Post spaying behaviour and convincing housemates.

Chaplin is going to be spayed on Thursday (along with my girlfriends guinea pig... big day for the animals of the house =P).
It's the same vets I took my rat to to be neutered and they're wonderful with small animals so I'm not worried about the operation really.

I'm just wondering about her behaviour once her hormones have settled. She rubs her self on everything, chases people, sometimes nips at trousers and she wees everywhere. We've tried to litter train her but she'll jump on beds and wee on them and then be off again (We're trying to train her that it's not okay to be on the beds but if she stops with the weeing no of us would actually mind. I also had a 9 year old neutered boy who had been an outside bunny his whole life who I litter trained better in less than a week so I'm sure it must be to do with her hormones).



She's our only bun. I've had rabbits previously and had a brother and a sister and after the girl died the boy, Stella lived on his own. At first he was outside and you could tell he was grieving but he perked up so much when I brought him to live in my room, if it hadn't have been for his age I would have loved to get him a friend.

I haven't really brought it up with my housemates, but I want a good argument first. Chaplin is only 7 months old... so imo, after her spay, a great candidate for bonding, and I'd love to get a neutered boy to live with her. She belongs to me and 4 other people, but there is one I really can't see budging on the no more rabbits side of things, and she's the one who has Chaplin's crate in her room.

I know the most obvious argument is that rabbits are social animals and happier in pairs, even if they seem happy... which she is, incredibly lively and always pinging about the place... they'd be better off with a friend. But I'm not in control of her so I can't make the decision to just go and find her a friend.
Whilst Stella seemed happy when he lived indoors, nothing compared to seeing him and his sister bounce around the garden and snuggle up together.

I'm on my phone now so can't post links but there's loads of info about rabbits needing same species company on the RWAF website so you should be able to get lots of convincing stuff there.

Is the guinea pig single too? She could do with friends. Why is she being spayed? Pyometra? It's not the normal thing you would do for a guinea pig as they are not prone to cancer like rabbits are.

Hey, sorry I didn't make it clear, the guinea is a boy... so being neutered He has a problem with his urm... area, basically it won't stay inside him and had gotten infected, he's been on antibiotics and gets it cleaned so its okay but still uncomfortable. The vet put it down to him being quite... frisky? Anyway, my girlfriend would like to get a girl for him after it's safe to do so. She has 3 guinea pigs altogether, two did live together until one hit maturity and they had to be separated as the older one was bullying the younger. The one that is being neutered wasn't originally hers, he belonged to a friend that brought him on impulse and then couldn't take him home from uni and she ended up keeping him.

Biggest problem is that she has a house, and was allowed pets before her housemates lied and said they were running everywhere (they weren't, they were confined to her room but had a rotation on free run each day) so she had to bring them to my house, they live on the landing which does get blocked off so they can have a run around but it's not as easy as it was when they were in her room... basically she doesn't have the room to start getting other guinea pigs that might not be able to live together as there isn't room for anymore cages. Hopefully next year we she can move into a house with me and my housemates as we pretty much all have pets.


I'll check out that site thanks

Another point as well, I'm not going to use the word clingy, but she certainly does like to be around us, at the moment I'm the only one in and she came and sat in the room with me (had to shoo her off the bed several times but she eventually went and sat on the hoodie I've given to her and has been rolling around on it), so I really don't think she likes to be on her own in the house, which I guess would be a good argument to put forward .

First of all, well done for getting her spayed make sure you get the vet to send you home with metacam, some wont offer it automatically! And yes a lot of the behaviour you are seeing is hormonal. As she's 7 months then she has already been hormonal for a while so there is a small risk of some of it having become learned behaviour rather than purely hormonal, so while you should see most of it lessen within 6 weeks dont worry if some persists, it may stick around for a while. Some may be just normal behaviours for her, and some rabbits never become fully litter trained or stop weeing on beds etc. Make sure you clean the area every time with white vinegar to neutralise it, as if you dont she'll smell her wee there and is more likely to use it as a regular toilet.

You say she is belongs to all of you, who gets her when you go your separate ways? This is something you need to settle if you want to get a friend, as once rabbits are bonded it is cruel to split them up unless you really have to (severe health problems or fighting). Whoever has her would have to take her friend as well.

I certainly wouldn't allow her to be split if we did get her a friend, if one person was going to take her and refused to take the friend (I only have one person in mind here) then the others would back me up and say she either went with her friend or didn't go with them at all. There are 3 out of 5 of us who could take her with a friend with no problems. One housemate chips in but wouldn't want to take her own and it's the girl who has the crate in her room who'd be the only problem but there is another 2 years to go so it's something we'll discuss in maybe a year, year and a half.