up past missing adoptions, missing adopter info, un-ascertained fosters and adoptions, etc. It's a huge boiling crock of trouble.

I hope that Opal is a girl as promised, though!
 
Awww, thanks, Helen!

I get so frustrated with the rescue because I want to help the bunnies, but everyone is so unorganized,.....They've been around here for something like 20 years, too! *sigh*

I really hope Opal is a girl, too, and that things work with Benjamin. I was so frustrated this morning, I cried all the way to work. Lucky I put on waterproof mascara today.
 
If his testicals are just starting to show than I would say maybe 3months old, which yea I wouldn't do a spay before 6mnths. Our rescue is ok with males getting done at three months but not females. To many things could go wrong.

I do notice a difference in my bunnies when it comes to their reactions to rabbits that are not fixed.
 
Thanks for the input, everyone!
My other buns have come to me as already-speutered adults, so this baby girl is an all-new experience for me.
Also, i''m glad others have experienced their speutered bunnies behaving differently towards their un-speutered bretheren. Rescue Manager told me this never happens. (But she also said Cody was a girl, new couples NEVER breakup after one is speutered, and the solution to Cody's behavior is to put him in a pen, not a cage. Mr. Cody already lives in a pen, and a friend of hers just had to re-bond after his girl was spayed. *sigh*)
 
BethM wrote:
Thanks for the input, everyone!
...
Also, i''m glad others have experienced their speutered bunnies behaving differently towards their un-speutered bretheren. Rescue Manager told me this never happens.
LOL what? This happens all the time! When "speutered" buns go near even buns who have been recently altered and are still working out the hormones, they can get all territorial. Buns know who's who and what's what!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top