How to know when...

hok9 · Apr 17, 2009

I have a young bun that is about 4-5 weeks old. I cant tell if it is male or female yet and i worry, my 3 boys all have appointments to get neutered in about a month. how can you tell when a doe is of age?

irishlops · Apr 17, 2009

do you want to breed her?
if not, get her spayed.
in the ro libary there is a good page..

BlueGiants · Apr 17, 2009

4-5 weeks is too young to get spayed. For now, your best option is to keep her separate from the boys until 8 weeks after their neutering. I've seen it take until 8-12 weeks of ageto be sure of sex... although we all know bunnies that we were SURE of the sex and they ended up being the opposite! (We call it getting "whacked by the Gender Fairy" to hide our incompetence!)

If it is a doe, (depending on the breed) she could be ready to breed as early as 14-16 weeks of age. (NOT recommended to allow that!) Smaller breed rabbits develop faster than larger breeds. Keep her separate and give her time to grow up.

tonyshuman · Apr 17, 2009

Over here, vets will spay when the rabbit reaches 1-2lbs. I know your guys are smaller breeds, so it may just be best to wait until the traditional 6 mo, and keep the boys away as bluegiants said.

hok9 · Apr 20, 2009

I m working out how to seperate them. It will be hard. She will be alone for a long time. Should i try to find a spayed older to keep her company?

Flashy · Apr 20, 2009

Most bunnies when they go through adolescence need to be alone anyway, because the hormones can often cause them to fight with others on their territory, and she could very easily start to fight with another bunny as she matures and that would then leave you with more individual buns.

Your best bet is to have them all in places where they can see each other, but not get to each other. This worked well for mine, although there were some spray wars (yes, from boys and girls) but it did mean they could see other buns and so weren't completely isolated from their own species.

I hated the transition time where I was working through getting mine systematically spayed and neutered and having them living apart and stuff, but it was worth it. I still have some stubborn singles, but I have been able to do more bonds than before they were fixed, so that time apart was worth it in the long run.