Neutering reduces or eliminates many undesirable behaviors as well as some medical concerns. First, rabbits are hormone machines. Their entire purpose is to make more rabbits. Reality, they are low on the food chain and are the primary source of food for many species of mammals, reptiles and birds. In their natural habitat (in the wild)....most rabbits do not see their first birthday. But when we domesticated these rabbits, we added many years on their life....and they have hormones going all the time. Just imagine the sexual frustration of being a single unaltered male rabbit. This can sometimes lead to testicular cancer....and we have a testicular cancer survivor in our warren. And with females, if they are not bred and are not spayed, the hormones can lead to endometriosis or uterine cancer. Neutering also will greatly reduce or eliminate most sexual aggressions such as stomping when a male person comes near, mounting everything and that annoying and smelly urine spray. Weight gain has nothing to do with neutering. Weight gain is nearly always the result of insufficent exercise and improper diet (meaing too many pellets). Nearly all of our males are neutered and we have no weight issues because we limit their calories (meaning we severely restrict pellets and use them only for body conditioning). Males can be neutered as soon as the testicles descend...which is generally around 3 months old for most breeds. And as always with rabbits....regardless of what they claim, all vets are not capable of safely neutering a rabbit. Ask a lot of questions and for referrals. Discuss pre-op and post-op care with the doctor prior to the procedure. Ask about feeding and pain meds going home. Do not remove food the night prior to surgery....but we do pull any pellets the morning of the surgery but they have hay and water available at all times. Do not believe the "we give them a single pain shot that last for days". Ain't no such thing. It's usually Buprenorphine and it lasts 12 hours max. Most vets will send home Metacam, which is better than nothing, but recovery is much easier (especially with spays) if a narcotic (Buprenorphine) or a narcotic like drug (Tramadol) is used for up to 3 days post-op for neuters and up to5 days for spays.
Randy
