, why some pet stores say they live 6 to 7? Because all rabbits have extremely high risk of Ovarian Cancer or Prostate Cancer.
I guess that 6-7 years are a selling argument (getting a pet for a 8yo that will be alive when it is 20 is hard to plan for), or experience from "pet" bunnys that live lonesome lives in a little pet store hutch somewhere in the backyard.
Although their rate for cancer of the female reproduction tract is definatly higher than in humans (my guess is about double, but we're catching up), but there isn't much actual hard data. "A vet said" isn't data. It get's repeated over and over and exaggerated as a deadbeat argument by people who want to get rabbits spayed (which is a good idea for pet bunnies anyway, even without that argument - which is still valid without those exaggerations).
There is no scientific data for a great cancer risk for bucks, but once posted as "fact" it too gets repeated all over the internet, like that apple seed nonsense.
Giving birth or not doesn't seem to change that risk, actually there are people claiming that the risk is lower in does that got bred. I wouldn't say that's a prime argument pro or contra a bunny, as long as she's in good shape it doesn't reduce their life span. Getting fat is a bigger problem.
Rabbits naturally have high reproductive systems, can produce litters up to 8.Rabbit mills (rabbits usually come from pet stores and meat mill (cough New Zealanders and rexes) over inbreed the rabbit to decrease the time between litters, and the amount in the litter for profit.
Yes, they reproduce fast, and the biggest litter one of mine had was actually 12. What you write and your conclusions lead to the impression that you don't know too much about breeding and raising rabbits, or what inbreeding or linebreeding is, what the inevitable not so funny things are when working with animals , or why exactly those breeding rabbits for a source of income or food are very interested in not letting bad genetics slip in (I'm not talking about commercial big scale meat factories here). There sure are bad apples out there, but you always get some of those.
In meat breeds health, relaxed and friendly character (no fun working with skittish or easily stressed animals), are very important breeding goals, and easier to achieve because culling out bad genes is easy. That makes them pretty good pet rabbits if one doesn't mind their size, my 10lbs intact buck is my perfect, free roam house bunny.
There's no incentive to sell off problematic rabbits.
Pet breeds on the other hand, well, breeding goals like cute pug faces, small size etc. pose problems in itself, and it needs dedicated breeders to also care for health and good personalities. I guess just producing numbers for the anonym pet market can be profitable.
And rabbit with yellow paws because that indicates the rabbit are rolling in the pee, major risk to 4 really deadly disease they get from urine like Gastrointestinal stasis
No, it just indicates that the rabbit is not living an a wire cage, or is not an indoor pet. Yellow feet are not a sign that they roll in pee, and gastrointestinal stasis has a lot of causes, urine isn't really one of them. Bad hygiene and wet bedding are a problem, can lead to things like urine scald, parasites etc..
Finally if the Holland lops are on the bigger side it might naturally live a shorter life, because mixed with larger breeds its lifespan is close to 6 to 8.
Uhm, I don't know much about pet breeds, but aren't holland lops actually very small rabbits, with max. 4lbs? You might mean french or english lops, with around 11lbs, but my rabbits are medium sized in that range too, the shorter life expectancy comes with very large breeds like flemish giants, for the same reasons as for very large dog breeds.
Any individual breeder may choose their breeding methods that any one of us may or may not agree with. The breed, on the whole, has many responsible breeders in it who do not overwork their rabbits.
