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

[PoultryPower]

Your right, you don't see many that resemble lions and they'll never look exactly like lions because they'll always be rabbits. But, a simple and obvious characteristic of a lion are its upright ears. The standard for Lionheads calls for the ears to be short and thick. They are to make a slight "V" shape and not touch each other the whole way up the ear (paraphrasing). If we want them to resemble lions, we shouldn't make a obvious change to the lion's features.
I have to say, as of lately, I haven't been the hugest Lionhead fan. I've contemplated selling out of my herd a few times, but I truly do love the ones I have right now.

On a different note, here's one of my Lionheads.

She's going to a new home tomorrow. She just turned 3 months old not. I had her out to socialize and thought I'd take a few pics for my records.


Her posing isn't the best, but I was quite impressed considering I've only worked with her one other time.
If I had a magical wand and could make some changes to her, I'd give her thicker bone and shorten and thicken those ears (her dam's fault) they're way too long.
I really like her head mount though. She also has a nice topline. She's still shedding out her transition wool, but it'll clear up when she's older. She has a nice mane, and good width between the eyes (something I'm working on). She has a good hindquarter. I see her back foot sticking out so I'm hoping she'll gain some width to her shoulders when she's older. She still has a lot of growing to do.
I didn't know this girl was this nice too be honest, but I don't regret rehoming her. I'm hoping to get some new guys in and she'll help pay and make space for them.

 

[Lynzi777]

Now that is adorable!!

 

[Bunnylady]

I suppose you could call those upright ears - if your only other choice is, like, hound-dog ears, lol.

But if your argument for the upright ears is that you are trying to reproduce leonine characteristics, what do you do about that face?! Lions have bare faces, not wooly ones. The Lionhead's head is short and wide under all that fluff. If you were really trying to make a Lionhead look like a lion, it should have a long, clean face like a French Angora.

(BTW, I think your doe is beautiful. That "take a look again, I'm so gorgeous you'll regret getting rid of me" bit is #96 on the list of ways "to drive her crazy today!")

 

[PoultryPower]

I suppose you could call those upright ears - if your only other choice is, like, hound-dog ears, lol.

But if your argument for the upright ears is that you are trying to reproduce leonine characteristics, what do you do about that face?! Lions have bare faces, not wooly ones. The Lionhead's head is short and wide under all that fluff. If you were really trying to make a Lionhead look like a lion, it should have a long, clean face like a French Angora.

I get what your saying about the ears. I call lion's upright because I can see down the ear. If they were floppy, they would be folded over each other. I found a picture of a lioness with with a "floppy ear".

Some have been able to get their ears pretty far apart, I'll post a pic of below.

The thing I don't like about the floppy ears, is one, it would ruin the mane by pressing the wool against the face, (probably rubbing the wool too, causing mats

) and two, you don't see the opening of the ear like on a lion. Lions have such short, fat ears. It would be hard to get that with floppy ears. Hollands have short, thick ears, but they're still longer than some of the upright ears I've seen.

As far as the flat faces and all the other characteristics not common to lions, your right, I don't know why the working standard went that way.

I guess the only lion part about them is the mane and chest wool, the rest is to just look cute. Too bad their name also includes head, because as you stated, they don't have it. Lions do have flat muzzles though, all the long faced rabbit breeds have very pinched noses. I think it would be hard to get a long face with a flat muzzle?

You bring up some good points, BunnyLady, but I'm still an upright ear gal.

Even if it doesn't make sense. I think the chubby, short ears are really cute and the lops just look stupid.

Floppy ear


Wide, but longer and thicker than I've seen. This guy kind of has a slope from his forehead to his flat muzzle. If you look at it enough, it almost looks lion like. (not my picture)

 

[redrstr29]

I feel bad for the new lionhead fad...SOOOO many kids are buying them and I see about 3 a month on CL of families whos kids dont want em anymore....honestly 3 or more a month...different phone numbers also...I even saw a few offered as "free" ....I wish I liked em cause id have so many by now

Poor bunnies, I hope they go to good homes

 

[Duckchick2011]

Meh, I was never into the lion heads, they are pretty cute though ^.^

Quick silly question if I were to breed a mini rex buck to a standard sized doe, what would be the result??? Do mini rex have the dwarfing gene or are they just small rabbits? Would any of that dwarfing gene(if it exists) show up in the standard doe's litter? I'm just very curious, I was having a conversation with my mom over my new little mini rex buck and this topic came up.

Please and Thank you!!

 

[Bunnylady]

Meh, I was never into the lion heads, they are pretty cute though ^.^

Quick silly question if I were to breed a mini rex buck to a standard sized doe, what would be the result??? Do mini rex have the dwarfing gene or are they just small rabbits? Would any of that dwarfing gene(if it exists) show up in the standard doe's litter? I'm just very curious, I was having a conversation with my mom over my new little mini rex buck and this topic came up.

Please and Thank you!!

Mini Rex depend on the dwarfing gene to get the compact, "typey" animal described in the breed standard. Without the dwarfing gene, you get an animal that has a slightly longer head, longer ears, longer body, and weighs a bit more - maybe as much as a pound over the top weight in the standard. Because the dwarfing gene is a lethal gene, you can't breed true for it, and some kits won't inherit the dwarfing gene from either parent. If your Mini Rex has the dwarfing gene, the odds are 50/50 of him giving it to any particular kit he fathers, so yes, if he had kits with a standard sized doe, some of the kits should get the dwarfing gene. If he is an "oversized" Mini Rex without the dwarfing gene, none of the kits would get the gene.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

W

Mini Rex depend on the dwarfing gene to get the compact, "typey" animal described in the breed standard. Without the dwarfing gene, you get an animal that has a slightly longer head, longer ears, longer body, and weighs a bit more - maybe as much as a pound over the top weight in the standard. Because the dwarfing gene is a lethal gene, you can't breed true for it, and some kits won't inherit the dwarfing gene from either parent. If your Mini Rex has the dwarfing gene, the odds are 50/50 of him giving it to any particular kit he fathers, so yes, if he had kits with a standard sized doe, some of the kits should get the dwarfing gene. If he is an "oversized" Mini Rex without the dwarfing gene, none of the kits would get the gene. 

What I recently learned through this thread when my new Mini Rex rabbit had a litter of 3, things can go wrong. One kit was deformed and died right away. Another was a peanut, a double dwarf, that could not process food and shrunk and died on day4. The 3rd had to be hand raised from about 5 days old but is a wonderful little rabbit, but that was a lot of trauma. Here are some fotos:

This is the surviving bunny next to the peanut that died the next day.

The little mini Rex survivor next to a NZ / Mini Rex cross.

 

[redrstr29]

Well one on my 2 NZ Whites had a false preg..She made a nest the size of an eagles nest..so beautiful

..so this is atrike 2 ....hopefully this last one does the right thing...Im alittle sad

 

[Duckchick2011]

I thought you said it was only day 16? Early nest making is not a cause for alarm. I had a doe who made a giant nest two weeks before she was due. She pulled fur and everything. She let that one fall apart, then made another a week later, that one fell apart, and then when I thought I was about to go crazy wondering what was going on she made another and FINALLY had about 6 kits.

So, making a nest early is not a reliable sign of a false preg. So there still may be some hope.

Unless you had some other signs of false preg. Have you tried palpating? By day 17 you should be able to feel something.