What is your guys opinion…(spaying & neutering)

[FluffyBunny]

…on how long to wait to start bonding after 1 rabbit in a male/female bonding pair is spayed? I ask this because when we were at PetSmart today, we saw an adult female dutch mix bunny for adoption…unspayed (but using the litterbox perfectly)…if we end up adopting her as a friend for Mr. Bunny we would either get the shelter to have her spayed or spay her just after getting her. I’ve read various suggested time periods, from between 1 week and 2 months to wait after spaying before bonding…what’s the best amount of time so that nobunny has hormone problems or gets hurt?

And also, would it be ok to keep an unspayed rabbit in the same room as a neutered, very friendly male has been in for 6 months? Would they have problems later due to her original spay status?

[Beka27]

It’s hard to say one way or another what your experience would be.

After spaying or neutering, you have to wait at least one month (two months is even better!) before you begin bonding. This allows the bun to be fully healed and hormone-free and you’ll have the best outcome. If you are interested in getting a mate for your boy, you may want to start off by looking at the buns that have already been spayed, that would be much easier as you can bunny date right away.

If you do like this girl, can you wait until after the rescue spays her and do some bunny dates betw/ her and your male? They may not be a good match and that is valuable information to have before making the commitment to adopt.

[KatnipCrzy]

Just keep in mind that even if both bunnies were spayed/neutered and hormones had settled (at least 2 months) and both were littertrained perfectly- just bringing another bunny into the room (or even house) can lead to territory marking both poo and pee. 

When I first brought Schroeder home- and he had been neutered about 6 weeks before by the shelter- he was pretty bad about poo and pee marking.  It has gotten better- but he set the other bunnies off again too (Cotton and Penny).  So a change in household can trigger the marking behavior- that takes time for the bunnies to settle down.  If she is unspayed you might have to deal with it longer until her hormones settle and she is not sending hormone messages to the other bunnies.

[MooBunnay]

I would recommend approximately one month. The other points brought up by Katnip and Beka are also important points, while I always support rescuing a bun in need – it is important to think about how it will impact your current bunnies and how you would handle the possible situation that the two bunnies don’t get along.

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