Is he too old to be neutered?

[Simon]

Hello everyone. I just recently adopted a rabbit. The shelter said he is about 1.5 years old and he’s healthy. He gets a lot of exercise and he hasn’t been acting up. He isn’t neutered because the lady who adopted him to me said she hadn’t seen much of a difference with neutering her rabbits as long as males and females aren’t mixed. I’ve been doing some research and I’m thinking about neutering him now that he’s at least gotten use to me and his new home. He is an adult though and I’ve heard that most rabbits are neutered much earlier in life. Is he too old to be neutered?

[Sam]

Nope! I’ve seen rabbits neutered as old as 5 years old, and my female rabbit underwent surgery to remove a growth at nearly 7 years old. Just find a veterinarian in your area who is comfortable neutering rabbits

[jerseygirl]

Congratulation on your new rabbit!

He is absolutely not too old to be neutered.

[Vienna Blue in France]

I adopted Henry when he was 1yr 7months and he was neutered the following day as I was bonding him with a spayed female.

Just curious, are you wanting to neuter for a specific reason ?

[BunnyFriends]

Not too old My Licorice was neutered at 3 years, and had no age issues.*

(*He actually did have a minor complication but it was unrelated to his age and only called for an overnight stay.)

[Simon]

Apart from the research that says he’ll be healthier, I really would like to bond him with a female! So any advice on that would also be greatly appreciated 

[BunnyFriends]

Take him to the rabbits at the shelter so he can pick his friend. He can go on “speed dates” to see how they are together and then you decide based on the behaviors. Helps loads with bonding

[Sam]

Yay for wanting to bring a second bun into the home! And to build on what BunnyFriend’s said, which I 100000% agree with, I would recommend keeping them in separate cages side by side at first, and letting them out for playtime together before having them live in the same cage. Just so they get used to eachother’s smell and can interact in a more neutral environment to discourage any territorial behaviors

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Sam on 4/15/2017 3:47 PM

Yay for wanting to bring a second bun into the home! And to build on what BunnyFriend’s said, which I 100000% agree with, I would recommend keeping them in separate cages side by side at first, and letting them out for playtime together before having them live in the same cage. Just so they get used to eachother’s smell and can interact in a more neutral environment to discourage any territorial behaviors

They can’t just be let out for play time. They’ll need to be properly bonded.

[Sam]

Of course they need to be properly bonded, I’m talking about for initial introductions and getting them used to interacting with another bunny. I’ve seen plenty of “bondings gone wrong” because introductions were done too quickly, before the rabbits were even adjusted to another rabbit living in the house or before the new rabbit was accustomed to entirely new surroundings We had a lot of rabbits in my high school (I went to an agricultural/vocational high school) and if we wanted to bond rabbits, that was how we would start off, though I’m sure people have different methods that work as well, this is just what we did and we had a lot of success when it came time to properly bonding them

different strokes for different folks, 1000 ways to skin a cat, etc etc, and I’m always happy to learn different ways of doing things so I’d love to hear how others start off introductions/proceed with bonding

[Author]

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