What Rabbits Do You Have? Show Off Your Rabbits Here!

[shadow rabbit10]

Hi everyone! I raise rabbits for pets and show and I currently have 6. I know I'm not the only rabbit fancier on this site, so it makes me want to know, what rabbit breeds do you have? What is your favorite breed? Pics and stories are always welcome, and if I had some pics downloaded, I would post them, but that is a task for another day. Here are my 6 breeds (one of each)-

- Mini Rex (Name: Scribbles): Now, I've heard good things about this breed, but mine is pure EVIL. He bites anytime, anywhere, anyone. Sadly, he was my first rabbit and I don't have the heart to send him to the meat pen. (Buck, Color- Opal)

- Holland Lop (Name: Cosmo): I love my Holland and he is the sweetest rabbit I own. He never bit anyone, and cannot live without human interaction. (Buck, Color: Broken Tortoise)

- American Fuzzy Lop (Name: Fiji): As the name suggests, this is one fuzzy rabbit! Mine is a sweetheart. They are basically Holland Lops with hair. (Doe, Color: Broken Sable Point)

- New Zealand (Name: Spirit): Now, I know meat fanciers love these guys, but in my opinion, they make better pets! Mine has an attitude all her own and is one lazy bum! She is the dog that I don't have. (Doe, Color: Red Eyed White)

- Polish (Name: Taboo): My tiny black Polish is an insane, off the wall rabbit! He plays with any toy he can find, and loves to make a mess of my house when he comes in to play! Did I mention he makes a wide variety of sounds such as grunts, squeaks, and even barks? I love him, and he is my second favorite breed. (Buck, Color: Black)

- English Spot (Name: Razzle): These beautiful exhibition/running rabbits are a pain to show, but their spot patterns are amazing! I love mine. Her name is Razzle and she is currently laying upside-down, sleeping in my arms. Strangely, she is a great lap rabbit, but when she gets down to play, I can't catch her without making some kind of trap, or just getting lucky. She is my favorite rabbit and my favorite breed. (Doe, Color: Broken Black) ***Note: I put broken because solid English Spots DO exist and I would love to get my hands on one.

So rabbit fanciers, come on down and show off your rabbits!

BTW: Added a poll to this thread! Please Vote!

 

[SA Farm]

I put this thread up in Backyard Herds, but I thought I'd share it here as well

I had some time on my hands and some rabbits of different sex and age, so I thought I'd throw together a thread on how to sex your young and older rabbits

Some of the pictures are a little blurry, but hopefully I've posted enough to help people out a bit!
I start by flipping the bunny on its back and normally hold the body with one hand and use the other to spread the bits to see what's what. I wrap my hand around and hold the tail with my forefinger and gently press the fur just below the bits towards the bunny's stomach with my thumb until I can see the reproductive parts enough to tell gender. (For newbies, it takes a bit of practice, but once you've checked often enough, it becomes easier.)
I can usually tell by 2-3 weeks and am 100% positive by 6-8. I know some people can tell earlier, and I might be able to, but haven't bothered checking until at least 2 weeks. (For newbies, it's usually easier to start out with sexing 6-8 week olds and adults until you get the hang of it.)

3 week old male / 3 week old female

The angles are different, but the first picture, you can see to the right of my thumb is a circle for the boy and the slit just below my thumb for the girl.

6 week old male / 6 week old female

A little easier to see here. The male's organ is circular and the female has a slit.

3-4 month old male / adult female

The male clearly has a shaft, while the female has a reddish slit. He's still young, so the testes aren't as obvious as they would be on an older male, but I didn't feel like wrangling my older, 10lb buck!

And here's a cute little bunny picture to clear your mind from all those bunny bits:

 

[PrimroseMom1]

Made a play yard for the bunnies this morning. I'm sitting outside supervising and reading the paper. I fenced off the area where I grow grasses for the chickens and bunnies. They made a tunnel and are running in and out and all around, kicking up their hind feet and twirling in the air. Great bunny watching.

This is the area. If you look hard you can see Lela the white bunny coming out the end of the grass.

Here is GinGin in the grass.

 

[Angelicisi]

Eleven. 11. Yes. Cracker the NZW doe had ELEVEN KITS.

Im thinking thats too many for her...
But another1st time mommy doe is due today so I have a foster maybe. 2 of the 11 are smaller but fat bellies so maybe they'll all make it? I'm thinking bigger isn't always better in regards to litter size ? Bigger baby yes bigger number of offspring can be an issue no? Eleven?! Poor girls happy tho. Sweet even.

And Amy another NZ doe just made the most insane nest and started pulling fur lol its like they're racing babies lol

 

[Bunnylady]

Is there anyone on this thread who can explain the Vienna gene in Holland Lops for me? I'm sure its similar in any breed that posses the gene but I'm looking to find out how you know if a rabbit is a Vienna Carrier or not. I THOUGHT that if a rabbit had the Blue Eyes and markings associated with the gene, then they were "Vienna Marked" and if they lacked the Blue Eyes but had the markings, then they were considered "Vienna Carriers". So here's an example, I bred a Frosty Doe to a VM Blue Tort Buck. None of the kits are showing the markings of a VC and I don't believe they will have blue eyes (they're only a few days old). So lets say they don't have the blue eyes. Are they still a carrier of the gene because the dad was VM?

Oh, boy, Vienna!

Vienna works the same in any breed, but it's a crazy-making gene to be sure!

The classic white rabbit with blue eyes has two copies of the Vienna gene, one that came from the mother, one from the father. That happens almost regardless of what other genes the rabbit has (there are a few exceptions. A rabbit that has both REW genes and Vienna genes will be a REW, for example).

There are only two possible genes at the place where Vienna occurs, Vienna (v) or "not Vienna" (V). A rabbit that has one copy of the Vienna gene and one of the "not Vienna" gene usually will be colored, and have some white on its coat. It may or may not have blue eyes; it may even have one blue, one brown. This is called Vienna Marked (VM), the classic VM has markings that look a lot like the markings of the Dutch rabbits (though the blaze is often wonky). Curiously, Vienna can only put just a snip of white on the nose or even as little as a couple of white claws, which is something Dutch can do, too. occasionally, you can run into rabbits that have no white on them at all, that when bred to a VM or BEW, produce BEW babies. These are the Vienna Carriers - rabbits that have a copy of the Vienna gene, but show no sign of it.

Since the buck is VM, we know that he has one copy of the Vienna gene, and one copy of the "not Vienna" gene (Vv). He has a 50/50 chance of passing the Vienna gene on to his offspring. Some people think this means that half of his offspring will be either VM or VC, but that's not how it works. If you could get 1000 babies from breeding this buck to non-Vienna does, roughly 500 would be either VM or VC, and remaining offspring would have gotten the not-Vienna gene from him. If this buck has only 10 babies in his lifetime, they could all get the Vienna gene from him, or none of them might, and that would be perfectly normal.

The reason this is crazy making, is that when breeding VM's, you can't be sure what's a VC and what is a rabbit with two not-Vienna genes. A colored rabbit with no white and a BEW parent must be a VC, but even two VM parents can produce VC and non-Vienna offspring, and there's no way you can tell them apart just by looking. You might breed what you assume is a non-Vienna rabbit to one that is non-Vienna, and get a bunch of VM babies!

 

[Fancychooklady]

 

[Fancychooklady]

Bun was momma to these little orphans.

We call them ' the Disney gang '.

 

[chicken farmer]

I'm SO glad we finally built new hutches,we got one done and another the exact same half built. It's the first time we put a box on the side of a hutch that stays there year round and today is the first day I put my new zeland white doe in there and it's bigger than her last hutch which I love. And when I put her in there she of course hopped around smelling everything and rubbing her chin on the feeder and stuff. And a little bit ago she started jumping in and out of the box that has straw in it and she keeps jumping in and moving the straw around and making her little nest(she's not pregnant) and loving her box. I love it and will put a box on every hutch I make because they can get off the wire and have a little spot to there own and snuggle up in and stay warm and feel safe and have a little cubby hole to get into and of course it will be great to kindle in!!! We put a lid on the box so we can access it good. Earlier she started jumping in the box and messing around in there and just looks out like wow this is nice what a awesome place!! Anyway I'm gonna breed her for the second time(first time she made a nest and everything but never had kits must have died inside and it would of been her first litter) so I'm gonna try again next weekend with a new buck I'm getting in a couple days. Anyway here are some pictures I took earlier of her in her box

I highly recommend everyone to put a box on the side of there cage or hutch so there rabbits have a nice soft,warm,hideaway,or nest to have all to them selves!!! My doe loves it and can't wait to get my new 1 1/2 year old new zealand white buck!!

 

[dutchbunny83]

There's 2 of them in there. I guess they're cottontails, not sure of the breed, just standard wild rabbits.
My neighbor came over all upset last week that her dog had eaten the mom and there were these 2 orphaned babies. She tried to feed them with kitten formula and a syringe, but they were losing weight quickly. She brought them to me asking if I'd take them in since she knew I already had rabbits. I didn't have any luck with the formula either so attempted to introduce them to my doe to see what she would do and she took both in with her 3 babies. They're older as they've had their eyes open and are much bigger, but still not eating regular food yet. My doe has been nursing them. Not sure what I will do with them when they're grown though, don't know that they can be released as they're pretty tame right now.

 

[Bunnylady]

There's 2 of them in there. I guess they're cottontails, not sure of the breed, just standard wild rabbits.
My neighbor came over all upset last week that her dog had eaten the mom and there were these 2 orphaned babies. She tried to feed them with kitten formula and a syringe, but they were losing weight quickly. She brought them to me asking if I'd take them in since she knew I already had rabbits. I didn't have any luck with the formula either so attempted to introduce them to my doe to see what she would do and she took both in with her 3 babies. They're older as they've had their eyes open and are much bigger, but still not eating regular food yet. My doe has been nursing them. Not sure what I will do with them when they're grown though, don't know that they can be released as they're pretty tame right now.

Cottontail isn't a "breed", it's like, well, "antelope" - the name for a type of animal. There are a number of species that are grouped as cottontails.

It's very kind to rescue these baby wild rabbits, I just hope you don't wind up paying a price for it in the long run. North American wild rabbits are entirely different species from the domestic rabbit, and it is illegal to have them in your possession. Only licensed wildlife rehabilitators are supposed to do this sort of thing (though I admit, I've done it, too). Your only legal option is to release the cottontails when they are about 4 weeks old and eating on their own. By the time they are 5 or 6 weeks old, they will start attacking each other and the other rabbits caged with them, because North American wild rabbits are solitary, not social (be warned, the damage they will do is shocking to witness - I made that mistake once).

Of greater concern to me is that there are parasites and diseases that can pass between the two species. At a minimum. I think this doe and her litter should be wormed as soon as the wildlings are gone, and quarantined from any other rabbits you own for a couple of weeks afterwards as a precaution.