Unneutered bunnies definitely present more territorial and hormonal behaviors. Although sometimes rabbits that aren’t fixed behave fine, it’s pretty uncommon. Lot’s of people with unfixed rabbits notice spraying, marking, destructiveness, and sometimes aggression. Litter training is also much harder due to marking. Obviously, if you only have one rabbit, you won’t end up with accidental litters, lol. You might notice mounting on objects, which I’ve read somewhere.

Young, unneutered males are little balls of hormones when puberty kicks in. The “severity” of their behavior can vary between individuals… but you won’t know what you’ve got until they reach a certain age. They will eventually calm down with age (1-2 years), but that doesn’t mean the hormonal behaviors will completely disappear. There are people who choose not to neuter their bunny though. I guess it depends on the bunny and your level of tolerance for certain behaviors. From a medical standpoint, the risk of testicular cancer is pretty low. Neutering is primarily done for behavioral reasons and the ability to bond them with another bunny without the worry of fighting or unwanted pregnancies.

My friend was given a male rabbit from her parents when she was younger, and unfortunately hasn’t been able to get him neutered yet (she is saving up though). Her rabbit has a severe issue with spraying, and sprays constantly. He also has issues with various types of agression (he can be both food agressive and cage agressive). His litter box habits are almost nonexistent, despite her constant attempts to train him. Some of the more minor behaviours (mounting for example) have settled down a bit, but she still struggles a lot with him. My friend really regrets not being able to neuter him young, and is saving up to be able to do it now. I believe her rabbit is now about 5.

You never know how bad your bun will get until it happens, but lots of of unneutered males turn into pooping and peeing tornadoes (literally they will twist in midair spraying urine all around them), territorial aggression is common as well. As has been said, neutering is done to curb hormonal behaviors, for the purpose of bonding and to reduce frustration and stress for the rabbit. Living with blue balls your entire life isn’t enjoyable, especially for an animal that evolved to “multiply like rabbits”. Also, some intact rabbits can be fine for years and then randomly start showing all the bad behaviors of a young hormonal bun, but at that point they might be too old to be neutered safely. Same situation if for whatever reason he would have to be rehomed later in life. Finding a home for an older, intact rabbit would be extremely difficult.

Sure, we as bunny owners don’t like dealing with the hormonal mess, but I feel that neutering is mainly for the rabbit’s benefit.

May I ask why you don’t want to neuter?

So I got both of mine neutered young but my friend got hers neutered at like 3 years old. Before the neuter he marked a lot around the house, was not as affectionate and generally just wasn’t that well behaved. She said that after the neuter his behavior was much more friendly, he was better about using the litter box and just wasn’t quite as destructive overall.

To be honest it depends more on the individual rabbit than the breed, and regardless of whether the little man is aggressive, he will definitely have better litter habits and most likely be more chill.

My first rabbit Bam was fully adult and intact when I found him. He showed no adverse behaviors fir the first full year I had him -then one day, after a little over a year, it was like a switch was flipped. He fell hopelessly in love with my GSD dog, became totally obsessed with following her around, and with peeing and pooping on her favorite spot on the couch.

I was scared to have him neutered, because I had read many scary stories about buns dying under anesthesia (this was many years ago, rabbit vet care and anesthesia has developed a lot since then) , but after several weeks of him peeing on the couch and pestering my sweet patient dog (and practically never getting a moment’s rest himself), I had to book him in for neutering. Everything went well and his unwanted behaviors stopped after 2 weeks.

We have members who has/have had an unaltered male that’s never become hormonal to any troublesome extent. In those cases, it is fine to keep a male intact.

There are a few things to consider. If a bun spray marks, you may need to keep him in an enclosure practically all the time, or your furniture, wall, carpets, clothes and patience will suffer . If a rabbit like that is neutered, he could probably be allowed more freedom.

There may also come a time when you want to give your bun a bun companion. Whether you get a girl for a companion or a boy, your boy needs to be neutered for successful bonding.

My Wick seemed to reach puberty later than usual boys, but alas it still did change him, though the balls didn’t’ stick around long enough for me to know its full scope. His testes descended at 8mo. Prior to then, aside from bad litter habits (which he still has, but eh), he was very docile and cuddly. He is still in fact, and that hasn’t changed. The only noticeable change once he hit puberty was urine spraying. He never humped or anything, but two days after they descended, the spraying started. It was only spraying me… which was nice in that it’s somewhat a sign that he loves me, but I know what his urine tastes like as a result… haha?

So in my experience for the short-week I had an unneutered, puberty-driven rabbit, there was no aggression, but very me-exclusive urine spraying that did not cease over the week. My strategy was to simply walk away when I noticed him getting ready to do it.

Breed of the rabbit does not really say anything about their personality whatsoever, so knowing the breed will not make more or less certain what an unneutered male rabbit will act like. Breed generalizations, like the “gentle giants” for Flemish Giants or the “Napoleon Complex” of Netherland Dwarves, I think are just the Barnum effect at this point. People who have that rabbit breed and see that it aligns to them will reinforce it, but when you actually narrow it down to a single rabbit, breed generalizations are as good a guess as any. I have heard of Holland lops that are very friendly and those that are standoffish. I volunteer with my local HRS rescue and we commonly have Holland Lops, and their personalities have been extremely variable. It has a lot more to do with how they are raised and cared for, in my opinion.

Haha I’m jealous of those of you who had rabbits that became hormonal later. Beignet was with Wally (who was already neutered) as a baby and luckily the baby bond lasted but he really pushed it. He became extremely aggressive towards Wally at only 3 months when I had I tended to wait until 5 or 6 months, and as a Polish (so very small) I was concerned about getting him neutered so young. His vet said that since he was behaving like that it was ok to go ahead with the surgery, and evidently his testicles had descended. They were able to maintain their bond but poor 3x bigger than him Wally ended up with some battle scars before I realized that Ben was being mean to him overnights. It really does depend on the bunny and I had no marking or otherwise I appropriate behavior from Wally before his neuter at 5 months, yet Ben became an absolute terror at only 3 months.

That’s interesting, would that apply to a female as well, since that would be mainly for medical reasons (to prevent cancer)?

Oh yes females are at least as territorial and moody as males, if not moreso.

If you were to go to a shelter where they have neutered rabbits, you would not be allowed to adopt one?

Bottom line, there are many people who choose not to neuter a male rabbit for one reason or another. I think what everyone here is saying is that you cannot predict behavior. I have a Holland and there was definitely territorial peeing and pooping before he was neutered. But for some people, they luck out and their Holland isn’t too bad behavior-wise. What you can’t do is predict their behavior based on breed or any other factor. They are all different. What we would hate to see is you getting a sweet baby bunny on the hope that he won’t display a lot of hormonal behavior when he gets older. There is a real risk that he wouldn’t turn out the way you were hoping. What happens then? If your religion prevents you from neutering him, then what? That is all we are trying to say. I know these are hard questions that you will need to ask yourself, but it is important to think about the “what ifs” when deciding to get any pet. 🙂

I wonder if you could try to get a slightly older rabbit, one that’s over 1 maybe? Then its personality should be better established and easier to know how it’s going to be.

@pinkiemarie : I was inquiring about the religious aspect, sorry I should have specified who I was replying to. 🙂

I agree with LBJ, the simplest solution would be to get a rabbit that’s already fixed, would that be allowed?

My cousin’s rabbits are unneutered; two of them became super aggressive (beating on the younger one until he bled unfortunately) but the one was no more grouchy post-puberty than he was before. Only one of them lived inside but good gravy he was a peeing machine! He felt the need to mark EVERYTHING and boy did it stink.

I know this is less relevant but my rabbit is unspayed and she’s actually really great in terms of behavior. She’s a grump but I think that’s mostly personality and part of her compulsive need to be the boss in every situation haha. I didn’t have any serious trouble litter training her either, which I was worried about – there was a short period where she would go Next to the box every time, but when I moved the fence so that the box was isolated she did perfectly fine, and I haven’t had any trouble since even though she now has the run of the apartment.

Hi @Danny

How old is she? Spaying a female rabbit is always a good thing to do, as you said, litter issues, territorial behavior, overall not fun to be around. She may not be showing this now, but once she hits puberty, *dry laugh* they are pretty bad teenagers.

Females also have an 80% chance of uterine cancer, and false pregnancies. Been there, and done that. The false pregnancies really stressed my poor girls out until I got them spayed. I didn’t know the importance of spaying/neutering at first either, but it has really helped me to bond with them, and for them to live a care-free life without the burden of raging hormones and, false pregnancies. Yes, onion poops and territorial pees stink, I’ve smelt the dreadful smell, but spaying has improved that, although I do still smell the territorial poops, once in a while, for I am going through the bonding process with my three ladies, so far so good.  🙂

I don’t want this to come off as aggressive, I think you are a great owner to your little girl, but spaying can really help with the reasons stated above. 🙂

Hey @HipHopBunny,

She’s one or two years! Past puberty, that’s for sure, and she bore at least one litter before I had her. I hadn’t considered the false pregnancy thing, though – if that becomes an issue, I will definitely consider spaying her. And don’t worry, you didn’t come off as aggressive at all – I appreciate your concern as a more experienced rabbit owner than I am!

@Danny : I agree with HipHopBunny, you might want to consider having her spayed. At 1-2 years old, chances are your female already has some abnormalities in her uterus.

@Hazel Oh no like what?? I hadn’t heard that was likely to happen to unspayed rabbits

@Danny

Yes it is incredibly common. The bun I’m planning on adopting wasn’t spayed before the rescue took her in, and they found a tumour when they spayed her (thankfully it doesn’t appear to have spread). This particular rescue takes in a lot of older unspayed females due to their high chance of cancer. The owner lost one of her rescue buns who was a stray 4 months after she rescued her.

I would definitely suggest getting your bun spayed as soon as you can. At this point if you spay her soon, she will most likely be just fine, even if she did happen to have a uterine tumour or something of the likes (if nothing has spread removing the uterus leaves her perfectly healthy). Spraying her will also likely make her much happier.

Please keep the topic related to the original post as to not hijack it and mislead the OP!

(no need to respond to this 🙂 I know you were all giving very mindful and well-intended suggestions!)