When are babies weened? Age to be "fixed?"

[KJ]

Hey fellow bunny lovers....I tried to look atpast postings for this info but didnt see it. We have 2bunnies...a male, 8mos, and the female is 6mos. New babies asof 12/29/04. At what age are the babies ready to be separatedfrom the mom? We havent seen them nurse in a week,but theyhave been eating pellets& some oats, and drinkingfrom the water bottle.

Also, what is the suggested age to have a rabbit fixed? I have read 1year, yet the vet office my male was neutured in last week said theyhad done a 5mo old rabbit the week before. What isbest? When can I get the mom done, since she just had thebabies 3 weeks ago?

Lastly, other than a fixed male and female, is there anothercombination that works well? A family member is going to take 2 of therabbits...I didnt think 2 males would work out, even tho they aresiblings and will be fixed sooner or later. What about 2fixed female sisters? The sad thing is, we cant tell whetherthey are male or female...they all look like females!! I knowat 4 mos things will chg for the males, but we plan to place thembefore then. (We are keeping 3 of the 5!) Thank youfor any response! (I had a female angora 10 yrs ago, butnever had any of these issues come up!)

Kelli in Atlanta

 

[SLRabbits]

Welcome to the board KJ!

Rabbits can be weaned from their mother at 8 wks old. You will rarelysee a mother nurse the babies as she does soaboutevery12hrs, and it is normally at very odd hours.

Females can be spayed at I believe 6 months, and males as soon as their testicles drop, which can be anywhere from 3-6 months.

As for pairing, I will leave that one to someone more experienced. Butother than a spayed female and nuetered male, I am sure you can housetwo unspayed females together, although the chance of them fighting ismuch greater is neither are spayed.

~Nichole

 

[KJ]

Thank you so much for the information!This mother rabbitpreviously nursed during the day withpeople around--unbashful--but has stopped doing that now. Thebabies are butterballs, too! Thank you again for thatinformation..I'll wait to hear from someone else on the pairing up andwhat combinations work best. (By the way, do you have anytips on telling the males from the females early on?) Kelli

 

[SLRabbits]

Your welcome!

I think there is a link the the "Cheat Sheet for Rabbits" on how to sexrabbits. I found it's easier to look at pictures than to have someonejust explain it to you. You should be able to sex them at 8 wks, butthen again I sexed one of mine at 8 wks, and it turned out to be afemale and not a male. xD It just takes some practice, and even thenyou can sometimes make mistakes.

Btw, do you have any pictures of your buns? Pictures are mandatory on this forum!

~Nichole

 

[KJ]

Hey Nicole..Thanks again for the helpfulhints. Forgive my forgetfulness about posting a pix of thelittle toots. Only thing is, the black ones don't really showup...so the "black blobs" is not eternal darkness in the pit of thebasket, but its one of the little darlings. I could not getall of them to hold steady fora pix, of course, so I put themin this peach basket to contain them. Unfortunately, one isdown on bottom and unseen. (There are 5.) I had notplanned to have any more than the 2 bunnies we had, but that all chgdwhen the kids (apparently) didn't watch the couple too closely--atleast on one occasion! It has been a good experience for allof us, though, it has further confirmed the reason I never hadoffspring from my animals growing up, as I cannot get rid ofthem! As mentioned before, we are keeping 3 of the 5babies. Trying to decide on what cages to get from BassEquip....thats why it would be soooo helpful to know the sex of each,so I can think about the pairings. I have 2 lg cages now(36x30) which are great, butthinking now of getting a 30x72or 30x48 with a divider, to use until they all are fixed, then takingit out and putting the mom and dad in it to share. The cagesI have now are stackable...thinking of also getting 2 more of the samesize&stacking them. The mom anddad could share one and each of the 3 babies could have theirown. Seems like it might be too small of a space for 2rabbits in the same 36x30 cage, you think? I would LOVEsuggestions on this cage quandry. Kelli (P.S. Notsure how to get the pix to the left like yours and everyone elses...didthe attachment thing?? Can you view it?)

 

[KJ]

OOps--sent the wrong picture..will try again tosend the pix of the bunnies in a basket. Keep having toreduce and reduce to get it to work.Still havent figured outhow to make the pix appear to the left of the script. Such a novice atbulletin boards. KJ

 

[KJ]

By the way, what is the mana thing? KJ

 

[Fergi]

When I had my litter of kits I brought them in tomy vet at seven weeks and had him sex them. I wanted to be able to keepone and it was important for me to know the sex. I believe this is theonly sure-fire way for a newbie to sex kits. It is very difficult to doeven when looking at pictues.

Bonding bunnies, best bet is male/female, then female/female, and lastmale/male. As for cage size if your buns are caged all day you willwant to invest in a larger cage...if they have time out to exercise andrun then a smaller cage will be suitable.

Weaning can be done at around six weeks...it is best for mom toseperatea few kits at a time so her milk supply will diminishat a comfortable rate rather than just taking all the kits at once andpoor mom having to deal with full milk glands.

Good luck with the litter...they are little cuties!

Fergi's mom

 

[KJ]

THANKS for the info!! This web page hasbeen great..wish I had looked sooner! Great tip on theseparation from mom at a slower pace. I will give the 2 awayfirst, where 3 will remain with the mom. What size cage doyou think isgood for the mom and dad to share? (Themom isamini rex and the father is a American fuzzylop--neither too big, though only 7 and 9 mos oldrespectively.) I'm open to all suggestions on solving thecage problem.

So, you think a pair of sisters would work in a cage together? I knowthey seem to like to have a buddy with them. What if the 3babies we kept were all female..would 3 work in a cagetogether? And what if 2 were female and the other male....3in a cage would be a bad idea? All of these scenarios areifthey have been fixed only, of course. I know I amgiving some good laughs to some with my naiveness, just a little greenstill! THANKS AGAIN! Kelli

 

[Fergi]

You can bond as many buns together as will letyou. A group of three can work just fine even if it is a mix of fixedmales/females. Sometimes it takes time to bond bunnies together,especially when they are going through their teen years. Having themall fixed would certainly increase the odds of them getting along well.Some people on the board have had great success at bonding and cagingthree rabbits. One member, Stephanie, had a bonded male/female pair andrecently added a third male to the mix. It took a lot of work but allthree are happily bonded and sharing a cage.

For cage size...I would search around a bit to find out what ideal is.I currently house a mom/daughter together in a 36'long by 28' wide cagethat has two levels. They seem to fit quite comfortably in theretogether. My other cage houses my Flemish Giant who is 11lbs at fivemonths...her cage is quite large. I built both cages myself using theinstructions from the Cages Only post. Good luck

Fergi's mom

 

[Rowan]

Hi there, your rabbits are all gorgeous .

I've got a bonded trio of three siblings, two does and a male, allfixed. The girls were never separated, but once they were done the boywent back in with them and they were happy from moment one. I did trykeeping the two boys (I have another boy from that same litter, andthen a girl from completely different place) together but it didn'twork, they were all lovey one minute and fighting the next. It dependsvery much on the rabbits' personalities I think.

I had them all neutered at six months though the boys could have beendone earlier. One thing to keep in mind if you have them done atdifferent times is that the boys can stay fertile for at least a monthafter their op :?.

Kate

 

[KJ]

OH, THANK YOU FOR THAT LAST LINE OR 2!I was wondering if they are like MEN, where you have to wait for the"pipes to be cleaned out!"My male was fixed about 1 1 /2weeks ago and is still VERY interested in the mom and his offspring!!HA Is a month long enough to keep him away fromher? Do you happen to know when I could get the female(mom)fixed...her babies were born Dec 29th. THANKYOU! KJ

 

[Rowan]

Sorry I only just saw this again when I was looking back over old postsfor something else, it's so hard to keep up with them all :?.

My vet said to keep them apart for a definite month afterwards, I didthat and my unspayed female promptly got what I hope (I'll know forsure this weekend, but I'm pretty certain) was a false pregnancy, whichrattled me as you can imagine. Two months I'm guessing would be castiron safe, but one month is probably fine.

I don't know about your female for sure but I'm guessing it will befine to spay her as soon as she's completely stopped feeding the kits.

Good luck with your brood, let us know how it goes on .

Kate

 

[KJ]

Thank you so much for replying! I amtaking notes! Anyone else there have any helpful hits, sendthem my way!! Kelli