Seperating, and Re-bonding after being seperated

Ok, for those that dont know, i have a 10 1/2 week old male and a 17 week old female mini lop kept together. They have been living together for nearly 2 weeks now, and all went well bonding them.

However, the male started humping the female 2 days ago (i presume for dominace). This stopped after an hour. Yesterday he chased her on and off (he keeps trying to hump her, but she wont let him, so runs away). They didnt attack each other, and cuddle up still. However, last night he constantly chased her and wouldnt leave her alone! We kept an eye on them and eventually he left her alone, but planned to seperate them today. I went to the vets so they could both have their myxomatisis injection, and checked with the vet to make sure he wasnt fertile (dont want any unexpected babies!), and he said there shouldnt be any problems until his testes have dropped.

Although he cant get her pregnant, he does seem to annoy her by chasing her, she'll be eating one minute and he'll come and try to hump her, so she ends up running away. Im just wondering if itll be kinder to seperate them until they have both been neutered or whether its best to keep them together for now? I dont want to upset them, and they arent fighting, so part of me thinks i shouldnt, but at the same time the females getting no peace!

If they were seperated, once they were neutered do you think they would be able to be rebonded ok? (i know ill most likely have to do the rebond process again rather than just putting them back together). If i do seperate them, do you think i should allow them to have time to run around in our house together supervised, so they still know each other, but the female isnt being pestered the whole time in the cage?

Any advise greatly recieved...i dont want to do the wrong thing at this point! Thanks.

I would keep them apart till he gets his op done just because his testicles havent dropped doesn't mean he cant get her pregnant !

Not sure about this, but isn't there a chance she could already be pregnant if neither of them have been neutered? Someone else will be able to answer that one for you, but I separated my two (dwarf lops) at about 11 weeks (I was taking no chances! ), and they were apart for about 5 months in total. He was neutered at about 3 months old I think, but as my vets won't spey does until 5 months it was a while later before she was done. We tried putting them back together after he'd been neutered, before she was done, but they fought (I guess because she still had hormones and he didn't).

I ended up re-bonding them after about 5 months apart, and on the whole, it went well. No fighting, just lots of humping!

I think, if you do separate them, they would need to be re-bonded, but someone with more experience than me would be able to advise you better

I would separate them straight away as his hormones are obviously kicking in. He can be fertile before his plums have obviously dropped so best to do it sooner rather than later!

I'm sure re-bonding will go smoothly in a few months once both have been done

Ok, thanks.

Theyre both too young to be neutred, my vet wont do her until 5 months for females, which will be in about 3 weeks. And not before testes have dropped for males. The male is much younger though, so i was hoping they wouldnt have any mis-haps, the breeder i got him from said if i got her done at 5 months it would be ok. I *thought* they werent mature until older for males (i did have the female and her brother, who died of a virus, but when i had them the vet said 5 months for both, so i presumed with the new male being much younger it would be ok).

I guess people are right, it is better to seperate them to reduce the chances of her getting pregnant. God i hope shes not already!!!

The vet didnt seem to think so, the vets i go to is a specialist in small and exotic animals so i presume theyd know about this kinda thing, but i normally deal with a different vet who seems to know a lot about rabbits health. He did say smaller rabbits (as in small for their breed, not just small in general like a netherland dwarf) tend to be mature later, and he is small for his age, the breeder even kept him back for a bit longer as he was much smaller than the rest in the litter (hes had a full health check and all is ok, and he eats fine, maybe its generic, or maybe he didnt get as much food when younger, there were 8 in his litter!)

I have a 5ft by 2ft by 2ft cage, do you think that will be ok for him until i rebond them? He is VERY small, i know the cage isnt massive, but for his size id say its suitable temporarily (as i will be having him up a lot too).

She has started to rehump him again, which is making me think its for dominace, and also he humps her face aswell as back, so it doesnt *look* like hes trying to get her pregnant...at least thats what im hoping now!!!

How can you tell if a females pregnant? Any signs, and how long is it until they normally have babies from being impregnated? I wouldnt want to send her in to get done if shes pregnant.

I was presuming id have to rebond, but i was just wondering if its easier to rebond if theyve previously been kept together? They bonded so easily, i presume because of their age, she humped him for the first half hour on and off, and nothing since, they groomed within an hour! 5 days later after monitoring for long periods, and introducing to each others cages and putting in together for short times, i moved them in together properly, and no problems until the other night!

Just an update...Iv just seperated them! Put the boy in the cage, mainly as he's the smallest, but also as hes used to being in sheds (the females been in the house since we got her)

He seems to be having fun exploring the new cage at the moment. I put the litter tray that they sharted in with him as i though the smell would comfort him a bit, and help keep him trained (i was wrong, hes pooed everywhere already, but hopefully he'll use it to wee in at least). I put the igloo i gave him when we first got him in there too, i thought something familiar might help. Hes also got a few toys to keep him amused. Im hoping he'll be ok, hes never been on his own...and hes so little, i hope it all doesnt stress him, especially as hes had an injection today!

Luckily i have about a million bottles and bowls (we always keep spare, but they went missing so bought new ones, then the old ones turned up when we had a clear out!typical!lol), and i also stocked up on different toys!

As i said, he seems fine at the moment, but i dont know how he'll be after hes settled in and realised hes on his own, hopefully the scent of my older rabbit will comfort him a bit! My female on the other hand is not my friend anymore, she always runs to be when i go near her pen, and as son as i opne the door shes out. But now she ignored me, didnt come to me even when i opened the door and held her favourite veg...think shes sulking!

I really hope this is the right thing to do for them, otherwise its a lot of stress over nothing! But i really dont want an unexpected litter, there are enough rabbits out there, plus itll set back the rebonding!

As for the rebonding...when would you advise it? If i get her netured in 3 weeks when shes ready, and i leave 2 weeks for her to recover (is that long enough? My vet said 3-5 days for my other buns to stay warm and off sawdust and minimal running, but they were kept on their own). Hopefully by then he might have been done and recovered, but i know your supposed to leave them 2-3 weeks incase theyre fertile, but as she will have already been done, would it be advisable to reintroduce when hes recovered (say a week), or should i leave it longer for his hormones to settle?

Im really hopeing he hasnt got her pregnant, but the fact she was his age when she started to be a monkey, and hes just started rubbing his scent over everything makes me think it was just about the dominace, especially as she humped him back a lot today!