Neuter rabbits yourself--are you kidding me?

[carolinedb]

Beware of this breeder...I have been looking for an Angora and stumbled across this article on someone's site, thought I'd share.

Mod edit:
I'm removing the link to the breeder's specific site so as not to call attention to a specific breeder on the topic

 

[majorv]

I've heard of a few other breeders who do this, too. I don't know that I would warn others to avoid buying from this breeder but I know that I couldn't do this to my own. I have reservations about castrating a rabbit the same way you do goats, sheep and cattle. Our daughter's goat was banded and I know that for the first few hours after the banding he was uncomfortable. His testicles shrivelled up but didn't fall off and the Ag teacher had to do some minor surgery to remove them. Just thinking about it still makes me shudder...personally, I couldn't do it.

 

[missyscove]

I removed the link to the breeder's website, but if you'd like to discuss why we don't recommend at-home castration, that should be okay.

As a veterinary student, the anatomy of a rabbit is not condusive to the method of castration (banding) suggested by this website nor would I recommend surgical castration of a rabbit by anyone other than a veterinarian. Additionally, the equipment used to band large animals has been designed specifically for that purpose and the use of hair ties to band an animal is, in my opinion, unacceptable. The bands made for this purpose are incredibly small and very elastic wheras you would have to wind the hair tie around several times and I don't see how you could get it tight enough.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Some things should be left to a professional.