Confusion about Sexing Rabbits
(Colorado)
I read your page on sexing rabbits yesterday, so I thought I could try it out on my rabbit to see if it works. When I did what you said, it showed a slit in his privates, but more than once he has tried to get on top of female rabbits to breed with them. What's going on, and what should I base my conclusions on?
***** Karen Sez *****I can understand the confusion - you see behaviors that look like attempts at mating by a rabbit -- male behavior in a rabbit that looks like a female according to the photos at
https://www.raising-rabbits.com/sexing-rabbits.html.
The thing is, humping or mounting other rabbits is also a dominance behavior. Females and males both mount each other as a means of asserting their will over other rabbits in the litter or the colony.
How old is the rabbit in question? If you've clearly identified a slit, the rabbit is a female, whether or not it is mounting its littermates.
If you're still not sure, go reexamine the rabbit, applying a bit more pressure to the vent. Give it a firm stretch. If the slit remains and nothing pops out with a round opening, the diagnosis is female. If the extra pressure reveals a penile sheath that opens to a circle and protrudes, you can change the diagnosis to buck!
Does this help?