bonding 2 rabbits

Question
I have an un spayed female rabbit about one year old.  I recently "rescued" a young un neutered male rabbit, he is around 4 months.  I would like these 2 to bond and I can afford to get the male rabbit "done" when he is old enough. the female is very doscile and I have introduced them twice.  First time she ran away and hid.  A few weeks later, after there cages were placed within an inch of each other i atemped again to see if they will get along, this time they sniffed each other's noses for a while and then started nuzzeling each other.  some people have told be a neutered male and unspayed female will rarly get along however they seam to be fine.  i am not going to atempt full bonding untill he is "done" as I don't want babies but are the signs they have shown so far good signs?

Answer
Hi Kirra,

well they did not fight.  Unfortunately this is not a fair test as they both are intact rabbits, which have high amounts of hormones overriding their personalities.

My personal opinion and experience is this:  I strongly suggest getting both rabbits fixed.  You will have less problems both in the short and long run if you do.  It is a bad combination to have one fixed bunny and one intact.  The one that is intact is driven by hormones, the other is not.  One is litterpan-trainable, one is not.  One is much more friendly, one is not.  One will live a long life, one will not.  The high hormone levels basically half the life expectancy of a female, and can shorten a male's life if he is intact.

The best solution is to: when both are old enough and sexually mature, get the male fixed, and around the same time he is recovering, get the gal spayed.  Wait 4-5 weeks keep them separate, it takes this long for hormone levels to stabilize at the new lower level.  Then after this point, how they interact and if they get along, will mostly be influenced on their personalities, rather than high sex hormones.  You will have rabbits who will have good litterpan habits.  you will have rabbits that will fight less and when they do, the fights will be less severe.  You will have rabbits that you can interact with their real personalities, instead of rabbits that are reacting to you because of hormonal-driven instinct.

The key is finding a good rabbit vet to do the procedures.  Not all vets are good rabbit vets.  I would start here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.  Their web site (www.rabbit.org) has excellent bonding articles as well.

Lee