rabbit - bonding & fur

Question
Hi,
i have a 9 month old male netherland dwarf rabbit who is vacinated & neutered. We had 2 but one died unexpectedly.
I am now looking to get out remaining rabbit a new friend as i dont want him to get lonley, he has always lived with his brother.
Our local pet shop has 2 albino rabbits one male one female about 7 months old who have been brought into him for rehoming as their previous onwer lost interest, he said they are not sexually active yet which i thought they would be we dont really want baby bunnys as i think it would impaire the bonding process if the female suddenly has a litter. He said its fine to split the pair that share the same cage up, i'm not soo sure as i thought you shouldnt seperate bonded rabbits? The last thing i want is to make a happy rabbit sad and our rabbit even sader.
Also i keep reading about having both rabbits neutered before bonding, is this necessary or an ideal? as my rabbit has been done but not the albino one. She also has a few small patches in her fur of what looks slightly yellowish colour matt, the guy in the pet shop says this is where the other one has been cleaning her, does she just need a good brush? do albino rabbits fur stain easily?
My other option is a female rex that appears to have been bred as they are selling 3 pure bred rex's 2f 1m, 4-5 months old, again she wont have been neutered yet.
I really want to get another bunny asap as my one is looking lonley in his hutch but i have never bonded one & dont want to make a wrong decision, the rabbits interest is my first priority.  

Answer
Hi,

I'm glad your rabbit's interest is your first priority.

Keep in mind that you can't just substitute one rabbit for another one.  It would be better if you let your rabbit pick a friend rather than you coming home with one he's never met.  

It would also be better to see what rabbits your local/nearby rabbit rescue groups and shelters have, because these people can help supervise a bunny date to see if they will get along.  With rescue groups they spay and neuter their fosters so one is not 'turbocharged' and the other isn't. That is very important that they both be fixed, otherwise the one that isn't will exasperate the one that isn't and needless fighting will most likely occur.  Further you save two rabbits when you adopt a bunny from a rescue/shelter - the one you adopt, and the one that they can then take in.

The other thing you can do is spend more time with your bunny now.  If you give him more time, that may be what he needs for now.  He may not be ready for another. You could be mistaking grieving for 'wanting a new bunny'.  You don't want to make the mistake of bringing a bunny home that he doesn't get along with.  That just makes things worse.

Check the shelters and rescue groups, they will have people that can work with you to see what rabbits they have that could be potentially successful pairings. Don't try threesome bonding.  Just a good pairing.  Since he is male, the most stable future friend should be a spayed female.

Give him extra love and attention in the meantime.  This will help him and the nice thing for both of you is that the bond between you and him will strengthen.