Hi everyone, I know this type of question has been asked a few times but my 1 year and 3 month old male mini rex, Butterscotch (Butters, for short) is a little different so I thought I should ask for myself. Butters is the first (and only) bunny I’ve ever owned. We got Butters when he was just a baby (2 months old) and for the first 4 months we had him we thought he was a girl…that is, until we saw some parts of him that girls don’t have. He is well taken care of (perhaps somewhat spoiled, to be honest) but he is still pretty well behaved and wonderful overall.
The only behavior problems he has are: 1) biting the bars of his cage, 2) not consistently using his litter box (though, to be fair, he uses it a vast amount of the time), 3) trying to “mate” with my arm (though to be fair again, he rarely, if ever, does this with others and he seems to be managing his frustration a little better lately), and 4) chewing on and getting into things he shouldn’t (but bunnies will be bunnies, right?).
But, on the plus side, he: 1) is super duper loving (he cuddles, relishes in the time he gets pet, greets people when they walk in, and gives kisses nonstop for minutes), 2) has never bitten anyone (aside from teeny tiny benign “love nips” on occasion), 3) stopped peeing on things relatively recently, 4) does a couple tricks (like standing up on his hind legs, spinning, standing and spinning, and now we’re working on standing and walking a couple steps) and 5) appears happy and healthy on a daily basis.
As for my concerns, I am a full-time student and will be leaving the country to study abroad for 4 months (starting mid-August) so if I want to get Butters neutered I would only have enough time to take care of him (for his recovery and all) during the next few months of this summer. I am conflicted because a couple people keep asking when I’m going to get him neutered, the assumption is that it would make him stop biting the cage bars and whatnot, but (on top of me being pretty broke and the procedure costing an arm and a leg) one of my friends neutered her bunny and said it was the worst decision she ever made because his personality completely changed and, most of all, I would feel badly if I had someone take away parts of him without having a very good reason to put my cuddle bunny through what must be a fairly traumatic experience.
Basically, I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I want to do what’s best for everyone involved (myself, people I live with, bunny, guests) but, most importantly, I want to do what’s best for Butters. He is such a sweet bunny and I’d hate for him to lose that just because I (and those who also care for him) weren’t willing to put in the time/effort to work on behavior management with him more or because we wanted some perfect pet or something ludicrous and self-centered like that. So what are your opinions? What should I do? Are there “alternative” solutions I should look into? Really, any guidance or advice is much appreciated!!! And thank you in advance!