Rabbit Rehome helps Neuter Rescue Rabbits
Neutering will allow these two brothers to find a home together without having to be seperated because of territorial fighting.
Rspca Medway Branch has hundreds of rabbits coming into our centre each year. We are one of the few Rspca Branches who mainly take rabbits and small animals and have many rabbits transferred from other branches. We always have 40+ rabbits in our care and usually have a waiting least of rabbits to come into the centre.
Why do we believe in neutering?
Having your rabbit neutered is one of the most important steps you can take to help your pet enjoy a happy, healthy and long life. The main reason to have your rabbit neutered is so you can keep more than one rabbit without them fighting or causing a population explosion. But there are other advantages to. Neutered rabbits are less aggressive and territorial, and are more easily litter-trained if you want to keep your pet indoors as a house rabbit.
Benefits for Male Rabbits
It's amazing what a change neutering brings to male rabbits. Male rabbits naturally want to fight off others from their territory, and for such a cuddly animal, they can be quite aggressive. In fact, many rabbits end up in shelters due to aggression problems which could be removed by neutering the animal. A male rabbit will be aggressive not only to other rabbits and animals in the house, but often to you as well, despite your best intentions. They will also spray urine to mark territory, a messy problem, and will be harder to litter train, than a neutered male. If your male is neutered, he will be a much more loving, calm and cuddly animal. He'll be less destructive and agressive. The phrase "They'll be calmer and live longer" applies so well to rabbits. A neutered male will be able to have other rabbit friends, without fear of agression or breeding.
These two sisters are becoming aggressive with each other, spaying should help this problem and prevent them developing uterine cancer in later life.
Benefits for Female Rabbits
Most females become territorial and aggressive from sexual maturity onwards (4-6 months). They have repeated false pregnancies, and may growl at, scratch and bite their owners as well as attacking other rabbits. Keeping two females together - even if they are sisters - can sometimes make things worse. Spaying reduces and sometimes eliminates these behavioural problems. Unspayed female rabbits can develop uterine cancer by 5 years of age
The Operation
It is important to find the right vet. A vet who is used to performing the operation. An experienced vet can neuter rabbits extremely quickly which reduces the risk of problems under anesthetic.
Castration is a relatively minor operation which can be performed as soon as the testicles descend (10-12 weeks) although most vets wait until the rabbit is 4 or 5 months old, when the operation is easier to perform and the anesthetic risk is reduced. This will take an experienced vet about 10-20minutes to perform. Male rabbits remain fertile for up to 4 weeks after castration. Females must be kept away from males for about 14 days after being spayed. It's best to keep them separate (but in adjacent cages) except when you can supervise them very closely.
Spaying is a bigger operation than castration. It's usually performed when the rabbit is at least 4 or 5 months old. The uterus and both ovaries are removed via the abdomen. The rabbit will have stitches and must have strict cage rest for a couple of days.
We actually neuter rabbits when we have clinic days at the centre. We try and neuter as many of our male rabbits as possible in the operating space we have. We concentrate on the male as it calms them down and easier for us to bond them with other rabbits. We do spay some of our female rabbits, mainly if there are a pair of females as the hormones can make them turn on one another.
Hopefully if we can encourage the neutering of rabbits, we will have less unwanted rabbits in an already over populated pet industry. We need to discourage the unnecessary breeding, as many animal shelters are over run with unwanted pets and a few now have to destroy animals that they cannot rehome.
We would like to thank Rabbit Rehome and Tamsin for the donation to our clinic to help us neuter more of our rabbits. We are a self funded branch and run on a donation basis and this will help finance many more operations. This will benefit many of our rabbits and their potential new owners.