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Neutering to stop humping behavior

A

AndreaS83

New Kit
About 2 months ago I adopted an eight year old male rabbit from a local rescue to be a companion for my bunny Blue (6 months ago I had lost my rabbit Tango to cancer).

Blue went with me to the shelter to meet the new bunny (I named him Barney) and they got along wonderfully. I adopted Barney and we took him home. For about 2 weeks they were great together, but then Barney started humping Blue constantly. I separated them and took Barney to get neutered (he was intact when I adopted him).

It has been about a month since the neuter and Barney will still try to hump Blue. Right now they are still living apart as Blue developed an abscess and needs quiet time. I know it can take awhile for the hormones to get out of Barney's system.

I wanted to know if anyone had experience with neutering an older rabbit. Barney is ~8 yrs. old, will he eventually stop the excessive humping behavior or should I expect him to always behave this way since he was neutered at an older age?
 
The hormones don't die down for about 6-8 weeks.
Is blue neutered too? Best chance of a bond is if both bunnys are neutered
 
No Blue is intact. He was sickly when he was younger and the vets recommended that I not neuter at that time and now that he is older they don't see a point in putting him through the surgery.

Tango and Blue were inseparable and Tango was intact for the first year they lived together. I had to neuter him because he sprayed.
 
You can but wait and try again I'm afraid. My Barney was 2/3 when he was neutered and he would still do the circling and honking and grunting as usual around me for 2 months after before it died down, and he still does it a couple of times a week. It had become a learned behaviour. He never humped though so not sure if that can become learned.
 
AndreaS83 said:
No Blue is intact. He was sickly when he was younger and the vets recommended that I not neuter at that time and now that he is older they don't see a point in putting him through the surgery.

Tango and Blue were inseparable and Tango was intact for the first year they lived together. I had to neuter him because he sprayed.
Click to expand...

Hormones can take around 6 weeks to die down so there is still hope. Most people would recommend a male and female pair as these tend to be the easiest bonds. However, there are people on here with male pairs and I have had one myself.

Personally I would suggest getting Blue neutered. Did your vet give a medical reason for not neutering or is it because of his age? How old is Blue?
 
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