nuetering

[A loves bunnies]

can someone please help me

what is the earliest age male rabbits be nuetered

i have 3 male rabbits andthey are fighting alot of thetime because they areneeding to benuteured and i have been told if i split them theycan not be put back together, plus i do not have the room togive themthe room they need to run around and playseperately, so i need to do something about the fighting asone of them has been biten down below and had to be taken up to thevet andis now on antibiotics

 

[lanna21974]

 

[Rowan]

Hi and welcome to the forum .

I believe it's ok to neuter male rabbits from about three or fourmonths. The problem is that this won't necessarily stop them fighting,young males, neutered or not, can fight ferociously as you'vediscovered, sometimes to the death.

It might be possible to cage them separately and let them share play space, this sometimes works.

It might also help to separate them til they're older and then try torebond them, again this may or may not work, but that depends on theircharacters - it isn't true that separating rabbits means they can neverbe together again.

Bonding or rebonding both take time but it doesn't matter if the rabbits knew each other before or not.

It is possible to keep male rabbits together, but it's the hardestcombination to make work, especially if they're young. I hope yours areexceptions to the rule .

Kate

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Well, I would check with the vet you willuse. Our vet would do neuters as early as 4 mos even if theirtesticles hadn't descended, but .... that's a more difficult andinvasive surgery for the buck. They have a tool the vet goes"in after" the testicle with. I personally wouldn't put himthrough it.

 

[A loves bunnies]

ive been told by one vet that 4 to 5 months old is the earliest they will nueter

the problem i have is i need to stop them fighting as they are continuiosly trying to mate

 

[Bo B Bunny]

How old are they? It seems they might just be "playing" if they aren't that old yet.

Also, what breed are they? Larger breeds don't mature til later.

What if you put them in separate cages that all are connected.... sothey are "with" each other and yet can't rip each other apart? lol.

 

[Rowan]

Bo I hadn't realised what they did to neutermales that were that young :shock:. All I can say is I'm glad I waitedtil my boys were 'fully there' at six months.

Kate

 

[Gabby]

Rowan wrote:

Bo Ihadn't realised what they did to neuter males that were that young:shock:. All I can say is I'm glad I waited til my boys were 'fullythere' at six months.

Kate

yeah you have to go into the abdomen like you would on afemale, if they are not dropped down....fun fun fun... and thensometimes you have to hunt for them, as they are normally shrunken whenthey have not desended.

 

[A loves bunnies]

they are not 4 months old yet and are all diffrent types of dwarf rabbits

we was told they were bourght up together from when they were born

 

[SLRabbits]

Even if they are nuetered and brought up togetherthey can still fight. That is why most people have bonded male/femalepairs (fixed of course). I haven't heard of any successful malebondings as of yet, but that doesn't mean they can't.

And as everyone else said, most vets will nueter them once theirtesticles have dropped, but it would be best to call your vet and ask.

~Nichole

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Yeah, I waited for Bo's to descend and he was 5mos. It was a perfect time to have the surgery. Hehealed well, he was fine and all that.

 

[Spiced77]

mr licks was done when he was 3.5 months old..butby that time he was already humping princess a LOT.. our vet didnt sayhe wasnt descended (and i was too green to check then lol) but therewere no problems.. he was up and hopping the evening he got home bythe second day you couldnt tell he had anything done, well except whenhe had to be flipped over to check the incision spot

 

[Rowan]

Male bondings can happen successfully, it's just rarer.

Kate

 

[A loves bunnies]

ty they seem to get on ok just they keep trying to mate which is what is causing them to fight

 

[Rowan]

Hi again

They're not trying to mate, although it looks like that I know, whatthey're trying to do is establish dominance between them, ie who is toprabbit, middle rabbit and lowest rabbit in their little world.

All rabbits regardless of whether they're male or female, neutered or not, use that behaviour to establish who's boss.

The trouble comes if the rabbits are all evenly matched and none willgive way to the others, they'll just be fighting about it forever.

Hopefully your rabbits will decide on an order of dominance before anyof them get seriously hurt, but you do need to be careful becauseunfortunately it isn't a problem that'sgoing to go away.

I know this first hand because I brought up two young bucks togetherwho seemed to love each other at the beginning. I had to separate themlong before they were neutered and they're still not backtogether.

I hope one day I might have all my rabbits play as a group, but the boysaren't friends even through cage wires yet.

Kate