Bunny Pairs

Question
I am looking into getting a 2-4 mini-rex rabbits. A friend has a 6 week old litter of all males. Would it be possible to take 2 of these littermates and have them share a cage (if they are not neutered)? I am also looking at getting 1-2 female bunnies from a local breeder - so again, the question pertains to whether or not 2 female littermates could share living quarters. I plan to breed them about once a year and would have a seperate cage for pregnancy/birthing (but then would want to put the females back together).   A second question is if a male and female can live in side-by-side but separate cages or if there would be a constant state of arousal.   I was originally intending to get 1 male and 1 female and house them separately but seeing the little brothers cuddling together and grooming each other has made me wonder if they would be happier in pairs.

Answer
You could probably get pairs and keep them together until about 5-6 months old, at that point if you breed (for mini rex breeding about 6 months old is ideal) you will not be able to put either the boys or the girls back together again. Because you are wanting to breed, I suggest either just getting one pair or a trio (one male two females).

Because rabbits can be such territorial animals and the fact that they will be being bred (even if it is just once a year) that will kick up their hormones to the point that putting the same sex pairs back together will end up in a fight and probably a bad one.

Seperate cages for everyone is probably the best way to go after about 5 months, and make sure that the breeder you are buying form keeps the two you choose in the same cage, usually once they are seperated, it requires about a month of work to get them to bond again, even if they are siblings.

As for the males and females living side by side, it is probably okay, i suggest getting something solid to put between them (can be a piece of cardboard or even material) just so that they can't see eachother, I have found that if you take away the sight of the other rabbit it helps to keep everyones hormones at a manageable level.

check out these websites on breeding rabbits to get some more info
http://www.islandgems.net/bunbreeding.html
http://www.welshrabbitry.com/becomearabbitbreeder.html

Good Luck
Amy