Reasons for desexing
Desexing does carry a risk that you should be aware of, however it has many benefits. The most obvious is that you won't be responsible for an unwanted litter of kits. Even if you’re keeping Miss Bun locked up safely at night, one little mistake of leaving the latch open, and in 31 days you’ll be seeing eight little bubs squirming around in her nest. Rabbits do not have a cycle in which to get pregnant. The act of mating stimulates an egg to be released and fertilized, so the wild bunny down the road may be a father very quickly to your precious girl. Even though there is a saying “breeding like rabbits” all births are risky and not a great educational tool for children. Rabbits over one year giving birth for the first time may have difficulties, and if your girl only has a small number of kits they could get too big for her to give birth to (leading to an emergency cesarean costing in excess of $800 at your vet!). Stressed mummas can also eat their young, leaving bits of them in their cage. Not a sight any child should have to be confronted with. Lastly, supposing all goes well, finding good homes for your buns are difficult. You’ll never know if they’ll end up in a pound later in life, or passed on until they’re used for illegal greyhound training. If breeding is really what you want to do, contact a registered breeder for all the facts, to purchase purebred stock, and for the health of mother rabbit and her offspring.
So, other than stopping your rabbit from breeding, desexing will help in many other areas too. Females can suffer uterine cancer if left undesexed. Sometimes females will get hormonal and have phantom pregnancies, becoming aggressive to you while she thinks there are some buns in the oven. In male rabbits particularly, much like with dogs, hormone levels can go so high that they'll hump anything that moves, including fluffy little teddy bears on display while your guests are with you. Not to mention trying to hump your hand when you want to give him a pat. Anything really! They may also stink, trying to get their pheromones to reach the lady bunny they’re convinced is around the corner. They may try spraying urine, and trust me, they have a pretty good aim especially for eyes and school uniforms. Having your male desexed will allow him to have a future girlfriend should you grant it, and they’ll have a great honeymoon before he calms down. You see, he’ll still be able to have a great sex life, he’ll just be firing blanks. Wait a minimum of 4 weeks post-desexing before you introduce him to a lady friend as he’ll still be able to impregnate her in this time if she has not been desexed. With male rabbits, sometimes a testicle will not have descended properly and in this case they are more prone to cancer and can have a very early death.
There are cases where animals should not be desexed, such as with very young or very old, sick or highly stressed pets. If you’re thinking about desexing, best to talk to an exotics vet, who is experienced with anaesthetizing small animals and operating on them.
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