Bad behaviour post-neuter

Question
Dear Dana

I have adopted a 1 year old rabbit and had him neutered one week after he joined our family. It has been 2 days now since the neutering but I have noticed his change in behaviour. He was a gentle rabbit that lets you do anything to him, like hold his hand, cuddle etc. but since yesterday he was destroying things in his cage, like flipping the vet bed and pushing his food tray until the food comes out. would not let me pick him up when I want to check on his wound. why is he doing that? is he angry at me that I took away his man-hood?

The other problem I have is toilet training, before he was neutered he would urinate in the corner next to the litter tray for a few consecutive days, so I moved the litter tray to his corner to accommodate him, but then he went and urinated in the corner where the litter tray used to be. then I moved the litter tray back and the same thing would happen, let alone the poops, they are everywhere- in and out of litter tray. I followed the recommendations on the internet- put poops and paper dabbed with urine in the litter tray but nothing seem to work. Now after he is neutered the situation has worsen. He now urinates in every corner but the litter tray. I thought they would be easier to toilet train after they have been neutered but it seems his behaviour has worsen. Please can you give me some pointers?

Many thanks,
Lily

Answer
Dear Lily,

Your bunny may have been docile right after the surgery because he was sore and still a little bit doped up.  Once he started to recover from that, he began to act out.

I have seen this happen in a few cases.  Our own Vash was gentle as a lamb before his neuter, but he turned into a Tower of Testosterone shortly after his neuter.  This happens on occasion with males, and no one is sure why.  Some have suggested that the very manipulation of the testicles during the neuter could cause a surge of testosterone that may take weeks to resolve.

Keep up the litterbox training tips:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/training.html

and be patient.  If it's been only a few days, these things should calm down and resolve over the next few weeks.  If they don't then the next step would be to write to behavior@rabbit.org for additional help.

Please write back if you have any other questions.

Dana