9 month male bunny but no sexual behaviours - is it safe to put him back with female?

Hi,

I'm new here and have a fairly urgent question. I have a male and female mini lop, both 9 months old who are very well bonded. The male has never shown any typical sexual behaviour (circling, grunting, marking territory, mounting etc) but is definitely a boy and we got him neutered last week. Since we found out he was a boy we've been keeping them separate but with supervised time together so they don't lose the bond. We've never seen any attempt at mating while they've been together. They cuddle and lick each other but nothing more than that.

I know pregnancy is still possible several weeks after the male has been neutered but since we haven't seen any sexual behaviour I wondered if it would be safe to reunite them? Going home for christmas and we only have one cage suitable for travel. We've tried to mock up a divider down the middle but it is fiddly and doesn't feel very safe plus is cramped when each rabbit only gets half the cage rather than them sharing the full width.

Has anybody else experienced male rabbits who just don't seem interested in mating or doesn't show any of the typical signs of sexuality?

Advice would be very much appreciated! Not happy with their separate setup for christmas, but equally don't want babies!

Thanks in advance,

Kate

I was in a similar position last year and definitely didn't want babies so got the female neutered too and then left it a few days and let them have supervised play dates and then put them back together and it was fine

But it's probably a little late to get her done before christmas so I would err on the side of caution and keep them apart as it really doesn't take long for babies to happen!

I would definitely keep them apart for 6 weeks.

The shortest period I'd recommend is 14 days - part of that is healing too not just pregnancy.

I don't know why the period has crept up to 6 weeks, it always used to be two and I've never heard of a buck two weeks post-neuter managing to get a doe pregnant. I think that's more a waiting for the hormones to go down idea.

I think it depends when last week, if we are talking 10 days ago and they've been hanging out together then I'd be more likely to go for it than 4 days. Might be worth asking local freecycle/facebook groups - you might be able to pick up a folding pen or dog crate