Best living arrangements until doe is spayed

[Waitkus]

Hi All

First post. Glad to find such a good resource.

My family and I (wife and kids 3,5,8) have a 6 month old Netherlands Dwarf. We keep him in our living room and when we are home he is free to play in living room. He has quite the personality. He loves to come up and run around us when we are sitting on the floor and has a blast playing with our cat. We had him neutered today. 

We would like to get another bunny both for him and us. We have the opportunity to get an 8 week old Holland Lop doe. We fully understand we need to wait until she is spayed to start the bonding process which is probably around to 8 weeks away. 

Our questions:

• What is the best method for this? 
• Should we keep them out of site from each other or can her cage be in the living room so they can see each other. Would it cause issues to allow outside time while the other is in their cage or should they be completely separated in different parts of our home?

Thanks,

Jared

[Asriel and Bombur]

Actually with females you should wait to spay until 6 months so they’re fully developed and can handle the anesthesia. The procedure is much more invasive than a neuter, which is why most vets won’t spay until 6 months, and if they do it’s usually an incomplete spay. So you have 4 months to wait to spay, and another 2 months while hormones die down and you prebond. So you’re looking around 6 more months.

At first keep them in different rooms, just while she settles in and gets used to everyone. 
After she’s settled in, you can move her to the living room with your boy. And just make sure there’s a barrier between their cages, and between their cage in the living room. Bunnies can fight through bars, so this is important.

As a warning, neither one are going to poop in their litter box really until they’re bonded. They’ll both be marking territory constantly while they’re out. So try not to get impatient with the mess. I have two unbonded boys (one has health issues so they’ll never be bonded) and I’ve dealt with poop everywhere for almost 2 years.

[Waitkus]

Thank you

So we got the girl and she is doing great. We hold her a few times a day and need to have an absorbent pad on our lap because she will pee almost immediately.

We moved her cage in the living room. She does not free roam but only cage and being held. So they see each other through the cage. Our male spends most of his time either nose to nose through the cage with her (No fighting) or laying in front of her cage sprawled out. She is also extremely calm usually sleeping in litter box with ears flipped over edge of litter.

Hoping these first few signs are encouraging for bonding down the road. Is it okay to keep her in the living room where he is free when we are home?

Thanks,

Jared

[Asriel and Bombur]

Do you mean you only let her out to hold her and not let her exercise? Can you please elaborate? whether or not your boy is in the mix, she still needs to be out and exercising a good 3-4 hours a day. Even if you set up a separate x-pen for her in the living room where they are still separate. At the moment please still keep a barrier up between them. Males can still impregnate females up to one month after they have been neutered, and a pregnancy at her age could be fatal.

[Nutmeg]

Hey there! Congrats on the new addition.

I agree with A&B (she is super knowledgeable and helped me through my own bonding – Hi A&B) that you will be looking at about 6 month from beginning to end before you start formally bonding with her.

****** Yes, please clarify when you say she is only ever in her cage or when she’s held? She does need to bout to exercise for at least 3 hours a day.

*What I did with my two, as I also had to wait about 6 months to formally bond is this:

1. Give your new girl time to settle away from him – two weeks is what I did, so zero interaction between them. Your girl needs to get used to you and her new environment on her own first.

2. they each have their own cages, *** YOUR MALE WILL STILL HAVE ACTIVE SIMMERS FOR A GOOD MONTH AFTER his Neuter! So he can still get her pregnant – and yes he can get her pregnant through the bars and can even projectile his sperm.
Many vets don’t mention this – as you only had one bunny at the time.
So after a month you two you can move their cages closer together or remove the barier while still leaving 6″ of space between them so that they can’t fight or nip through the bars.

3. Starting now you want to alternate their time out. What i mean by this is you let out the boy to run around while the girl is in her cage… then you put him back in his cage and let her out to run around and play.

*** Its not fare for her (or healthy) to be locked up except for when physically held in your hands.

And again, make sure they can’t reach each other through their cages while the other one is out. I have seen HORRIBLE bite marks where one bit the other through the cage bars.

Because Rabbits aren’t as common of a pet there is a bigger learning curve when you own them. I learned all this first hand and I would rather YOU learn from our experiences then through the hard way of finding out yourself

[Waitkus]

Thank you both.

I was told to let her adjust for a few days before letting out of the cage (got her last Saturday). This is why she has only been out while we hold her. I have been taking her out and putting on floor in front of cage she goes right back in the cage immediately. 

I did not know about the projectile/through the bars issue. We had her cage in same room as the male. They were both extremely calm nose to nose through cage and then she will sprawl out in litter-box completely calm and he would do the same sprawled out right in front of cage asleep. I know this could change as her hormones change. We have since moved her cage across room outside of his play area.

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