Neutering

[Oliver & Abbott]

Hi.  I’m new to the forum so let me give some history.  I rescued two abandoned Rex rabbits that were about 6 months old.  They are now reaching maturity and I am seeing the expected behavior…more active, want to be out of their room more, and poo pellets everywhere in their room.  They have been litter box trained and now they go in their litter box and also poo in their room which is a 10 x 10 space completely bunny proofed with gates on the two entrances.  The room is in the middle of the house and twice a day they have free reign to run and explore the rest of the house.  The house is bunny proof.  They have two extremely large littler boxes where I put their unlimited supply of hay.  They get fresh leafy greens twice a day.  They have toys to keep them entertained.  All seemed fine until they reached maturity.  Now they poo all over their room.  I know it’s to be expected but we can’t afford to have them neutered.  Our rabbit savvy vet charges $300 each!  We only adopted them because we wanted to save them and they captured our hearts…we couldn’t bear to send them to a shelter and we able to give them an excellent home with the kind of attention they need.  We are pet free, child free and have learned a lot about rabbits.  We love them. Will this behavior improve over time?  Will they eventually settle down and stop leaving their poo pellets everywhere?  Is there any place that will neuter them at a lower cost?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Thank you.

[DanaNM]

My experience with unneutered boys is that their box habits are pretty bad…. probably won’t get any better. Depending on the cost of living where you are, $300 might be about average, but hard to say. The House Rabbit Society reports the US nationwide average is about $250.

You might be able to find a lower cost though, so it would be worth calling around. You of course would want to make sure the vet is still rabbit savvy though.

I’ll also add, that if they are living together in the same enclosure, there is a good chance that they will start fighting when they hit puberty in full force, so you may want to separate them before that happens. (With your set up, would prob be easiest to divide their room in half, with a buffer between the fence so they cannot nip through the bars). Then once they are neutered and hormones settled you can go through the bonding process with them. Buns can hold grudges, so bonding might be easier if you separate them before they start acting aggressive towards each other.

The marking all over the place could also be linked to them marking towards each other since they aren’t bonded.

. . . 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.  

[Asriel and Bombur]

My boys were also $300 each, but that included 36 hours of care after their neuters, 2 weeks of medicines, and a 2 week follow up, plus any additional care that might have come up as an emergency. So the money I spent was well worth it for what I received. Depending on where you live, there are low cost centers that will do it, or you can opt for a payment plan with the vet. I’ve noticed big cities and ASPCA vets will charge the most by far. A spay at my vet (ASPCA) costs $500 and the neuters are $300 each. The state I’m moving to charges half the price of those.

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