Bonding a lone male, just castrated, to a young female.

[Lord byron]

So, we've just had our male rabbit castrated at about 10 months old (we've had him since he was about 8 weeks old) and, much to our relief, it seems to have made very little if any difference to his temperament. He's still very affectionate towards myself and my girlfriend and is eating normally, showing no signs of pain and apart from giving his crotch some attention and not taking on any ambitious exploring he seems perfectly happy and normal. i say this was a relief because i did some last minute research on forums and read a load of horrendous stories about rabbits turning into monsters after castration etc! the reason we got him done was because after months of debating we've decided to get him some company for the long days in the form of another rabbit, a female. we thought it would be best to get him neutered despite the fact the vet told us we may not need to because we didn't want him spraying all over the house with the new girl in and we don't want her to be harassed by him. he's a pet's at home mongrel that's grown up to be very small, i'd refer to his size as 'size 10' as he's about the size of my size 10 walking shoes. bearing this in mind we've gone for a mini rex female as a buddy for him as when she's fully grown we know she'll be about the same size. we're getting the girl off some private breeders nearby rather than pet's at home primarily for the size guarantee but also because it just feels weird to me buying an animal from a shop on an industrial estate and all the local rescue centre's are all out of appropriate buns. so, cut to the chase...
our male literally has the run of the house, it's a small terraced house, two floors and a crog loft upstairs which he is free to explore freely appart from the crog loft that he can't get to because he can't climb the steep wooden stairs. he has a his food bowl and water along with a small tray downstairs which he uses as his toilet, apart from that it's just the normal house for him, he sleep's in a few locations but usually under the bed or just inside the bedroom door. our plan was to move the new rabbit in next week and to make the crog loft rabbit safe so we can put her in there as the neutral zone. i figured this would be good to test responses as they'd be able to smell each other and snatch glimpses but would be out of reach and the new female would have her own neutral area in which to adjust. the new female is 8 weeks old.
so that's the set up, i was just interested in any advice i could get as to wether this would be appropriate or any changed anyone's willing to suggest. i was also wondering how soon we could put the two together in direct contact and where would be best to do so.
i did post on here a while ago after we got our first rabbit and everyone begged me to consider getting him a buddy but i wasn't sure, i think we've got to the point now where we know it's the right thing to do!
cheers guys!

 

[Mirth]

Glad you're getting him a lady friend, but don't start introductions until she's been spayed as she will become hormonal and that can ruin a bond, plus it'll cut out with getting uterus cancer as a high number of female rabbits get it before they're 5 years old.

You will have to wait until she's 6 months old though, and if you use the area set aside for neutral bonding to let them see each other it'll stop being neutral.
And if you bond her now, there is a chance it could fall apart when her hormones come in or when you need to separate her for a few days to recover from the spay.

 

[Lord byron]

You will have to wait until she's 6 months old though, and if you use the area set aside for neutral bonding to let them see each other it'll stop being neutral.
And if you bond her now, there is a chance it could fall apart when her hormones come in or when you need to separate her for a few days to recover from the spay.[/QUOTE]

I've been advised that a female can be spayed as soon as she comes of age, usually after about 4 months, so we're told it wouldn't be a problem to bond them now then get her spayed as soon as she hits puberty which would nip any bad behaviour in the bud.
I meant see each other as in they'd be within sight of each other but separated by the height of the room, if our male's not been up there then nothing will be scented and it'll be neutral ground surely?
thanks.

 

[parsnipbun]

4 months is really rather too early for a girl - often their insides are not fully developed and this can lead to problems with the operation not being totally successful. Your male will also still have hormonal issues for a few weeks and will also retain some fertility or the same period (I know this seems odd as his balls are off but it IS the case!)