Gender and Breed?

[Florida_Bunnies]

So as I’ve said in other posts, we think that our Nibbler is about 4 months old. We took Nibbler to the vet last month for his/her first check-up and everything was fine. But the vet wasn’t able to determine the gender yet or give us a good estimate on age or breed. All of this sort of drives me nuts because she is supposed to be to the “go to” rabbit person in our area but I’m not so sure. When I was asking about prices for spay/neuter the nurse said that they hardly ever do them and hadn’t done one is so long that they would have to come up with a price…

 

ANYWAY. Does anyone know about what age I should start being able to determine gender? I’ve tried looking around at the little bits down there but can’t really make heads or tails of it, I don’t see any little testes but I understand that those can take a while to drop/develop?

Also my concern with age is pruberty of course. Because i’m thinking that Nibbler is about 4 months old, but apparently we are all ready having issues with territorial spraying. Is this normal for both males and femals or just males? Is this typical of all ages or is this indicative of puberty?

And then with his breed I’m mostly just curious… how does one go about figuring out the breed of a bunny? Unfortunately the pet store I got him from was not informative at all. 

[LoveChaCha]

Hi Beth,

Do you have a photo of your bunny?

As for spraying, I believe both genders can do it. My female rabbit did it before getting spayed. Boys tend to have stinky stinky urine/poops (please help me with this one fellow members!).

Here is a link to helping:
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/sexing.shtml

Did the nurse say out of her own mouth that spays and neuters aren’t done often? That isn’t a very good indication at all. I would ask the vet herself is she does spays or neuters and how often she does ’em. i would be very hesistant about that if this situation. I know you would like to have the best care possible.

[Monkeybun]

there is a way to check gender yourself, if you can flip your bunny over. You can push down on his/her naughty bits, and take a peek at what pops out. generally, if it has a slit, you have a girl. it’s often hard to tell, even for experienced people

Both genders can spray, and both can be stinky when puberty hits due to hormones.

Definitely clarify with your vet on how often he/she does spays and neuters. if its that rare that they do them, you may want to call around and check other vets

[Beka27]

I would start looking at other vets in your area. Or at least figure out why they never do spay/neuters. Are the clients not interested in having this done, does the vet discourage it, or reading between the lines, is the vet not comfortable doing it? You want to have someone very familiar with the procedure with a great track record of successes.

Both sexes can spray, both can be quite stinky when unaltered. Altho boys tend to be more “musky” smelling. The kind of stink where you walk into the house and you instantly smell “barn”. It’s not pleasant. Not all boys get that type of odor, but the ones that do… whoa boy!

At about 3-4 months is when the testicles descend. Since you don’t know the exact age, mark on your calendar the day you got the bunny, so at the very least you know how long you have had him. Prior to that, the bunny was probably between 6-8 weeks if he had just arrived at the store. If he had been there longer, he may have even been up to 12 weeks. The exact age will never be determined, but as long as you can have a general estimate, that will be helpful in this first year. (With adult buns, age doesn’t matter at all, the diet remains the same, needs are determined based on the health of the rabbit. The majority of us who have rescued rabbits have no clue exactly how old they are.)

Same thing with breed, it’s difficult to know exactly what type of bunny you have unless you have some type of papers, and even then, they could still be mixed somewhere down the line. While people like to know what they have, breed doesn’t matter. All rabbits are going to have the same needs, with the exception of long-haired breeds that might benefit from extra alfalfa and (definitely!) daily grooming. Typically pet stores want to stock smaller breeds, so that can probably rule out at least some of the giants. If breed is indeterminable at this point, the final adult weight and body/head shape may help to shed light as well.

Are there some pics you can post?

[RabbitPam]

It will be a matter of time before your mysteries clear up, but you will know all within a couple of months. As an owner of a boy first, and now a girl, I can say that the boy made it clear he was A) a boy and B) hormonal by haivng his “toothpick” put in an appearance. That’s all you need to see to determine gender. Prior to that, it’s too soon for a speuter regardless. If the bunny starts acting out at 4-5 months and nothing obvious has made an appearance, you might have a girl instead.

A vet who rarely does speuters usually is generous enough to recommend a local colleague who will. I can’t tell you how many vets here saw my bunny but steered me to someone with more rabbit experience, since they have the animal’s welfare in mind. It was the ones who talked me out of neutering him that I never could understand until I found (too late) this website. So ask the vet directly, then check the House Rabbit Society’s website for a vet search by zip code. http://www.rabbit.org.

Rarely is a bunny a pure breed of anything unless purchased from a breeder. If the ears start to fall, it’s a lop. If it feels like velvet into adulthood, it’s a rex. If it sprouts lots of hair around the ears, probably a lionhead mix, etc. I wasn’t able to tell Samantha’s basic breed until her full body type had grown. Now it’s clear she’s an English Spot, but not purebred I’m sure. It mostly matters for size of toys and habitat. You want a hidey box big enough to accommodate a 6 lb. bunny instead of a 3 lb. if you don’t want to throw it away in a few months. I’d wait to get certain play and housing items that may be permanant.

[FluffyBunny]

You should be able to figure out his/her gender at about 3-4 months. If s/he’s a male, and s/he really is 4 months old, his/her testicles will be dropping any time – if they haven’t already. Do his/her genitals look more like a round penis or a small slit?

Unneutered males usually spray a lot more than unspayed females, but it’s certainly not uncommon for females to spray.

Do you have any photos of him/her?

[Florida_Bunnies]

Thanks for all the info! Yes here is a photo: 

 

Yeah I’ve tried turning him over and checking out the bits down there but it’s kind of ambiguous? I guess I’m just not an expert.

The vet herself didn’t say she didn’t do very many neuters/spays but the receptionist did. So I’m not sure how much to trust the receptionist because my vet is one of 3 who work at the clinic and she is only there 2 days per week so the receptionist may not know much about her. She’s pretty much the only exotic vet in my area. Of course if it were to come down to it I would be willing to go a distance for Nibbler to have a good, trusted vet to do the surgery.

The spray isn’t smelly, but I guess that doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t have a boy. Yeah as for breed I honestly don’t care, it’s not like I want to parade him around with a little leash I was just curious. =) But from what I’ve been reading since last night I guess breed doesn’t really matter when it comes to behavior/temperment like it does in dogs.

 

Thanks again everybody! 

[RabbitPam]

Time will tell.
As for breed, I was burning with curiosity about Samantha just, well, just because. Once I saw she was not mini rex in any way (I was erroneously told she was a mix with that) I just wanted to know what kind of bunny I did have. Frankly, if she’d been a Rhinlander instead of an English Spot, I was going to have to be prepared to give her her own room and keys to the apartment because she’d grow so big. (Wait, I did that anyway….)

Nibbler is a beauty, and I LOVE his name.

[Beka27]

Nothing really jumps out at me as far as breed. Definitely not a traditional dwarf, his ears are much too long. His fur looks harlequin-like, but it’s a little tough to tell since the light in the pic appears low. Is his fur agouti (wild rabbit-like)?

[Florida_Bunnies]

Yeah I was also thinking that his fur is harlequin-like. The lighting is low but his fur is dark like that, yeah. I’m kind of confused by the definition of “agouti” which I understand to be like each individual hair has different colors/shades or am I wrong? Nibbler’s fur is consistently one shade and then he has patches/splotches of black or grey on parts of his body but the shades are all consistent. He also has very very soft fur, it’s quite luxurious feeling but it’s not very long.

It’s kind of funny that you make the dwarf comment, because the vet said that his ears seemed small and she thought he was fully grown, which if that is the case then he is going to be a tiny bun! That’s the main reason i want to know breed, I’d like to know how big he is going to be. I hope he gets a wee bit bigger but if he doesn’t oh well. But to me it looks like he is still growing into his ears, lol.

[LoveChaCha]

Hahaa, well, I read something about bunnies. Their ears will indicate the size of how big they get.

He does seem very harlequin to me indeed. He could be a mixed bunny.

My bumba is a dwarf bunny, she is what breeders call a ‘false dwarf’ because they lack typical dwarf genes (small ears, small legs, etc).

[Author]

Messages