Sexual maturity

[Sir Ollie]

So my bun will be 5 months old on January 14th, and we were planning to have him neutered on the 18th but have yet to see any testicles. I haven’t really examined super closely because he’s not a fan of being handled but I thought I wouldn’t noticed them if they were there. He also hasn’t been showing any signs like spraying or humping, the only thing is that he’s still peeing and pooping outside of his box but even that hasn’t gotten any worse. I’m starting to wonder if maybe he isn’t a boy? The woman I got him from believed he is but he hasn’t been examined by a vet yet. So now I’m not sure if he’s just later to bloom than some bunnies or if he isn’t actually a boy. Are there any signs in terms of behaviour that would suggest he’s female? Or are they the same in males and female?

[LittlePuffyTail]

From my experience, behaviour is pretty much the same. I would not be surprised if your bunny is actually a girl. Just because we see it so often here on BB. Even vets are sometimes mistaken when sexing young bunnies.

[DarthVadar]

Humping is done by both boys and girls, so it may not be a clear indicator. Spraying, most definitely. One sort of weird one I’ve noticed is weight. I can freefeed pellets to my boys and have them be perfectly healthy, but my girls are always on diets. Boys also make much less noise (grunting, clucking, etc) than girls, and are far less territorial. Most boy bunnies don’t give a rip about what you do on their turf. Yours may be too young for this, but if its a girl, you may notice the bunny carrying around hay in its mouth. This indicates a false pregnancy, which only happen in girls lol.

[Asriel and Bombur]

Some boys have dropped as late as 8 months, like Forum Leader Wick. Most vets won’t neuter or spay without you being seen by them for a physical first, so when you go in for a physical the vet should be able to tell based on how the genitalia look at this age.

[Sir Ollie]

He is going to the vet on Tuesday so I’ll see what she thinks. He doesn’t seem overly hormonal whether male or female so I’m guessing we’ll end up waiting a bit longer to spay/neuter. I’m just kind of anxious to get it over with so I was hoping to have it done sooner rather than later

[Nutmeg]

Posted By DarthVadar on 1/03/2019 7:45 PM

Boys also make much less noise (grunting, clucking, etc) than girls

Its so funny you say that DarthVadar – as my BOY is the one out of the two to make the Grunting sounds – I’ve never heard my girl do it LOL

But yes, I agree with the above in that he can be a late bloomer – PLUS my boy could sucks his “boys” up inside so I could hardly see them unless I got right in there – and like yours he was NOT a fan of that hahahha 

 

[DarthVadar]

Posted By Nutmeg on 1/04/2019 10:57 AM

Posted By DarthVadar on 1/03/2019 7:45 PM

Boys also make much less noise (grunting, clucking, etc) than girls

Its so funny you say that DarthVadar – as my BOY is the one out of the two to make the Grunting sounds – I’ve never heard my girl do it LOL

But yes, I agree with the above in that he can be a late bloomer – PLUS my boy could sucks his “boys” up inside so I could hardly see them unless I got right in there – and like yours he was NOT a fan of that hahahha 

 

It differs from bunny to bunny, I’m sure (just about everything does lol). But out of my 8 (5 girls, 3 boys) I’ve only ever heard the girls vocalize much.

[Mimzy]

DarthVader – Interesting you mention carrying hay in the mouth as a possible indicator, cuz my foster Californian rabbit is for sure a boy (Before he was neutered, you could clearly see his manhood without even trying to find them & I have a video of him running around with a whole thing of hay in his mouth. He does this every now & then I thought it was kind of silly & cute!

[DarthVadar]

That’s adorable! False pregnancies is girls are also accompanied by grumpiness, sometimes increased vocalization, and fur pulling/nest building.

[Sir Ollie]

So we just got back from the vet and he’s a boy ? She found some small testicles just starting to descend, so we’re going to wait another month or two to neuter, unless he starts getting super hormonal before then.

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