How embarrassing

[Dailymadness]

So last night I was hanging out with my bun bun as I usually do and I figured eh let’s check those feet out, upon further inspection I noticed something that immediately drawed my attention towards this strange find that I have never noticed before. It turns out my rabbit this whole time is a boy rabbit and not a girl. To come across them testies and realize how dumb I am for calling him a her this entire time. No wonder I get blank stares. My vet said it’s a she will she’s a he. Figured I’d share that funny story with y’all. Maybe it has happen to some of you.

[Deleted User]

I’ve definitely heard of it happening to owners before! At least you didn’t think you were buying a girl/girl pair only to find out that one is a boy and you have bunnies on the way! lol.

But, your vet should be able to sex rabbits properly. I would recommend finding another vet if they couldn’t even sex the rabbit properly.

[Wick & Fable]

I don’t think you necessarily have to find a different vet; rabbit’s reproductive organs, like humans, vary in size, and time of development. The typical check for a rabbit being a male is to look at the area and find two, very small flesh nubs that stick out, which will eventually turn into testes. The nubs will be very prominent on some at a young age, while for others they may not be visible or even perceivable with touch until much later, or until they make the step to reveal themselves as already-developed testes.

My exotic vet, who is one of the most experienced in the state, has a lot of forgiveness when clients say their past vet sex’d their rabbit wrong, because it is known to be a bit difficult. You can search on these forums and find a lot of topics about females being males and vice versa. A good number end up realizing it during a spay/neuter operation honestly, so don’t feel embarrassed or bad!!

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[joea64]

I think they ought to make a special magnifying glass for the purpose.

[Deleted User]

Posted By Wick on 8/24/2017 12:47 PM

I don’t think you necessarily have to find a different vet; rabbit’s reproductive organs, like humans, vary in size, and time of development. The typical check for a rabbit being a male is to look at the area and find two, very small flesh nubs that stick out, which will eventually turn into testes. The nubs will be very prominent on some at a young age, while for others they may not be visible or even perceivable with touch until much later, or until they make the step to reveal themselves as already-developed testes.

My exotic vet, who is one of the most experienced in the state, has a lot of forgiveness when clients say their past vet sex’d their rabbit wrong, because it is known to be a bit difficult. You can search on these forums and find a lot of topics about females being males and vice versa. A good number end up realizing it during a spay/neuter operation honestly, so don’t feel embarrassed or bad!!

But shouldn’t she be able to tell if the rabbit is female? Process of elimination would tell you no girly parts=male even though there are no boy parts yet. The breeder I got Ophelia from is able to correctly sex the rabbits before they are even 8 weeks old. So I don’t see how an experienced rabbit vet can’t properly sex a rabbit that is several months old.

[sarahthegemini]

I think the important question is…are you going to keep the same name?

[joea64]

Posted By sarahthegemini on 8/24/2017 1:47 PM

I think the important question is…are you going to keep the same name?

That reminds me of the anecdote Lucile Moore recounted in her book, where she’d taken her pet rabbit to be spayed but ended up having to have him neutered instead when the vet discovered his actual sex. She changed his name, but discovered that the bunny wouldn’t respond and seemed quite withdrawn. She was quite puzzled by this until she got an idea, called her bun by his old feminine name, and hey presto! bunbun reacted with ecstatic joy and snapped back to normal virtually instantly.

[Wick & Fable]

Posted By BunNoob<3 on 8/24/2017 1:41 PM

Posted By Wick on 8/24/2017 12:47 PM

I don’t think you necessarily have to find a different vet; rabbit’s reproductive organs, like humans, vary in size, and time of development. The typical check for a rabbit being a male is to look at the area and find two, very small flesh nubs that stick out, which will eventually turn into testes. The nubs will be very prominent on some at a young age, while for others they may not be visible or even perceivable with touch until much later, or until they make the step to reveal themselves as already-developed testes.

My exotic vet, who is one of the most experienced in the state, has a lot of forgiveness when clients say their past vet sex’d their rabbit wrong, because it is known to be a bit difficult. You can search on these forums and find a lot of topics about females being males and vice versa. A good number end up realizing it during a spay/neuter operation honestly, so don’t feel embarrassed or bad!!

But shouldn’t she be able to tell if the rabbit is female? Process of elimination would tell you no girly parts=male even though there are no boy parts yet. The breeder I got Ophelia from is able to correctly sex the rabbits before they are even 8 weeks old. So I don’t see how an experienced rabbit vet can’t properly sex a rabbit that is several months old.

@BN – Since rabbits are very small, proportionally speaking, so is their urethra (pee hole; unsure if it’s termed differently across species). Not to get too graphic, but consider the variation of skin color, surface area, thickness, lip size, etc.. between a human female and male down there. Even across female-sexed humans, there are appearance differences. Your vet may be very adept and excellent at sexing rabbits, but I was stating for Dailymadness’ sake that there are qualified rabbit vets who examine cases where the call cannot be made “100% definitely a ____”. A rabbit vet may not have an A+ track record of sexing a rabbit, but I don’t think you can readily associate this with not being knowledgeable or experienced about rabbits. A vet may be very experienced with rabbits, but maybe deal with clients that are past childhood and maturity, thus, they have experience with rabbits, but not with being asked to identify sex via under-developed organs.

If you look here: http://pad2.whstatic.com/images/thumb/2/25/Determine-the-Gender-of-a-Rabbit-Step-7.jpg/aid192804-v4-728px-Determine-the-Gender-of-a-Rabbit-Step-7.jpg
— …you’ll see that there is a difference b/n male and female, but in real life, making a strong confirmation on whether that appendage’s shape is male or female is difficult, especially at a young age.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Deleted User]

lol ok.

[Dailymadness]

Hahaha. Well at least I don’t have to feel to ashamed after reading these responses. As for the name it’s snow, named him that when I thought the gender was a female. Yeah the vet told me at the time it’s too hard to say at the time if it’s a female or male, but guessed it was a female so I went with it. No humping of objects yet either. He is about 4 months now. No clue when that begins, I’m sure soon though.

[Deleted User]

He may not hump anything. I just brought my male to be neutered today and I have yet to see him hump anything. I could only feel testicles from about 2 weeks ago though. I guess the breeder is just really good at sexing rabbits because she was able to tell me the sex of both rabbits when they were 6 weeks, and she was right about both.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Dailymadness on 8/24/2017 3:20 PM

Hahaha. Well at least I don’t have to feel to ashamed after reading these responses. As for the name it’s snow, named him that when I thought the gender was a female. Yeah the vet told me at the time it’s too hard to say at the time if it’s a female or male, but guessed it was a female so I went with it. No humping of objects yet either. He is about 4 months now. No clue when that begins, I’m sure soon though.

I think Snow sounds unisex My Peanut never humped a thing!

[Wick & Fable]

It’s slightly inconvenient that ordinarily when a rabbit is humping or spraying, it’s pretty certain it’s snipping time, yet when it’s safe or time to snip, not all rabbits hump or spray at that time. If only it was that straight forward all the time, like a diaper that turns blue when it’s wet, haha! Wick got neutered at 8mo when his testes dropped and only ended up spraying the three days approaching the neuter. Longest three days ever! I would have much preferred nothing, or humping, haha. Oh rabbits. Keen on making us go through the spectrum of moods and emotions.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Q8bunny]

Don’t feel bad. This happens way more often than one might think. In fact, my little guy was a little girl as far as all were concerned (including his bunny guru vet) until he met his favourite toy (a small beach ball) and showed his… umm… true colours for the very first time. lol He was too young for his doodah to have developed enough to make accurate sexing possible. His tiny jewels were our first definite indicator.

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