separating buns before neutering?

hiya, we've just bought two bunnies (from the same litter, a boy and a girl), they will be 12 weeks old on Saturday. They live together indoors as they are so little and it is freezing (we will move them outside in the Spring), in a large cage, and yes we let them out a lot to run around!

We took them to the vet for their injections a couple of days ago, and she said we don't need to worry about neutering them until they are about 4 months old (also the boy is not very "developed" so much so that it took the vet a while to confirm he is a boy, so not sure if he is even capable yet?!), . BUT last night the boy wouldn't get off the girl, they've tried humping each other before which I know is like a dominance thing, because she does it too, but this was different, they weren't circling or anything and it was onlt him, and he was very determined! We tried to separate them but they got really distressed so we put them back together overnight.

I've phoned the vets this morning, and they said that they will not operate until they are at least 4 months old, so they said we have to separate them for now! I am just really worried about doing it as they got so distressed yesterday, also they are always snuggling/grooming each other so i think they must be bonded. What do I do? If I buy another cage and put them so they are facing each other and can still see/smell each other is that ok? I'm guessing we can still let them run around the living room together as long as we keep an eye on them? I really don't want to separate them but I don't want them to have babies and I'm not sure I can risk it.

thanks for your help,
Rosey

Do you have another vet in the area. As long as the buns are a good size and weight boys can be done as soon as their testicles drop - this can be from 12/14 weeks onwards. Most vets will wait till 6 months for girls, but some will do early at around 5 months.

hi, thanks for replying, we could take them somewhere else, but I don't think they have dropped! I've had a look and can't see anything (and I hear they can be pretty big lol) and also the vet said when we took them on Tuesday that they haven't dropped yet as it took her a while to find them. He is 1kg at the moment, not sure if that is big enough, he is still only tiny looking though! Also this is a really good vets, we really trust them and have always taken my other pets there, I wouldn't really want to go anywhere else.

Also, he is not humping everything in sight, and he is not constantly on her - I only counted 4 times in about 2 hours last night - so maybe I am just being paranoid as I have heard once he's ready he will literally be humping everything?!

I wouldn't take the risk of keeping them together unless you prepared for baby bunnies. You could separate them and allow them to live next to each other.

if i do separate them and keep them next to each other, do you think they will be alright when it comes to putting them back together after the ops? I'm just worried if they forget each other and start fighting or something. They just seem to love each other so much it seems so horrible to split them up (lol i am way too emotional) i know it is better to do that than have a load of babies that I wouldn't know how to care for though.

My boys have both been done at 12 weeks. Ted's testicles were pretty small, but I had a really good vet who checked for them....sometimes they seem to be able to hoik them up when people want to look for them.:lol:

I'd go to another vet. So long as he's over 1kg a good vet should do it.

our vets will do if over 1kg which is usually around the 12 week mark but you have to have a confident vet as it is more usual to wait until 4 months. I would separate them now as you risk serious fight and also unplanned pregnancy. When you bring them back together again you will have to bond them as if they had never seen each other before (i.e. neutral terretory etc etc)

thanks everyone, well I have just been out in my lunch break and bought a new cage to keep Simba in when we're not at home, my husband is at home today thankfully so he is going to keep an eye on them until I can get home and we can separate them! (Although they might have been doing it for days in which case we are already too late!) I am going to need to learn about this bonding thing, we're gonna keep them next to each other so they can still smell each other etc so hopefully it might not be too hard!?