Should I still neuter him if he doesn’t show any sign of being nutty?

[zeldacw]

Hi~ 

Please give me some advice.
I’ve been torn and struggling for months over this matter.

Maru has shown sign of maturity since April. He humps his teddy bear everyday, and he used to nip me during the first few days I found him but he doesn’t do that anymore. (now he likes to lick everybody!)

When I first asked the bunny vet in early April regarding neutering, she said it’s not necessary since Maru is male. I told the vet about my concern of him spraying, aggression, etc… Vet said that’s something I could discuss with Maru… so I waited and observed Maru’s behavior.

Maru still behaves very well: litterbox habit is perfect (maybe because he is the only rabbit in the house), doesn’t show any sign of aggression (maybe he is just nice tempered?), chew on things he shouldn’t be chewing on sometimes but not at all destructive. 
, and even his urine doesn’t smell that bad (maybe because I change the litter daily…).  He dashes around and occasionally do a binky in the morning, pretty much sleeps through the entire afternoon, runs around a bit and goes back to his condo willingly at night.

So the ONLY problem I find with Maru is that he hates being touched in the feet and being picked up, held/ carried. I realized it was a problem because I found it highly difficult to care for him. (routine grooming, healthy body check, nail clipping…) 

My question is this, does neutering a male bunny make him more tolerant with being handled?  This is the one final factor that would make me decide on getting him neutered. I’m so unsure since I saw other people on bunny forums saying their male bunny became MORE destructive after being neutered.  I don’t want Maru to go though neutering only to get worse in behavior and perhaps still won’t let me hold him… ( T _ T)

so I thought I should only neuter him if it’s almost certain that his tolerance regarding handling will improve, but how can I be sure about that?

Many many thanks in advance for taking the time to read my problem and/ or offering advice!

[Stickerbunny]

Rabbits don’t like being held, so no neutering isn’t likely to help that. Bunny burrito, treats after grooming, etc for that. I would only neuter him if you think you may get another rabbit in the future if his behavior is OK.

As for destructive after neuter, the neuter surges hormones for a month and it can cause bad behaviors. If those become habit during that time, it can cause issues long term.

[Eepster]

Neutering will only change hormonal behavior. Not wanting to have nails clipped and chewing on stuff is just normal bunny behavior. If he is having no hormonal issues, and you don’t plan to introduce him to other bunnies neutering is unnecessary. If things ever change, and he started spraying or humping you instead of his stuffy, then you can get him neutered at that point.

[zeldacw]

I see. Thank you all for replying. 

I thought people say they’re more calm after neutering could mean that the bunny won’t struggle and scratch like crazy whenever I try to hold him… I guess I’ll just have to work it out with him on my own…

Out of curiosity, all the bunnies I saw from those demonstration videos don’t mind cuddles and people holding them, is that just their personality? I was secretly hoping neutering would make Maru calm like that too…

[Stickerbunny]

If a rabbit is handled from birth some can learn to tolerate it a bit better – though personality certainly plays into it as well. It’s kind of like therapy dogs – you can train a dog to behave, but a real therapy dog is selected for temperament and easy going personality. So, you can with training get rabbits to tolerate grooming, but the really laid back ones are just that way naturally. And in a video, they of course are going to use a non-struggling model… which doesn’t help those with struggling rabbits!

My buns tolerate it well enough. I wrap my girl in one of my boyfriends shirts (she loves his scent). My boy bun has to be held by someone else, he HATES his feet being handled and will jerk away from me so it’s a two person job.

Natural instinct for a bun is being picked up = about to be eaten.

[zeldacw]

unfortunately I found him a few months ago and have no idea how he was raised.  I can only tell he doesn’t like being handled at all.

Thanks! I now know neutering doesn’t change any non-hormone related behaviors. Good thing is he doesn’t need to go through the pain of surgery, bad thing is I’ve got to face the nail clipping battle every time…and just hope he won’t hate me after that. 

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