Friend for my bunny HELP PLEASE

[snjstar]

I have a baby female dwarf bunny and i want to get her a friend because i feel bad wen she is left alone. she is not fixed.

Someone told me that if i get a female (we want another female) that they would attack eachother because females dont do well together,

does anyone have any experience with putting 2 females together?

she is a very sweet bunny and i cant see her getting very vicious, but i need to make sure before we get one.

Also, someone told me that if we dont get her fixed she will die in 2 years..this confuses me because bunny’s arent fixed in the wild so do they die in 2 years then?

Does anyone have any experience with not fixing their bunny?

 

Thank You

[Beka27]

It is true that female rabbits need to be spayed. They have an 80% chance of developing uterine cancer by the age of 3-4 if not fixed. Rabbits in the wild typically are killed by predators/traffic far before they can develop cancer. I would say it is abnormal for a wild rabbit to live beyond one year of age. They have 1-3 litters very young and then pass.

Fortunately, we have control over our domestic rabbits’ surroundings. Because of this, they are capable of living long, healthy lives if given appropriate vet care and proper diets/habitats.

Two unaltered female rabbits will fight and injure each other badly. You cannot bond unaltered rabbits.

[Monkeybun]

I have a bonded pair of girls, both spayed.

And I tell ya, if they hadn’t been spayed, it would have been SCARY. Females can get extremely territorial, and aggressive.

One of my girls, Smudge, is a sweetheart. But even she flew off the handle at Monkey during the first few bonding sessions. Just because they seem so docile, doesn’t mean they will be around another unaltered bunny!

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

Yeah, you have to wait to get them spayed/neutered before bonding them. You can bond any combination of males/females if altered but don’t make your choice of a mate based on the sex and not wanting to spay. Unspayed females have a high likelihood of developing cancer (as mentioned) but they also become smelly when they are in heat, territorial, harder to litter box train, etc. I have two bonded males and tried working on bonding right away when I got my second one, even though the new one wasn’t fixed yet. It didn’t work because all he wanted to do was hump by neutered one, even though they are both boys. It’s a hormone/dominance thing and it made my other boy so mad that they wanted to fight. We had to stop trying until Comet was neutered and healed and even then it took some time! Also, we did bunny dates prior to even selecting the second bunny. It’s key to pick the right mate and then bonding itself can be long, frustrating, messy and so worth it! But you have to do it right or it will just be frustrating, messy and possibly dangerous to your bunnies!

[Jenna, Chubs & Comet]

I’d really recommend reading some of these bonding journals!

[RabbitPam]

binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/BondingInf…fault.aspx

Here’s a link to the page from the green banner above, under Bunny Info. There is a Bonding section on this site that gives loads of info. plus describes how to go about it and what to expect.

Let me add that your very young bunny, prior to the spay that she will need before getting a friend of either gender, needs to bond with you and her home. She is not lonely. Bunnies can appear sad when they are really feeling safe and just resting – an unusually good situation for a bunny that is bred to be always on the alert for predators. So try not to think of her as a human.

Definitely get a friend for her if you want to, but as it was suggested, let her pick out her own friend when she’s ready to meet them (after the procedure, about 6 months old) and if you take her to a shelter for dates, you will find a male or female that has already been speutered, saving you a huge expense as well.

If you work a 9-5 day, or go to school, know that a bunny will be home sleeping. They are crepuscular, ie. morning/evening animals, so your time away is not lonely, it’s their nap time.

[jerseygirl]

I too encourage to wait a bit. I agree with RabbitPam, while you’re not home she is probably napping, eating, napping etc. If you spend time with her when you are home this is plenty of company for her. She’ll learn what times the people are about and interact most with you then and take advanage of the quiet when your not there. Bunnies like routine. I have a 11-12wk old bunny at the moment and sometimes if I go to get him out in the middle of the day, he is most put out. I’m interrupting his nap time!

The other thing I want to caution about is that it is hard to gauge how she’ll truly be toward another rabbit. She’s young and bunnies can change a bit as they become adults. Even as fixed adult rabbits it is hard to tell how they’ll react. It really is dependant on the individual rabbits. So some may say boy/girl pairs or boy/boy pairs work better then girl/girl but it’s not always the case. It really comes down to the individuals.

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