Hi everyone, I have posted before about my bun Henry, but due to some events that happened earlier today I think I should post here about the other bunnies in my household.As a warning, this is a longer post.
Ok, so before I get into the details I should first say that where I live rabbits are primarily viewed as livestock rather than as pets. Because of this is it common practice for breeders of typically non-meat breeds to cull (sell for meat) any rabbits that are not up to breed standards. Well, I purchased Henry, a mini lop, from a 4-H breeder who was trying very hard to find homes for all of the bunnies in Henry’s litter but was only getting offers from cull buyers for these 2 little “girls”. I felt really bad because I had been visiting this litter almost every week and couldn’t stand the thought of Henry’s family being eaten, so I agreed to take them. At first I was going to re home these “girls”, but after a few weeks with them I fell in love and now Sweetie and Ava are spoiled rotten, and up until this morning have lived together(Henry was separated from them by a baby gate). If anyone read my last post here I purchased Henry thinking she was a boy, so I should have been more diligent on sexing everyone multiple times to be sure they were girls. Unfortunately, I did not do this.
Fast forward a couple months and all of the bunnies in the household are hitting puberty. Henry won’t stop peeing on my bed and Sweetie and Ava get into minor scuffles every now and again. I wanted them to stay bonded so I started looking to get them spayed. We were moving the girls to a different room so Henry could have my entire bedroom to herself(like I said, spoiled rotten) when Ava mounted Sweetie and began breeding her. So yeah, Ava is now a boy and I have no idea how long he has been attempting to breed his sister. For all I know, the little scuffles happened because Ava was trying to mount Sweetie, which means this could have been going on for a couple weeks.
I palpated Sweetie and didn’t feel anything but I am not a vet. They are 3 1/2 months old, and I have no idea if they are matured enough for Sweetie to become pregnant, but that is my biggest concern right now. I really should get her into a vet, are ultrasounds a common procedure for rabbits? Henry and I are moving out next week (yay college!) and I just don’t know if I can squeeze a vet appointment into everything else going on. I just don’t know how to proceed in this situation. I guess I should be watching Sweetie like a hawk and get baby bunny formula if she starts showing pregnancy symptoms. What other precautions should I take?
Otherwise, I am actually pretty happy about Ava being a boy. Neuters are less risky and hopefully I can reintroduce them once they can’t procreate. This whole situation is making me feel like an idiot. I’ve had rabbits for as long as I can remember, as well as all sorts of other pets. It should have been common sense for me to continually sex them until I was positive they were both girls. I sexed them a couple times when they were around 10 weeks and they both looked like girls, but obviously I should have kept checking as they matured.
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