I have seen this question on many forums and have heard breeders discuss the fact that their rabbit changed sex. In fact, rabbits that won awards at ARBA conventions as does were later put on display only to find out that it was actually a male. Does this mean that a rabbit has changed sex?

Surprisingly, in nature there are some cases where an animal can change gender. Take for example a clown fish. Clownfish live in schools. Within that school there is a leadership structure aimed at being a female clownfish. When that clownfish dies, the male highest in leadership replaces the female and changes gender, including reproductive roles. However, this is a rarity for this type of biological change to take place. In fact, there are even rarer cases of humans who have changed sex as a result of 5-alpha-reductase deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) or 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency (17beta-HSD-3). ).

Rabbits don’t fall into that weird and weird category of animals that switch genders. A rabbit born male, will be male at 6 months, will be male a year. A rabbit born from a doe will be a doe and at 6 months, it will be a doe a year later.

At young ages, it can occasionally be difficult for experienced breeders, and even more difficult for inexperienced breeders, to determine the sex of a rabbit. Most “sex-swapped” rabbits are actually the result of rabbits being mis-sexed by the breeder. We have rarely made this mistake. You can usually trust a breeder who has been breeding for a number of years.

There are other factors that can contribute to a poorly sexed rabbit. A male with a split penis will often be sexed like a doe. Using unreliable techniques to determine the sex of a rabbit will often result in errors. Soon we will have an article on how to correctly sex a rabbit.

The bottom line is that it is genetically impossible for a rabbit to change sex. The next time you hear that, remember, it’s a rabbit that wasn’t sexed correctly.

Rob Usakowski