Will I need to neuter them?

[Thrills]

I am going to bring home two baby lion heads today. They are a bonded pair of brothers and have had lots of handling and love since birth. I plan on having them be free roam in my apartment after a few months of getting used to their new home. I live in a studio (still plenty of space for them) but there are not separate rooms or easy ways to separate them. I wasn't planning on ever bringing home two bunnies but it just happened.
I have a vet near me that works with rabbits often and only is 90$ to neuter them, But I still don't know if I even need to. I plan on watching them over the next few months and see if they fight or anything.
Should I just go ahead and get them neutered even if they don't fight? they are bonded brothers, or is 6 weeks to old to really tell if t bunnies are bonded enough to not fight.
Will I have a really hard time getting them litter boxed trained if I have two unneutered males or should it be ok?
any other tips for me before I bring them home?

 

[Blue eyes]

All babies get along. That does not mean they are bonded. It is only temporary. In some states they are too young to even be legally sold since they aren't 8 weeks of age.

Males - intact - are not going to stay bonded. Even if they are fixed, there is no guarantee that they will bond. Male/male bonds are possible but are the most difficult of the pairings to achieve. By getting 2 babies, you will need to understand that it is possible that they will not ultimately bond and you will have to house both separately. If you are not ok with doing that, then you may want to reconsider getting 2 babies. It is the least recommended way of getting a "pair" of rabbits because you have no way to predict if they will bond.

If you do decide to go ahead and get them both, they will need to be separated by 10-12 weeks of age. It isn't wise to "wait and see" how they do because if they do fight, it could be enough to prevent them from bonding in the future. Also, if they do fight, and you don't happen to be there to stop them, it could be much worse.

Because it has bearing on bonding, I'll address your other question here as well about moving them back and forth on weekends. Supposing that you do get both males, get them neutered and they do happen to be agreeable to bonding...(btw, that whole process would take months since they have to remain separated for about 6 weeks after their neuter). If you do get lucky and they do bond, once they are adjusted to your home, attempting to move them to another location typically can trigger territorial behavior. Once placed in a new area (even as simple as taking them from inside your own home to an exercise pen in the backyard) can cause them to claim territory and break their bond. This would be more common with males. So not only would bringing them to your boyfriend's on weekends be stressful, it could easily risk breaking the bond you would have worked all those months to establish.

If you do intend to be going back and forth, or establishing two homes, so to speak, for your rabbit, it may be better to just have one rabbit. That way you won't have to worry about territory claiming that could occur with any bonded pair. With one rabbit, it would greatly simplify things.

One other consideration is that if the 2 males do not get along after being neutered, it is unlikely you will have much luck with potty training simply because they will likely be continually marking their perceived territories.

 

[Imbrium]

I actually posted about spaying/neutering in your other thread before I saw this one... Anyway, $90 to neuter is a great deal. They may litter-box-train before being neutered (though when their hormones kick in, males can spray urine a good six feet in the air and love to aim for eyeballs, heh). That said, they absolutely need to be neutered.

I suppose my experiences are with two females rather than two males... unfamiliar territory actually *helped* in my case, but perhaps I should amend what I said in your other thread... I still think that if you're moving them from an early age, they can adapt to it well enough. However, knowing that they're males, that makes it more important that - if you do go with location-switching - the x-pen that they stay in at your boyfriend's not be broken down/cleaned up between visits. This way, it still smells like both of them when they return to it! Honestly, though, I agree with Blue eyes 98% of the time... but in this situation, I think that as long as they travel to the new area TOGETHER and are added to it TOGETHER then there's a good chance they'll be ok.

As I said in your thread specific to the location switching, I have moved a bonded pair on numerous occasions and I've never had any issues (both F/F and F/M pairings)... *BUT* you do need to always be prepared for the worst. You need to be intimately familiar with their behavior and keep a very close eye on them for signs their bond is off-kilter and be prepared to *immediately* separate them at the first sign of trouble so that you can diagnose and repair the troubles before things escalate.