About Sarah Giers Expertise I can answer general questions about rabbit care, health, showing, breeding, and genetics. Colour, breeding, and genetics are my strongest areas.
Experience I have raised and shown rabbits for 12 years. At the moment I am not currently raising them, but I still keep up with all of the latest news and information released about them.
Organizations American Rabbit Breeders Association
Publications Various rabbit club newsletters; articles written/allowed to be used per request.
Question Would extra skin on the side of the penis/anus be called testicales? Also how old dose a buck have to be in order to breed? And I was just looking and saw a sack on both sides of the rabbit. Would that be called testicles? When I sexed the rabbit I couldn't see the penis but I saw the testicle sacks on both sides. What does that mean?
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Also she is three years old. We have another bunny. She/he we don't know for sure. Is 4 months old. Well when they get frisky and the little one goes on top of the female rabbit. I quikly take the 4month off her. When I did that I noticed something pink does that mean it's a boy?
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I have a question does hair loss around a rabbits nipples mean she is pregnant? She is three years old.
Answer -
Not necessarily. Rabbits do not produce milk until they have actually had the babies, so they do not have swelling of the nipples from pregnancy.
If she is fairly young (4-8 months), it is likely just hormonal changes from maturing that are doing it.
As long as she is not losing hair anywhere else, I would not worry about it.
If she has been around an unnuetered male, though, she may be pregnant anyway.
Answer -
The pink may be a penis, which would mean it is a male. Turn the rabbit over and look for two bald sacks on either side of the tail. Those would be the testicals, and they mean the rabbit is definitely a male. If there are none, it still might be a male that just has not dropped its testicals yet.
I would assume the rabbit is pregnant. It only takes a second for a male to breed with a female. I would highly advise keeping them seperated, as the male is old enough to breed. If the female is already pregnant, being bred again could be very dangerous for her and her litter.
Answer The sacks would be testicals. The extra skin could be the scent glands. All rabbits have two scent glands near the genitals and anus.
If you saw the bald sacks, that means you have a male that is sexually mature. This means he is perfectly capable of breeding a female.
A male usually starts showing interest in females and is able to breed around 3 1/2 to 4 months old (some take a little longer to mature, and some are a little faster to mature). By the time the testicals drop (i.e. move from being contained inside of the body to being held outside of the body), they are able to breed, though they may or may not know what to do right away. Yours obviously knows what to do though, if he is mounting your other rabbit.
I would advise getting them spayed and neutered. The female is reaching an age where uterine and overian cancers can be a concern. The male is old enough to be neutered, and neutering can prevent testicular cancer. Also, now that the buck is sexually mature, he may start having behavioural problems such as spraying, circling your feet, and even trying to mount people. Neutering will take care of those, and if you get it done soon, you might prevent them entirely.
