bonding 1 female and 1 male (siblings) with their father, can it work?

Hello, I have had a rabbit who gave birth and has sadly passed away a week ago. She gave birth to 6 rabbits and I'm planning to keep two, one female and one male, 4 weeks old. I also intend to neuter both of them when theyre 2 months.

I noticed that the father has been lonely since the mother of the babies died so I didn't want him to feel lonely. He's never been with a rabbit with him in his hutch (only once when he jumped over his fence and got my female rabbit pregnant). The mother and the father saw each other through the fence though so he wasn't completely lonely. He's not aggressive, but he's skittish.

The siblings have lived together since birth. The vet said to separate the boys from girls at 6 weeks, so after 2 weeks of separation I can neuter them both and introduce them to their father. Is it okay if I bond both of them to their father (neutered)? Or do I still need to bond the siblings before I bond them with their father? Will this method work or is there some more I need to know?

This is the first time making a thread so sorry if its not very clear or if i contradicted myself. Thanks for helping me out!

Hi Coralline, welcome to the forum.

I'm no expert but my comment should bump the thread for you.

I do know that you'll need to neuter all three bunnies and wait for their hormones to die down before attempting any bonding. This could take up to 6-8 weeks.

It would also be helpful for you to explain what their living arrangements are like.

Hopefully someone with more experience in this type of scenario will be along to advise shortly. X

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?317003-Do-you-want-to-bond-a-trio-Read-this-first

This sticky may help.

Hi there and welcome to the Forum. I am sorry you lost Mum of the babies and I hope babies are doing well without her. A good idea would be to have Dad neutered now so he can be recovering then you would have to wait until the boy you want to keep is about 12 weeks old. This is the soonest a Vet will do the operation but you would need to speak to him/her regarding this. The female you want to keep will have to be quite a bit older, around 6 months old, but again best to speak to your Vet.

You can wait until the babies are about 10-12 weeks old before you need to separate them, as it would be difficult to sex them any earlier accurately. At this age it would be possible to put one of the females with Dad, as long as he has been neutered, and have her spayed at the proper time. When the boy has been neutered and recovered from the op you would then be able to try bonding him with Dad and sister but you would need to do it in a neutral area, where Dad has not been before

Good luck with all this and I hope it works out how you would like it. I hope also you find good homes for the remainder of the litter.

If you neuter them with 2 months you dont have to wait for hormones to subside, there are non. Just seperate them some days (your vet will tell) for healing. It is quite common here to neuter bucks at this age, which makes them getting along better with other bucks, I can't tell about females at that age.
To my surprise, this seems a very uncommon thing to do in the US.

Neutering the older buck imho would make life easier too, and never let them together with an unspayed female over 12 weeks (or 10 with small breeds) before his 6 weeks post surgery are over. Although my mature bucks were never agressive (I never brought another mature one into the play) their bathroom habbits were somewhat questionable, showering everything and everyone up to the age of about 1 1/2yrs, and my current buck has still quite sloppy litterbox habbits.

Both bucks I had always were very friendly to young rabbits, trouble began at about 13-16 weeks when the boys hit puberty and started to attack the big, old buck. And, soon after that the buck would have developed interest in the girls, but of course I didn't give that a chance .

Anyway, it so much depends an the individual characters, if something works (or not) for one it isn't necessarily the same for another.

tonibun said:

Hi there and welcome to the Forum. I am sorry you lost Mum of the babies and I hope babies are doing well without her. A good idea would be to have Dad neutered now so he can be recovering then you would have to wait until the boy you want to keep is about 12 weeks old. This is the soonest a Vet will do the operation but you would need to speak to him/her regarding this. The female you want to keep will have to be quite a bit older, around 6 months old, but again best to speak to your Vet.

You can wait until the babies are about 10-12 weeks old before you need to separate them, as it would be difficult to sex them any earlier accurately. At this age it would be possible to put one of the females with Dad, as long as he has been neutered, and have her spayed at the proper time. When the boy has been neutered and recovered from the op you would then be able to try bonding him with Dad and sister but you would need to do it in a neutral area, where Dad has not been before

Good luck with all this and I hope it works out how you would like it. I hope also you find good homes for the remainder of the litter.

Click to expand...

I would go with this. Neuter dad now, son at 12 weeks, daughter at 6 months old. Wait a month or so after the ops before bonding. The babies need to be big enough and mature enough to be neutered. Your vet would advise on what they normally recommend. There is no reason why they shouldn't form a trio if the rebonding is done properly and all are neutered - to reduce hormonal aggression and avoid pregnancy.

2 months is very young for neutering rabbits - the boys won't be developed enough normally, and girls are generally done later as it is a much bigger op and they are slower to mature. UK vets tend to recommend the ages Tonibun gave. They may also give a minimum weight eg 1kg, unless they are a tiny breed.

Trios of bunnies are lovely. Good luck with the bonding.