Bonding 2 male siblings

Hi all,

After sadly loosing my pair of bonded netherland dwarf does last year I have decided I am ready to own rabbits again.

I have just put a deposit down on 2 male mini lops (didn’t want to leave one behind on his own). I have never owned males before so could do with some advice in terms of castration and bonding etc.

From a quick google research it seems as if it would be best to keep them separated until they have been castrated and then attempt to bond them but I’m reading conflicting things about this! Some people say it’s fine to keep them together until castrated but I’m not sure - I kept my does together as they where very close but not sure if it’s different in males!

Secondly; with mini lops what age did everyone get them castrated? I had to wait a year for my nethies to be a suitable size to be spayed so is it roughly that long I’ll need to wait with mini lops?

It can be tricky with males as if they have a fight it could end up very badly, so that's why some advice is to keep them separate until after their castration and hormones have calmed down (6 weeks post castration). One of my rescue rabbits was brought into rescue as he had a sudden fight with his brother, leaving the brother needed surgery at the vets as he'd bitten his bits and left them in a very bad state! This is easily done as the male rabbits may hump eachother when hormones kick in/or during fighting for dominance. This was when they were very young so hormones started early.

I then however hand raised a litter of rabbits and a lovely owner wanted to re-home both the boys together, they were kept together and castrated very early (can be done as soon as testicles descend if rabbit is above 1kg most vets say). They recovered from their ops well together. This lady works from home and her rabbits live in her study/bedroom so knew she could watch them very closely for any signs of fights, even then you can't be around 100% of the time. If the rabbits are very laid back/you're prepared to castrate them early and keep a close eye for any fights it may be worth takong a risk and keeping them together for the sake of hopefully maintaining their bond. Otherwise I would think it's safer to keep them separate but where they can see/smell eachother and hopefully they would bond after castration.

Boy and girl are the best bond whereas 2 boys are sometimes never deeply bonded and likely to fallout. This is very stressful for the rabbits and their owner. I have read so many stories that you are very lucky if you have 2 happily bonded boys.

I work full time so I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving them together whilst I’m at work just In case. I think it will just be easier to keep them apart then until they’ve been castrated. I’ve still got just over a month until they are ready to leave so I’ve got plenty of time to sort out another set up. I’ll get them castrated as soon as possible / over 1kg so hopefully they won’t be apart for too long.

And then just to check it will be 6 weeks after castration before I can start bonding them?

We say 6 weeks because that is the length of time they can still be fertile but as they are possibly 2 boys this doesn't necessarily apply. They might need longer.