Faye HP
Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2018
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 6
Hi all,
New to Rabbits Online and panicking
A couple of weeks ago me and my husband got two male 11 week old rabbits from a large chain pet store. I'd done quite a bit of reading on diet, bedding etc. but I didn't know the ins and outs of bonding.
Our rabbits are now 13 weeks old - it doesn't look like either rabbits testicles have descended yet (but i am a complete amateur when it comes to rabbit genitals) and up until now they've been happily sharing a hutch and living space (they're indoor rabbits, they have the run of the living room most of the day and are put in a two storey hutch overnight - each floor of the hutch is approx 4 foot long by 2 foot wide, 2 foot tall). They're very friendly with each other, groom each other etc. and haven't shown any territorial or aggressive behaviour so far.
The staff at the pet store assured us that having two male bunnies would be fine and we just had to get them neutered. They also told us never to separate the buns or their bond will be broken and they won't get on again. However, i've been reading up about bonding and sexual development and i'm now really worried that if we leave the bunns in their hutch together unsupervised overnight they could become hormonal and fight/attack each other. I'm also a bit worried about the possible outcome that not both of the bunns are male (looking back i'm starting to question how good the staff in the pet store were - they couldn't tell us what breed etc the rabbits were)
We plan to get them neutered as soon as possible but the vet won't perform the surgery until 18 weeks.
So, a few questions:
- Is it possible that we have a male and a female rabbit?
- Should we separate the buns until after they've been neutered (and had a few weeks for the hormones to leave their systems?) Or should we wait until they start showing aggressive behaviour?
- The top compartment of the two storey hutch we have can easily be removed so that it acts as two smaller hutches. What I was thinking was to take the top section off and put it directly next to the bottom section overnight and keep a bun in each and then rotate which bun is in which section, and let them have supervised run of the living room together as normal. Would this be OK? Or would it be better to leave them in the same cage?
- Would it be better to completely separate them (i.e. have one bunn living upstairs for instance)?
- Should i be concerned about separate hutches possibly breaking their bond? I've seen people saying that a baby bond isn't a 'real' bond anyway but the pet store staff were pretty clear that we shouldn't separate them for any length of time
Tl;dr We bought two intact male rabbits (now 13 weeks old) who currently live in the same hutch. I'm panicking in case they hurt each other (but no signs of aggression currently.) Should we separate them until after neutering?
Thank you!
New to Rabbits Online and panicking
A couple of weeks ago me and my husband got two male 11 week old rabbits from a large chain pet store. I'd done quite a bit of reading on diet, bedding etc. but I didn't know the ins and outs of bonding.
Our rabbits are now 13 weeks old - it doesn't look like either rabbits testicles have descended yet (but i am a complete amateur when it comes to rabbit genitals) and up until now they've been happily sharing a hutch and living space (they're indoor rabbits, they have the run of the living room most of the day and are put in a two storey hutch overnight - each floor of the hutch is approx 4 foot long by 2 foot wide, 2 foot tall). They're very friendly with each other, groom each other etc. and haven't shown any territorial or aggressive behaviour so far.
The staff at the pet store assured us that having two male bunnies would be fine and we just had to get them neutered. They also told us never to separate the buns or their bond will be broken and they won't get on again. However, i've been reading up about bonding and sexual development and i'm now really worried that if we leave the bunns in their hutch together unsupervised overnight they could become hormonal and fight/attack each other. I'm also a bit worried about the possible outcome that not both of the bunns are male (looking back i'm starting to question how good the staff in the pet store were - they couldn't tell us what breed etc the rabbits were)
We plan to get them neutered as soon as possible but the vet won't perform the surgery until 18 weeks.
So, a few questions:
- Is it possible that we have a male and a female rabbit?
- Should we separate the buns until after they've been neutered (and had a few weeks for the hormones to leave their systems?) Or should we wait until they start showing aggressive behaviour?
- The top compartment of the two storey hutch we have can easily be removed so that it acts as two smaller hutches. What I was thinking was to take the top section off and put it directly next to the bottom section overnight and keep a bun in each and then rotate which bun is in which section, and let them have supervised run of the living room together as normal. Would this be OK? Or would it be better to leave them in the same cage?
- Would it be better to completely separate them (i.e. have one bunn living upstairs for instance)?
- Should i be concerned about separate hutches possibly breaking their bond? I've seen people saying that a baby bond isn't a 'real' bond anyway but the pet store staff were pretty clear that we shouldn't separate them for any length of time
Tl;dr We bought two intact male rabbits (now 13 weeks old) who currently live in the same hutch. I'm panicking in case they hurt each other (but no signs of aggression currently.) Should we separate them until after neutering?
Thank you!
