Rabbit Spaying

Spaying a female rabbit can be beneficial if you want several rabbits to live together without fighting and also desire a rabbit that is easier to handle. Once the female rabbit is spayed, she will be calmer and less nervous about her surroundings, and it prevents her from becoming pregnant on a monthly basis, especially if she is housed with a male rabbit.

Benefits of Rabbit Spaying

There are several advantages to spaying a rabbit. Whether it’s a male or female rabbit, you can reduce potential hormonal diseases while also decreasing the natural hormone-driven behavior reactions that all rabbits naturally have to defend their territory, protect themselves from predators, and increase the chances of rapidly breeding many more rabbits.

Spaying Means No Rabbit Offspring

The major benefit of rabbit spaying is that it prevents the possibility of a plethora of rabbit offspring. It is more or less certain that this will occur if more than one rabbit is housed together and they are of different sexes. It is not uncommon for more than 50 rabbit offspring to be produced in a year, making fertile breeding rabbits very quickly become an overwhelming project to manage at home.

Neutered Rabbits Are Easier to Handle

A rabbit’s behavior is largely driven by hormones. These hormones help make them more alert and vigilant, thus better able to avoid predators. Additionally, rabbits are generally very territorial, which means they will do just about anything to defend their territory, and female rabbits will want to signal to others that the males in the area are already taken.

When you choose to spay your female rabbit, she will no longer be highly driven by sex hormones and will be less nervous, less territorial, and fundamentally much easier to handle. Spayed female rabbits are calmer and much easier to fully tame.

Neutered Rabbits Smell Less

One of the major benefits, especially if you keep rabbits indoors, is that they smell less. In the wild, the goal is to smell as bad as possible if it’s to be possible to scare away rivals. This applies to both feces and urine. Spaying a rabbit means it will be cleaner and not need to mark its territory as much as unneutered rabbits do.

Spayed Female Rabbits Live Longer

When you choose to have a female rabbit in your family, you naturally want her to live as long as possible. This is one of the benefits of spaying a rabbit at a young age. First and foremost, you will minimize or even eliminate hormonal diseases such as uterine cancer. Additionally, you prevent your rabbit from aging quickly due to the high stress levels caused by high hormone levels.

Have Several Neutered Rabbits Living Together

If you want more than one rabbit, it’s advantageous that they are all neutered—both males and females. First and foremost, there will be no rabbit offspring, but it also becomes easier to have rabbits living together without injuries resulting from fights and reduced welfare due to the stress associated with having several unneutered rabbits together.

How Rabbit Spaying Is Performed

A female rabbit can be spayed as early as 3-4 months old. It is not recommended that you wait much longer to spay your rabbit, as this helps avoid dealing with gender-specific hormonal diseases in later life. Additionally, the operation is less invasive if the rabbit is young, and she will better handle the anesthesia compared to an older rabbit.

Before the Operation

When you’ve decided to have your female rabbit spayed, you’ll go to the vet, who will explain the process. The rabbit is then anesthetized with a small injection, either under the skin or in the muscle. Your rabbit will gradually fall deeper into sleep, and after 10 to 20 minutes, she will be completely asleep and will not feel anything during the procedure. She is then taken to the operating room, where she is prepared with shaving and cleaning in the area where the incision will be made.

During the Operation

Throughout the anesthesia, the vet will closely monitor your rabbit’s parameters to ensure everything goes smoothly, and she does not feel any pain during the operation. Once everything is ready, a small incision is made in the rabbit’s abdominal skin, after which the ovaries are removed. Finally, the abdominal skin is closed with a few stitches, and your rabbit is ready to wake up after the operation.

After the Operation

Your vet may have the option to administer an antidote against the anesthesia the rabbit received before the operation. Otherwise, she will be placed in a safe, warm, and secure location where she can slowly come to her senses as the anesthesia wears off. Your rabbit will be given pain relief and antibiotics before waking up to prevent subsequent pain and infections. It is possible to take your rabbit home the same day the operation is performed, as soon as she is awake and able to eat and drink on her own.

Once You Are Home After Rabbit Spaying

It’s important that there is peace and quiet at home after spaying your rabbit. There may be some aftereffects from the anesthesia, so she should not be placed with other rabbits. Additionally, it’s important that there is calm so the rabbit is not forced to jump around too much and stretch the surgical incision after the operation.

Make sure there is plenty of food and water, and you might let your newly operated rabbit out into her usual cage after a day or two of rest. Be sure to follow the vet’s instructions if there is a need for administering antibiotics or pain relief in the days following the operation.

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