# Can a neutered male rabbit and female live together?



## vek555 (Dec 8, 2012)

I got my male rabbit neutered hoping I could put him in the same (very large) cage as my female (they're both mini lops). As soon as I put them together (I waited a week so he could recover from his surgery) he started vigorously humping her lol. I don't want her to feel harassed, should I keep them separate? I was really hoping they could live together after his neutering, but apparently the operation didn't kill his sex drive...
Oh and btw he's about a 9 months old and shes six months


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## 12lawliet12Snickers, Truffle (Dec 8, 2012)

It generally takes a month or so for the hormones to dissipate. Until they do he can still get her pregnant.


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## Nancy McClelland (Dec 8, 2012)

One to two months. They will hump from time to time to show dominance, even the females.


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## agnesthelion (Dec 8, 2012)

Is she spayed? Generally speaking it is usually not possible for two bunnies to be considered bonded unless they are both fixed.
And then if they are both fixed, you can't just put them in the same cage. The bonding process can take days, weeks or even months! Usually bunny dates on neutral territory (like a room neither has been in before) is what needs to happen for them to accept each other.
If the female is not spayed, the male can still get her pregnant 6-8 weeks after the surgery! Also, her hormones, after being together with a male, can induce false pregnancies. That can bring out grumpiness and territorialness (to protect her nest). So it is best to have them both altered before bonding.
It's a detailed process (I just recently bonded my two) but worth it in the end when they are friends  good luck!


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## vek555 (Dec 8, 2012)

Thanks for all your responses! I had no idea that he could still get her pregnant!
That scares me because I think (I hope) she may already be pregnant from him, from before I got him neutered (that was my intention). I don't want her to get pregnant twice, I know that rabbits can do that because of their Y-shaped uterus and that's bad. Is it likely that this has already happened? 

I also didn't realize that bonding rabbits was such an important detailed process. They always sleep side by side and snuggle up against each other all the time even though they have a huge cage to roam around in - does this mean they are already bonded? Or do I still have to do the process?

I will get her spayed as soon as her babies are delivered and weaned and all that (assuming she is pregnant)


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## Imbrium (Dec 9, 2012)

you'll need to separate them now, as she could get pregnant again immediately after giving birth if she's currently pregnant (which is *really* hard on their bodies) and having a male around when pregnant/raising babies is stressful for the mom. because they'll be apart for a while, re-bonding may be necessary. if you keep them close enough to see/smell each other but with a few inches of space between the cages (because pregnancy CAN happen through cage bars!), you can most likely preserve most or all of their bond.

if you do need to rebond them after they're both fixed and hormone free, here are two great sites on bonding:
http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/matchups.asp
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml

if you need another cage, you might look into C&C/NIC style cages:
http://www.guineapigcages.com/cubes.htm
http://breyfamily.net/bunnycage.html
best deal on grids for the cages: http://www.sears.com/stor-floor-sta...p-00913332000P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1

as a note, do NOT use a NIC cage for babies under about 10-11 weeks of age unless you also use some sort of meshing (hardware cloth works well) that would prevent them from shoving their heads through the grids (or when they're really young, crawling completely through) - my little lionhead got her head stuck in a grid at 9 weeks old because I thought she was too big for that and she decided to prove me wrong. mini lops may be ok at a little younger than 10-11 weeks since lops have slightly wider heads than lionheads, their ears are on the side rather than straight up (Nala got stuck because her ears popped up after she stuck her head through) and mini lops are larger than my lionhead and holland lop.


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