when to switch pellets and when to spay?

[lwayne]

 I have a young female bunny (2.5 months old), Arduina.  I have been feeding her alfalfa pellets and timothy hay and bit of alfalfa hay as well as introducing her to veggies.  At what age do I switch her to timothy pellets?

 I am also wondering what is the appropriate age for spaying?  I have heard somewhere around 5 months.   Arduina is the sweetest, friendliest bunny and she has excellent litter box habits.  I hear all these scary stores of bunnies getting mature and becoming little terrors, ignoring litter boxes, and spraying all over.  I hope this doesn’t happen to Arduina…   I am guessing when her behavior starts to change is when I need to get her spayed?  

Also, at what age are rabbits fully grown?  Arduina is 7/8 rex and 1/8 dutch, so I don’t think she will get as big as a full rex.  I saw both of her parents, so I gage between those too sizes.  

[Beka27]

Welcome here! She is a cutie!

Buns do well with alfalfa in their diets until about 6-7 months, then you can begin to switch over to timothy completely. It isn’t necessary to do both alfalfa pellets and hay, so if you wanted to you could start switching her to timothy pellets within the next couple months and continue some alfalfa hay until 7 months. It’s up to you how you want to proceed. I adopted my mini rex at approximately 4 months and fed her exclusively timothy pellets and hay with a few handfuls of alfalfa here and there and she did great on it.

Rex breeds are more prone to being overweight and developing sore hocks, so you want her to always be more on the lean side. Your vet will be able to evaluate her and tell you how much she should weigh for her breed, age, and build.

Females are usually not spayed before 6 months. Some vets will do it sooner. Those nasty teenager behaviors may kick in anytime between 3 and 8 months, or you may never experience any behavioral problems. It depends on your individual bunny. My mini rex was an angel until about 5.5 months and she turned into a little terror between 6 months and when she was spayed at 7 months. Almost immediately, the behavioral issues were reduced.

[lwayne]

Thanks for your help! Arduina already has some sores on her feet, because she loves to binky across our hardwood floors. I have put some throw rugs down for her too. I’ll try to keep her on the slim side and keep her nails trimmed. She should be good about that, since she will let me look at her feet.

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