I Don't Neuter or Spay My Pets

Ruth · Oct 8, 2024

I hold a very different opinion to I believe most other people on this subject. I have never neutered or spayed a rabbit. To this day it has caused me no problems. I was always told that their personalities change and you need to keep them cute, well so far and I suppose lucky me, they have remained that way. Over the years I have had two girls and one boy who had one month of being hormonal but I have been blessed with peculiarly sweet rabbits and they all calmed down after that month.

I was kind of wondering if there was anyone else who preferred to leave their animals intact?

JBun · Oct 9, 2024

You've lucked out then. Long ago I didn't use to unless I was bonding a male rabbit to another rabbit. But later on with all my rabbits indoors, and after getting repeatedly sprayed in the face and having the whole room covered in urine from my buck, fixing them was essential for my sanity

Plus this rabbit couldn't be bonded to the group until he was neutered.

I tried bonding an unneutered pretty calm male to other fixed rabbits, and it just didn't work. Always lead to him bothering the other rabbits with excessive humping, and causing increasing agitation and problems in the group.

As for unspayed does, I had a 7 yr old doe develop uterine abnormalities, luckily not cancerous yet. Got her spayed and she was ok, though much harder and dangerous recovery being older, than with my younger does. All girl rabbits were spayed after this.

When planning on having bonded rabbits, especially the males who really almost always have to be fixed to bond, it usually is better not having those hormones interfering with the process. Occasionally fixing can affect their personality, but not usually. I'd say more so a risk with the males if it does happen. My girl rabbits hardly changed at all, just less frisky.

If not bonding, there's not as much necessity to get the males fixed except for the annoying hormonal issues like the spraying, humping, possible hormonal aggression, and much smellier urine. The females, there's just the increased risk of possible uterine cancer as the rabbit ages.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Spaying_and_neutering_rabbits

Ruth · Oct 9, 2024

JBun said:
You've lucked out then. Long ago I didn't use to unless I was bonding a male rabbit to another rabbit. But later on with all my rabbits indoors, and after getting repeatedly sprayed in the face and having the whole room covered in urine from my buck, fixing them was essential for my sanity Plus this rabbit couldn't be bonded to the group until he was neutered.

Haha! I knew I had, but that is bad! Pee everywhere sounds insane!

JBun said:
As for unspayed does, I had a 7 yr old doe develop uterine abnormalities, luckily not cancerous yet. Got her spayed and she was ok, though much harder and dangerous recovery being older, than with my younger does.

That makes sense.

JBun said:
When planning on having bonded rabbits, especially the males who really almost always have to be fixed to bond, it usually is better not having those hormones interfering with the process. Occasionally fixing can affect their personality, but not usually. I'd say more so a risk with the males if it does happen. My girl rabbits hardly changed at all, just less frisky.

True, I haven't bonded males. I've had them in adjoining hutches and runs but even then they weren't aggressive towards each other which I know is my luck. I did have two boys who did like to fight, but what shocked me, is that it was more like play-fighting. Neither of them pulled fur or ever hurt the other at all and they both were happy afterwards. Weirdest thing I have encountered. I don't generally risk that because I think that kind of "bond" if you can call it that, is rare enough it's not going to happen again.
But yeah I don't try to bond boys when they are older of if they are around girls, which is a downside but it doesn't bother me too much.

JBun said:
If not bonding, there's not as much necessity to get the males fixed except for the annoying hormonal issues like the spraying, humping, possible hormonal aggression, and much smellier urine.

I heard some bunnies will hump even after they are spayed/neutered though?

JBun said:
The females, there's just the increased risk of possible uterine cancer as the rabbit ages.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Spaying_and_neutering_rabbits

I've heard about cancer. I'm not too worried about it. I know it's bad but I lost a pet to a neuter gone wrong and that was traumatic. It was with a doctor I had taken animals too before for the process as well. So I guess I decided I would rather risk the cancer than risk surgery again.

JBun · Oct 9, 2024

I can understand that. I had a similar experience with two of my rabbits and a less experienced vet. One rabbit passed away related to an unknown preexisting medical complication, and another rabbit was able to be successfully resuscitated. It took over a year, and finding and going to a really good (and expensive) rabbit vet ever after, to feel brave enough to try and have the surgery attempted again. But I did because neutering was a necessary risk to me for the bonding I was hoping to happen. It's always about weighing the risk vs the benefit for every person's own situation and circumstances.

Ruth said:
I heard some bunnies will hump even after they are spayed/neutered though?

Most rabbits do still hump after being fixed, to some extent, because it's also how they show dominance to other rabbits and establish hierarchy.
https://bunnylady.com/establish-dominance/

But unfixed rabbits usually do it much more, to the point it can cause the increased possibility of agitation and a possible fight breaking out. This is especially the case with unneutered males who can hump to obsession, as mating is pretty much all most of them think about when around another rabbit, female or other males too. Which is why a serious fight with other males is a huge risk. And sometimes the unneutered male rabbits don't discriminate and are willing to hump any creature at all, including an 'un-alive' stuffie, or us! There's a reason there's a common saying about 'breeding like bunnies'.

Excessive humping is less severe with the unspayed females. For them it's more about establishing hierarchy, then it usually reduces once that's worked out. But they will still usually hump more than they would if spayed. The near constant hormones unfixed rabbits have going on, pretty much assure some amount of excessive hormonal behavior. With the males it's usually amorous and an obsession to mate, with the females it displays more in their moodiness. Just generally speaking though, as every rabbit can behave a little different due to personality, and learned behaviors as well.

DelawareRunner · Oct 10, 2024

I had an unspayed female rabbit that I adopted back in 2007. She was two years old. She lived alone and was the calmest and sweetest rabbit ever. No issues with her whatsoever. She lived a very healthy and drama free life until she was almost 12 and developed uterine cancer. It took her fast. I know she lived a really long life, but I told myself my females would be spayed after that. All my rabbits after her were rescued females that were already spayed.

majorv · Oct 10, 2024

My perspective is a little different too. My daughter and I raised and showed rabbits for 9 years. We couldn’t spay/neuter, but even the couple of retired show rabbits we kept as pets were not fixed.
We did have one doe that went hormonal and never got better. We had one buck who liked to spray, but of the many rabbits we had over those years, by and large they settled down after their ‘teenage’ phase.

Nancy McClelland · Oct 13, 2024

All of our animals for almost 60 years have been neutered with no behavior problems or changes, dogs, cats and rabbits. the exception has been that we never neutered lizards, snakes or Tarantulas--same with the several aquariums so we did end up with a few more fish than we started with as well as mini crayfish, but, all have seemed to be content. Stopped the male bunnies from spraying too!

RipleyLLC · Oct 14, 2024

I have six lovely lady rabbits. None of them are spayed and I plan on keeping it that way. All these gals except little Evi, (I have no clue about her life before she was trapped) lived as livestock outside. They have bad habits that I can't break yet. Potty training these gals has become impossible lol.

Jamie411 · Oct 28, 2024

I'm so glad to hear about the success stories. My girl can't be spayed because we have no vets that see rabbits in my area. Thankfully she is perfectly litter trained except for an occasional little poo here and there. I'm sure it helps that she's an only rabbit. She's been extremely territorial for the last 2 months but this morning when I went in she didn't growl at me so I'm hoping that means we're taking a turn back to normal. I have hated not having her free roaming since she started biting but hopefully this means we'll be back to that very soon.