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a little bit confused!

i have just purchased 2 little girls this weekend (see intro post) or so i thought.... the man in the shop did sex them for me but did tell me that he couldnt be 100% as its so hard to tell when there young, told me to check again in a few weeks time and if it did turn out that i had a boy and a girl i would have a few weeks before they started 'breeding' (they are 10 weeks old at the moment)

here is my problem.... when i got them out today, a few times daisy kept trying to 'hump' lola does this mean daisy is infact a boy? or do all rabbits do this when they are babies? im really worried now that they will breed!

also how do i tell if a rabbit is a boy or a girl? :oops: i did have a look but honestly couldnt tell the difference between the two!

thanks xxx
 
Hello! There's some pictures in this thread here that may help you with sexing: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=46514

Have the buns had any vaccinations yet? They are old enough to have them now, so I would suggest getting them booked into the vets for their myxomatosis vaccine and getting the vet to have a look.

The sort-of good news is that 'humping' is a sign of dominance between bunnies as well as sexual behaviour, so it doesn't necessarily mean that one of them is a boy. If they are both girls, however, it is a sign that they may start getting teenage hormones very soon. This can result in previously happily bonded girls fighting, so I would also ask the vet about spaying when you are there. Spaying them while they are young will hopefully help keep them settled enough to not fight. They are too young at the moment but I don't think there's any harm in asking your vet what age they will do them (it varies a lot and some vets don't like spaying bunnies at all - if this is the case, it gives you time to find another vet who is confident with doing it :) )

Hope that helps xx
 
thankyou so much for your quick replies :D thankyou for the links but im afraid im still none-the-wiser :oops: its so difficult to tell on mine as they are so young!

the man where i got them from did look and thought that they were both girls so im hoping he was right!

i really dont know much about the different combinations of rabbits but was told two girls were the best to have? would you advise they are neutered? as i always thought putting a rabbit under-anaesthetic was dangerous?! i think i will book an appointment with the vet at some point over the next few weeks to find out for certain what sex they both are, vaccinations and maybe book in for neutering (but i am a little worried?!)

thanks again xxx
 
Its amazing how wrong folk can be....whip them into your vet.Hopefully get them sexed and jabbed from myxi/VHD at the same time.
(Theyre so cute.....!!!:love:)
 
would you advise they are neutered? as i always thought putting a rabbit under-anaesthetic was dangerous?!

This used to be the case, but modern anaesthetics are much, much safer so there just isn't the same risk that there used to be. Also, because rabbits hide illness very well, animals that are put under anaesthetic for an operation are often already very, very poorly so have a worse prognosis to start off with. So that raises the statistics. For a routine operation like a neuter, on a healthy rabbit, the risk isn't that high as long as your vet is experienced with bunnies :) There are loads of rescues on here who get hundreds of rabbits neutered every year and there is rarely a problem - and where there is, it's pretty much invariably because of another underlying problem that the bun already had.

Spaying is quite a fiddly op but there are plenty of vets around who do it regularly without problems - ask your vet how many spays they do and how succesful they are. If they don't recommend doing it, I would advise you find another vet for the op.

I would say it is an absolute necessity to get it done though - two girls housed together are likely to fight when they reach sexual maturity and that could lead to nasty injuries. Once they have had a nasty fight it would be very difficult to get them to live happily together again, so it's far better to get them spayed to prevent that possibility!

Unspayed female rabbits also have an astonishingly high chance of getting uterine cancer, it's been shown to be up to 80% or more in some studies! Spaying removes this risk and also calms your bunnies down, making them more placed, content and less territorial. You may not think this is a problem at the moment but female bunnies often become very grumpy and territorial when they turn into hormonal teenagers (usually about 4-5 months old).

I would suggest booking a vet visit sooner rather than later, it's been very mile and there are still a lot of mosquitos about so if I were you, I would want to get them vaccinated as soon as possible. It also gives your vet a chance to sex them and to discuss neutering.

Good luck :)
 
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fist of all I would take them to a vet to get them properly sexed asap. you can get their vaccinations done at the same time. Unfortunately there is a very slim chance at 10 weeks that if they are not the same sex then the doe can get pregnant if they are smaller breeds. Even if they are not smaller breeds I would not keep un-neutered together from 10 weeks just in case.

Most vets will neuter from about 4 months old. Ours will neuter once a bunny has reached 1 kg. The risk during an op is very low & problems usually occur when either the spay has been left very late & therefore the doe has developed uterine cancer or there is a congenital heart or other organ problem which may have led to a shortened life expectancy anyway.

2 girls can be ok together if unspayed but it's a bit risky & if they fall out you may never be able to get them back together. Spaying also reduces the risk of uterine cancer which affects the majority of does over the age of 2.
 
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