I have two 8 week old bunnies - if different sexes how old before they are sexually mature?

Question

My girls bought two bunnies last week from a local pet shop & we were told they were both girls & from the same litter. We took them to the vet to get a general health check & their first lot of jabs. We asked the vet to check their sexes & he confirmed one is a definite girl, but he thinks one might be a boy & when they go back for another set of jabs in two weeks he will double check for us. Since then the one he thinks could be a boy has greeted the girl by, (not sure how to put this into words & not get into trouble!) mounting her! I've only seen it happen twice so far, each time after they've been put into the run.

If we had two girls surely this wouldn't be usual behaviour?! The vet has said that he cannot neuter/spay them until they are 6 months old & before I give one away I need to be certain i'm doing the right thing - if it turned out they WERE both girls i would have upset my kids for nothing!

I also need to be sure I don't have a set of baby bunnies on my hands in a months time - I need to know how long i've got to re-home one of them - if anyone can help i'd be extremely grateful!

Answer 1

Rabbit (like all rodents) mature very fast. I think that females can become pregnnt at 6 weeks, and males can father a litter about then too. Just to be on the safe side, separate the ASAP!

Answer 2

don't worry yet. i think it takes about 3 months because my rabbits from the same litter had babies after keeping them for 4 months and the gestation period is one month. unless my rabbits were late developers, but that doesn't seem very likely.

Answer 3

Rabbits get mature fast so the best idea is probably to seporate them now, before you get baby bunnies.

Answer 4

Your bunnies aren't old enough to be sexually mature. I'm sure the vet would have told you to separate them if they thought there was a danger of an unwanted pregnancy.

It is normal rabbit behaviour to mount each other, boys to girls, girls to girls, girls to boys, so i wouldn't worry too much. If you do separate them until they are neutered you will probably have to go through a long bonding process to get them back together again. I think you should keep them together so you don't have to rehome one. Rabbits are highly social and require a companion to be completely happy.

I think you should give your vet a call and tell them your concerns. A spay can still be done even when the rabbit is pregnant. But i suspect that both rabbits are not fully mature enough.

Answer 5

8 weeks is early enough to be sexually mature in rabbits, and it is hard to tell early on which is which.  I would separate them ASAP.  They don't need very much space, a small cage would work for now.  

Answer 6

Most rabbit sexually mature between 3-4 months.