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Guess what??? We have a BABY bunny!!!

When we went to pick up our new rabbit from the rabbit breeder who had buns at the fair and whom we had only spoken to over the phone, he had changed from bringing us a young adult male to bringing us an 8 week old baby male!!! :shock: We are thrilled by his sweet cuteness, playfulness, and lack of fear, :D but THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!! We can't even get him fixed until his plums drop, right?? I can't even think how long that takes, being as I never thought I would be in this situation! I hoped to bond them before it got cold so they could keep each other warm!! Now what?? Do I instead get Cookie spayed (yikes!!) and try to bond them when she gets healed up? Or do we just keep them apart until he matures, gets fixed, wait another 8 weeks, and then bond?? How long might that be?? Help!!
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Susy and Greg welcoming Puzzle with lots of love.
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He hopped right in the hay-filled litter pan and started munching hay loudly enough to hear!
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Already chinning everything!
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Okay, we've had him home for about an hour--we're in love!!
 
Think I'd go for plan A i.e. get Cookie spayed. That would be your quickest option. She would need recovery time for her wound to heal but I think that's only a couple of weeks.

Plan B i.e. waiting for Puzzles plums to make an appearance before they're removed would take at least 3 months. I think they could appear from 12 weeks onwards and like you've said, need 2 months after that.

Good luck :)
 
Think I'd go for plan A i.e. get Cookie spayed. That would be your quickest option. She would need recovery time for her wound to heal but I think that's only a couple of weeks.

Plan B i.e. waiting for Puzzles plums to make an appearance before they're removed would take at least 3 months. I think they could appear from 12 weeks onwards and like you've said, need 2 months after that.

Good luck :)

I disagree as vets that can spay rabbits safely seem thin on the ground in some parts of the US? Even just to get a boy neutered you must check your vet knows exotics and to use isofluorane gas with rabbits instead of regular anaesthetic.

And there would be no point in bonding an unspayed boy to her as he will be so horny he'll jump on her the whole time and make her miserable, or angry.

He can't be neutered till his testicles drop, at around 3-4 months I think, I'm sure I heard that dutch rabbits mature earlier? By my reckoning with the 8wks post neuter you're looking at bonding in the New Year :)
 
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Merlot was neutered at 12 weeks...without any problem. But offcourse you do need a good vet for that. Furthermore, Merlot weighed already 2 kilo's at 12 weeks. The fact that you should wait untill his testicles drop is dated, Merlot is living proof of that. You could actually get him neutered now, if you find a vet that will do this (meaning someone with experience) and then you can bond them immediatly since he would be neuterd before he can reproduce. In the only Swiss rabbit shelter, they always neuter between 8 and 12 weeks if they get young rabbits in. But that vet does have lots of experience, since his wife has the shelter and he threaths all buns. This Swiss vet is actually giving a seminar in Belgium this month on early neutering.

Just so you know ,I won't take it personal if you don't believe me or think it's bad for the rabbit to neuter early, I understand completely. I contacted about 5 vets in Belgium and Switserland and I let 2 friends of mine ask their vet the same question before I trusted it enough to have Merlot neutered at 3 months. :) The reason I decided to do this is ,that we had lots of problems bonding our last 2 rabits and they didn't live long enough to form a really happy couple. We didn't want to go through all that pain again, separating them and then bonding again after 2 months.

If you don't have the possibility to have him neutered now, I agree with Elve, having her spayed and bonding them, would only cause her stress since his hormons will start raging through his body at 3 months and she won't have a peacfull moment.
 
If you don't have the possibility to have him neutered now, I agree with Elve, having her spayed and bonding them, would only cause her stress since his hormons will start raging through his body at 3 months and she won't have a peacfull moment.


I think this depends on what the boy is like. I have often kept a male baby in with his mother (who was neutered as soon as the babies were 8 weeks old) without any problems, and then had the boys neutered as soon as their testicles have dropped.
 
Right now it's 7:30am here, and the rest of the kids who were already in bed when Puzzle came home last night just are meeting Puzzle! Oh, we are in love, Love, LOVE! He has been climbing and jumping higher than we thought babies could! Cookie never jumps higher than she can place her paws first!
 
I will have to get on the phone talking to vets about their experience with young buns and isoflourane gas and other stuff--I thought I was lucky to finally find one who neutered at all!
 
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