bonding males

[thbunns]

I have two boy buns, but unneutered.
I would LOVE to get them to bond..but I'm guessing that they will both have to be neutered, but....
One of my buns, Hidey, is going to be 3 soon. He has a problem with hisone arm, I'm not sure what happened to it, but he doesn't have full useof it and it kind-of just lies out to the side all of thetime. He doesn't have trouble getting around, but he can'thop up on some surfaces because he can't put all his weight on the onegood arm. He is so gentle and loving that I can't see him fighting,though I probabaly can't make an assumption like that, but I thinkbecause of the injury he wouldn't be the dominant one and couldn'tstart a fight (or at least defend himself). Actually, one night,my older brother but the two rabbits in one cage (I have noidea why, he's a moron) and Tanner mounted Hidey. Hidey didn't doanything to defend himself.
My other bun, Tanner, is about 1.5 years old, he's feisty and lively. Iknow for definate that he would pick a fight and would be the dominantone out of the two.
Now, my questions is, if I would have Tanner neutered and not Hidey,and started bonding them, what so you think the outcome would be? Hasanyone heard of any success stories where only one of two males wasneutered.
Any horror stories post- neutering? I'm just so afriad of getting evenone of them neutered because a non rabbit-savvy vet gave our one rabbita series of injections that caused him to be paralyzed and eventuallydie. We changed vets, this one is very knowledgable with rabbits, butI'm still a little nervous. It's probabaly stupid that I'm so nervous.

OOPS- I forgot to mention that I probabaly wouldn't house themtogether, but I want them to bond so they can play outside and insidewhen not in their cages together.

Tanner

Hidey

Hidey (the red on the right arm- he's been pulling off the fur, I don'tknow why.. and the left arm, that's the injured one..we're gettingthose toes clipped when he goes to a vet appt Monday to see aboutmites/arm biting)

 

[juicyjuicee]

IMO i wouldn't house Hidey with anyone just because of the arm injury. Have you taken Hidey to the vet at all for that?

 

[thbunns]

I forgot to mention(edited my post), that I'mnot housing them together if they bond-- just to play outside of theircages together.
I haven't taken him to the vet for that, I'm not sure there isanything they could do short of surgery. He is going to thevet Monday for the biting and to be checked for fur mites.

juicyjuicee wrote:

IMO i wouldn't houseHidey with anyone just because of the arm injury. Have you taken Hideyto the vet at all for that?

 

[juicyjuicee]

Oh i know that you don't house them together, iwas just saying like in the future if the arm is still the same becausei wouldn't want your other bun to accidently injury it more by likebinky-ing or something and landing on it or if they get into a fightwhile trying to bond them., But i really think the vet needs to checkthat arm out and do something for it.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Even if they're is nothing that can be done it'sdefinitely something to get checked out. It may be painful and therabbit may not be showing it.

From my experience, I wouldn't try bonding males. Especially with theleg like that, that may prevent him from defending himself if it evercame to that or may end up getting hurt more.

 

[thbunns]

I'll definately tell the vet about the arm and ask if there's anything we can do about it.
Thanks guys!

 

[naturestee]

You can bond males, just not always.Samandshawn had a bonded pair of unneutered males that did justfine. Read the links in the Top Picks- there's some greatinfo there. It will also give you a good idea of the stressinvolved in bonding and will help you decide if you should put Hideythrough it or not.

Like everyone else said, Hidey's leg could be injured more if you trybonding them. It could also prevent him from getting away ifTanner is being aggressive.

My advice: get your Tanner neutered and get Hidey's health problemsfixed. When Hidey has a clean bill of health and Tanner'shormones have decreased (at least one month after surgery, usually)then consider whether or not you want to bond them.

 

[thbunns]

I think that is exactly what I am going to do. Thanks for the help, guys.

naturestee wrote:

You can bond males, justnot always. Samandshawn had a bonded pair of unneutered malesthat did just fine. Read the links in the Top Picks- there'ssome great info there. It will also give you a good idea ofthe stress involved in bonding and will help you decide if you shouldput Hidey through it or not.

Like everyone else said, Hidey's leg could be injured more if you trybonding them. It could also prevent him from getting away ifTanner is being aggressive.

My advice: get your Tanner neutered and get Hidey's health problemsfixed. When Hidey has a clean bill of health and Tanner'shormones have decreased (at least one month after surgery, usually)then consider whether or not you want to bond them.

 

Hidey

I have a fewquestions .

When You got this Dutch rabbitwas he injured like thisor sis this happen afterwards ?

how long has it been splayed out to the side ?

Did he jump off something ?

Was he dropped ?

And lastly, WHY when it happened WHY wasnt hetaken to a Vet , do you have any clue howpainfull that had to be?

This looks like either splayleg or His leg has been brokenfrom the shoulder . The only time Ihave seen Splay leg it involved the Rear Leg orlegs not the front in 4 weekold Kits . Makes me very angry that IFyou had recieved this injury youwould have been at the ER imediately, why wasnt this rabbit .

 

[juicyjuicee]

bump

 

[thbunns]

In reply to gypsy and others who asked about thearm- after rereading my post, I failed to mention that he was adoptedwith the arm like that (I probably should have said that in the post,sorry!). I DID ask about it when I adopted him, but thevolunteers at the shelter were clueless, they couldn't tell me whetherhe was born with this or was injured before he arrived at theshelter. In the time that he has been with me, he has notinjured it further, he was not dropped, he did not jump off of anythinghigh, nor was he handled inappropriately. I am VERY gentle with him atall times because of the arm.

Reiterating one more time- He IS however, seeing a vet on Monday, todeal with the chance of fur mites and biting on his arm. Iwill DEFINATELY talk to the vet about this, and see if there isanythign I can do.

Bonding is definately taking the back seat right now..Hidey's health comes before that.

 

[juicyjuicee]

When did you adopt him?

 

[Linz_1987]

It musta been a crap rescue centre if they didntknow anything about it. Surely it would of gone to the vet at therescue centre to get it sorted out? Stupid people. Not knowing therejob. i hope the arm isnt bad! and they can sort it out successfully.

 

[thbunns]

Hey guys, just got home from the vet.
The vet told me that it was a fracture, but a very old one.He said that it has been healed already and he shouldn't be in any painbecause Hidey is still using the arm and functioning fine withit. He said there's nothing we can do about it, just usecaution when handling him (which we've been doing all along).
(If you want to know about the mites/dandruff and such, go to the 'dandruff//pulling out hair' post ).
Hidey is going back to the vet in 10 days, I'm going to askfor the vet's opinion on bonding after Tanner is neutered then.

 

[Kricket]

:shockid I miss something?How long has his leg been like this?!? How old isHidey? My goodness, does he grind his teeth? Can heclean himself? Can he get up to his food andwater??!! Poor little guy! Has he ever hoppedaround? Does he eat and drink ok?

 

[thbunns]

I said this before, yes, he has full function ofthe arm, but when he's not using it it splays to the side. He's beenlike this since I've had him, he doesn't grind his teeth in pain, hecan clean himself, he eats (he's a bit overweight, lol..too manycarrots!), he can drink. He hops around just fine! I don't know whatcaused it, as I said, he was adopted with the splayed leg. He acts justas normal as my other 100% bunny. I was just afriad the arm would be aweakness if he had to defend himself if I tried to bond him withanother neutered rabbit, but other than that he is fine concerning thearm.

Kricket wrote:

:shockid I misssomething? How long has his leg been like this?!?How old is Hidey? My goodness, does he grind histeeth? Can he clean himself? Can he get up to hisfood and water??!! Poor little guy! Has he everhopped around? Does he eat and drink ok?

 

[juicyjuicee]

When did you get him?

 

[thbunns]

Sometime in early '03. March-April?

juicyjuicee wrote:

When did you get him?

 

[juicyjuicee]

2 year of his arm like that? I don't get why you didn't take him to the vet when you got him and noticed that. That's awful.

 

[thbunns]

Can you back off? Are you reading the entirepost? There's nothing we could have done about it then, ornow. It was healed when we got him, and what could we havedone about that? Take him to a vet, get it rebroken, and cast him?Wouldn't that cause even more unneeded pain? Surgery with the chance oflosing him? If only you could see him. He is so happy and lively, youwouldn't have even guessed that he had a fracture there. He uses it thebets he can, he's not in pain, and he's fully functioning just as wellas my healthy rabbit.
BESIDES, the post wasn't started to ask about his arm, it was startedto ask for help about a potential bond. If you have a problem with meyou can PM me, I'd like to keep drama out of this thread, okay? I'mhonestly very tired of justifying myself as a rabbit owner to you andothers who've said negative comments.


juicyjuicee wrote:

2 year of his arm likethat? I don't get why you didn't take him to the vet when you got himand noticed that. That's awful.