Is my rabbit energetic or just trying to mate?

[shinquik]

My rabbit is a 3 year old not neutered male, he is not neutered because my family see it as expensive and my dad doesn’t like the fact I’m trying to take away what “makes him a man” or something. Because of the fact that he is not neutered, he does try to have his way with my shoes or feet. He has always been a quiet rabbit, making little to no noises but I hear him circling my feet, thumping his foot and honking. I know honking means mating and same for the circling feet but he barely thumps, I have never seen him thump since the first year we had him. He also tends to zoomie at random times; he is not caged, we let him out up until night time around 9pm, then we let him into his cage so he can rest until morning. Sometimes he zoomies into his cage and few seconds later he just zooms out and other times he just stares at me for a long period of time before going back to zoomies.

My real question that I need answered with this information is if my rabbit is either super energetic or just being a lil weirdo.

[Bam]

Your bun sounds like a normal bun 🙂

Thumping doesn’t absolutely have to be a part of the rabbit courtship ritual, but it can be. Honking doesnt have to be about mating, some (many) neutered buns honk and buzz and circle when they sense the possibility of something good to eat. It seems likely that rabbits have a rather “limited” repertoire of behaviors, so they  use their standard sets of behaviors to fit all kinds of situations. This is why rabbit behaviors always must be interpreted in context.

This time of year, most buns go through some form of “March Hare Syndrome”. It affects both neutered and intact rabbits, but intact rabbits more (unsurprisingly!) Rabbits and hares have a very high sex drive and they’re at the top of their game in the spring. Just the other week I was lucky enough to get to see two wild hares do their courtship “dance” on a nearby field – they were bouncing around on their back feet and boxing the air, looking like small (but awesome) kangaroos 😃

Single male rabbits don’t absolutely have to be neutered. Intact bucks can get testicular cancer, but it’s not a huge risk like uterine cancer is in intact does. Single male buns are primarily neutered for behavioral resaons – f ex to prevent pee spraying, territorial aggression and unwanted sexual attention dierecred towards other house pets or the humans.

An intact buck will probably be more energetic than that same buck would be if neutered. Activity level vary a lot beteween individuals and it’s of course influenced by what environment the bun has access to.

 

 

[shinquik]

Thanks for responding, I actually do wish to get my rabbit neutered to avoid these behaviors because I don’t really him spraying all over the house. He isn’t actually super territorial, every act of disposing waste he goes into his cage to do it but it’s always during spring he gets mating behavior and I don’t really like it a lot because he always wants to have his way with my foot or spray on my leg and I’d like to eliminate that behavior because I just get super uncomfortable from it.

Is there anyway to convince my family that neutering my rabbit is okay? And if I can convince them, is there any way to have it done for cheap?

[LBJ10]

Neutering has it’s benefits. But there are not the same health implications since testicular cancer is rare (and uterine cancer is common). So convincing family members to have a pet neutered when they are worried about their “manhood” can be difficult.

I would start by explaining that a neutered bunny is easier to live with. Neutering cuts down on the hormone-driven behaviors. Believe me, sometimes this is enough to convince people… particularly when the bunny is spraying and walls are being covered in pee. Other times, the behaviors are not as extreme, so it’s a bit more difficult to convince someone who is reluctant. Yes, circling and humping can be annoying, but it is a far cry from walls being covered in pee.

Finding an affordable place to have a bunny neutered really depends on where you live. If you have a shelter nearby that adopts out bunnies, then I would start there. Sometimes they offer reduced cost spay/neuter clinics. Things become more difficult when you live somewhere without a lot of rabbit savvy vets. Spaying/neutering a rabbit is different than a cat or dog, so you really need a vet that is experienced with rabbits.

In the meantime, you could try redirecting his “affections” to something else like a stuffed animal.

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