5yr +2yr ~ will it work?!

[2lops]

I was wondering If I would be able to bond Pudge, my 2 yr old male (neutered) mini lop to Leila, a 5yr old female (unspayed) holland lop.

Now I wanted to bond Pudge to a bunny close to his age, and I could have sworn that on the ad it said she was 3 yrs old! But running into the ad again, and reading it just for fun, it says she is 5 yrs and “has many good years left“ I’ve heard it depends on the breed of how long rabbits live, I think hollands live 5-10 yrs(?) So even if i can bond them,.. Leila may only have a few years left!  and Pudge would once again be a lonely bunny, coping with yet another passing… I have no clue what to do now …. her previous owners found her on their relatives lawn, so they rescued her and took care of her. Now, if she was found, they would have no way of knowing her exact age, unless they kept her for 5 yrs. Personally just by looking at her she looks very young, looks around a year or 2, and has the personality to go with it, brave,rambunctious,curious and a bit bossy

They been side by side in cages for 3 or 4 weeks, and I was planning on doing the first short introduction today, but this has changed my thinking

*Does anyone have bonded bunnies with a 3 year age difference?
*would there be any issues with an older female and younger (and in a previous bond, dominant) male?

 

[Beka27]

it’s hard to say. females that are unspayed have an 80% risk of developing reproductive cancer by the age of three. i am thinking that the risk might be even higher AFTER the age of three. i’m not absolutely sure about that tho, not sure if the risk is reduced afterwards, i don’t honestly know. i don’t think at the age of 5, i’d risk putting her thru the surgery. she may be calmed down quite a bit already, so the bond may be successful without her being spayed, altho normally we would never recommend bonding with an unaltered bun, even if the other was altered.

but,your question is about the age difference. i would not be overly concerned about the age difference. life is fragile. for all we know, the 5 yo might live to be 15, the 2 yo might live to be only 4… anything can happen. i would never NOT bond a rabbit just b/c one of them is going to die someday. i’d rather know the buns had love and companionship in their lifetimes, regardless of how long or short they may be. when it comes time that one does pass over the bridge, you can then rescue another and rebond the remaining rabbit, therefore saving another life and giving that new bun companionship, and hopefully helping the surviving bun with his or her grief.

i think it’s splendid that you’re looking at an older bun. so often the older ones will get passed over for younger bunnies, but remember that buns have an average lifespan of 8-12 years (sometimes longer) with proper diet and vet care.

my buns are (i think?) about 2 years apart… i’m sure others have buns with a greater age difference.

every pair is different. so i can’t really tell you the bonding would go off without a hitch. it’s going to depend how they interact. you just have to wait, do the bonding sessions, and don’t give up.

[MooBunnay]

I agree with Beka, I don’t think that age would be a determinant in bonding – but it is definitely important to get her spayed. I would recommend the spaying before the bonding, because if you have to separate them to take her to the vet and then allow her to heal, it may damage the bond that you worked so hard to create. Also, the bonding process in general seems to be easier if you have two fixed rabbits.

I wonder how the people you got her from came up with the age of 5 years. It may have just been a wild guess and she could possibly be younger, either way, I don’t think that you need to let the age affect the decision of whether or not to bond them. I’ve seen all kinds of bonds work out, regardless of sex/age/size of the bunnies.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I agree, I don’t think age would be a problem at all-but you should definitely see about getting your female spayed first. Not only for the bonding but the health reasons are overwhelming

[Sarita]

Five years old is not too old to get her spayed and that would be the best place to start. But really age does not make a difference.

It may take Leila’s hormone’s a little longer to calm down after her spay due to her age but that won’t be a big deal and it will be worth it for all the right reasons.

[2lops]

yikes I thought I posted a response! guess not.
(thanks for all the posts by the way (: ! )
Well we finally got a hold of the vet. She said we’d be wasting out money on spaying her. She said there is really only 2 reasons to spay a rabbit. 1. so it doesn’t get pregnant. 2. so there personality changes (mellows out etc.)
She also said it’s too late. Leila’s personality is “already set” meaning it won’t change.. ?! Also apparently she still may have phantom pregnancies even after we spay her.

but Leila isn’t calm!  She sprays, circles, purrs and has phantom pregnancies! I wouldn’t won’t her to go through this for the rest of her life! :0

and this will make it harder to bond the two! and she can get cancer :0

Idk what do you guys think? would it be a “waste”? I don’t think this behaviour is “set” .. Should I risk that this behaviour won’t change and spend $180 on spaying her?

[Beka27]

in that case, i would try and get her spayed, preferably by a vet who is rabbit-savvy. yours does not sound to be savvy if she is not aware of the repoductive cancer risk in females.

are there other exotic vets in your area?

[2lops]

Yes, (scary think is our vet is exotic and we always take the buns for check ups there!) we called 4 vets and 1 said they would do the operation for $260 including the pre-examination. Which is apparently a “good” price … We still have to make an appointment though, we were basically calling the best vets we could find and asking their opinion of spaying a 5 yo bun.

and good news,.. I got a hold of Leila’s previous owners today and they told me they had her for 2 years, and they guessed her age (so they thought she was 3 when they found her). So it’s possible that she is a lot younger/older. Hopefully younger.

[Beka27]

i’m not saying your vet isn’t qualified to see buns at all, i just wonder why they weren’t concerned by the cancer risk… they might be fine for general check-ups and smaller things… 260 including the pre-exam does sound like an average price… i think i paid that total to spay my female who was only 7 months at the time.

[2lops]

Yes, I agree. The reproductive cancer is a big issue and she didn’t even mention it. But I think we’ll change vets anyways as this one is actually walking distance and the other one was at the other side of town… why we didn’t choose a vet near us I have no clue. Such a high price, I here in some places it can be $50! Delilah’s was $130 ish but that’s only because the shelter that she came from got her spayed before we brought her home and than combined the adoption fee with the vet fee.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Chiming in! The cancer is the BIGGEST reason to spay in my opinion. I wonder if the vet is worried about doing a spay on an older rabbit and that’s why she said theirs no need to spay?

Anways glad your looking into it-260$ a good price IMO but check them out to make sure they’re good vets

[2lops]

hmm, maybe…

That reminds me, I have a list of questions I got off the internet. Do you think these are good Q’s, should I add any? I don’t think #5 is completely necessary since the monitor won’t work for buns ..?

Step2
Ask if your rabbit must fast the night before surgery. The answer should be “no” and you should be able to leave food and water with your rabbit up to approximately two hours prior to surgery.

Step3
Ask what type of anesthesia will be used. The answer is Isoflourane (sometimes referred to as Iso).

Step4
Ask if the veterinarian will have an anesthesiologist present throughout the surgery to monitor your rabbit. The anesthesiologist may be another vet or one of their technicians.

Step5
Ask the vet to use a pulse monitor to monitor your rabbit’s heartbeat during surgery. These monitors sometimes don’t work on rabbits, but it’s reassuring to have a vet who will try to use it.

Step6
Make sure your rabbit will be able to come home within 24 hours, if possible, ask the vet to use dissolvable stitches, and ask for pain medication for the first day or so after surgery. Insist on pain medication, if you must, because many rabbits will refuse to eat when they are in pain and not eating can cause the GI tract to shut down.

[Beka27]

absolutely insist on pain meds. esp. for a spay. it’s invasive and the poor lil buns will be in pain after the initial pain med wears off in about 24 hours…

i would ask about what kind of monitoring they do, esp for an older bun, i’d want to know if they take any special precautions…

[DawnT]

Most definetley ask for pain meds for the female.   My vet (a very good one) and I went thru two before I found him.  Females will have staples and males will have glue.

This is a crazy story about Oreo she was spayed 3months after she gave birth to 7 babies.  At the time of her spay we had 2 of her babies that she was still nursing.  Some one told me that she shouldn’t be nursing them and that I should seperate them.  So I did she would go crazy trying to get to her kids she would paw at their door so I left her nurse them.  When Oreo came home after the spay she still nursed the kids (keep in mind the kids are over 2 months old at this time she nursed them till they were three and half months old.  I had to seperate everyone when they started to hump her which really stressed her out.  Any way I had to seperate the boys b/c they started that territory thing, then I had a bunny come back home that I gave away.    Anyway when the three boys came home they were groggey, all goofy they just layed around like their little bunny world was over.  My ten year old son looked at them and told them to man up b/c your mother nursed you two with staples in her belly.

A vet that knows what he/she is doing is very important to the bunny and the human that takes of the buns.  If it wasn’t for this web site (being a first time bunny carre taker) I would have not known what to do, what questions to ask especially during the suprise liter that Oreo had 24 days after we brought her home.

My suprise liter (we have three of the buns all boys) are doing great.   I can’t believe that the the babies are going to be a year old in Febuary

[DawnT]

You maybe able to contact your local animal shelter, they maybe able to help you with cost and even a direction for a vet

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