Neutered rabbit - try to mate with young rabbit

Question
Hi there,

This may sound like a daft question. I have a 1 yr old male rabbit who was intentionally mated once and then neutered. We now have his daughter with us. Mischa (the male) was neutered about 2 weeks ago and is still trying to mate with the younger female rabbit. The young rabbit (Mini) is 10 weeks old. I keep them apart most of the time, occasionally allowing them to interact with each other for about half hour. He regularly will try to mate with Mini. Is it ok to let him mate with her, I read this may be to do with dominance, or should I leave them apart until his hormones wear off?

Answer
Dear Elena,

Since he's been neutered for only two weeks, he still may have viable sperm.  Mini is probably too young to get pregnant, but it's better to be safe than sorry.  So I'd wait another couple of weeks to really introduce them.  By then, his hormones will have decreased, and he won't be quite as likely to mount her.

He still might, as this is a dominance display. But at the moment, the mounting is still probably mostly hormonal.

When you do get ready to introduce them, the tips here should help:

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/behavior/bonding-tips.html

Hope that helps.

Dana