A mate for my Dwarf Bunny?

Question

My fiance and I are thinking about getting our Dwarf Rabbit, Coco, a mate. She is about a year old , very sweet when she wants to be and quite spunky. She is perfectly healthy , but I think that she's lonely. We fully understand that a female is out of the question as female dwarfs (well dwarfs in general) are very Territorial towards the same s*x. How would we introduce a new male to her? What age should he be (hers or older) ? If they did have baby's , how could we tell she is pregnant? Would we need two litter boxes? Thanks for all your help!!

Answer 1

After cats and dogs, rabbits are the 3rd most common animal dumped in shelters. There is a rabbit OVERPOPULATION. We do NOT need any more rabbits.

The only people that should be breeding rabbits are experienced and knowledgable breeders who are breeding health-guaranteed breeder-originated rabbits. All rabbits are sweet and spunky. This does not mean they should, or even could be bred. Unless you have done tests on her, and know she will be a suitable mother, you are risking her very life, not to mention the lives of all her potential babies.

And even if she turns out to breed alright, she will be breeding several times a year living with a male. Rabbits can live well past 10 years, although she would only make it to about half that, but just imagine how many more unwanted rabbits she will produce! This is seriously straineous to her. Plus, at one year old, she is way to young to have her first litter. Do not breed.

You do not have to breed her for her to have a friend. It is true that rabbits are very social, and benefit from having other rabbit friends. Have you considered adopting at all? Most shelters neuter all of their rabbits before giving them out. Find a nice neutered male for her, and problem solved. You might also like to think about spaying her since leaving her unspayed might lead to a number of hormonal-realted health problems.

Edit: Oh, I wish you said that before I typed all of that, lol :)

But as I said, most recues spay and neuter all their rabbits before adopting them out. Try calling her shelter and asking about their policy. And in any case, you will not have the slightest problem adopting an already neutered male. I don't know what the other answerer is talking about, but I have kept rabbits where some were neutered and other were not, and there was absolutely no problem. When neutered, all their hormonal "desires" are gone, so as long as one is neutered, it will work out.

And it generally is preferble to have seperate litter boxes, at least at first. They will not be too familiar with eachother, so naturally, would prefer their own part of the cage.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Rabbits can be kept together in any combination if they are neutered, the easiest is male and female but only if they are both neutered.  Never try to pair rabbits if one is neutered but the other is not.  

Don't allow them to breed as there are already plenty of rabbits who need homes.

Introduce them slowly in a neutral area through a screen so they can see and smell each other without being able to fight, gradually increase the time they spend together and if they get on, you can remove the screen watching them carefully all the time.  

Answer 3

There's introduction tips here

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/intro...

But you should make sure they are both neutered first.

Answer 4

You'd need two CAGES- if you're planning to breed her, which I don't agree with- she needs to be alone after she gets all unwillingly knocked up, before she goes through the painful labour, or else she or the father (or both) may kill the babies. Not that the chances of all of them are surviving are high /at all/.

And then you need at least one more cage for the male rabbits that are born.

You could get a neutured male rabbit and spay her, or spay her and get another spayed female, but I guess that simple thought never occured to you and you'd rather ruin a pet by breeding them, despite not knowing their genetics and problems that could occur during pregnancy/birth.

BUT YOU KNOW.

Your (irresponsible) choice.

***

PETA? No, they're a bunch of c**p.

I'm just talking for someone who doesn't want animals to suffer due to backyard breeders.