Questions for those with giant breeds?

[Paddy Ohara]

My flemish is such a sweet girl all 22 lbs. She does love to play and the binkies are fun to watch and you can hear them from anywhere in the house.She is also into lazing around the house with us and the dog. She can be bossy at times but it is usually hey pet the rabbit now or hey dog get out of my way. When she is hungry she bunny flops in front of the fridge. She is such a pleasure to have around. This is the first large breed rabbit I have had and I had no idea how much fun I would have or I would have had one much sooner.

 

[mrslimpitt]

I have a Flemish and he is such a clown. If I could I would get another Flemish, but then I would have 5 bunnies and an Xhubby.

 

[littl3red]

It sounds like the Flemish are a really good breed, I'll look into them some more when the time comes.

 

[Bunnymom,K]

littl3red wrote:

I've heard things about Checkered Giants being aggressive, is this really a common problem or just a myth?

I think like most animals a lot of it is how they are raised/treated. Checkered Giants are an active breed, we have two. Our buck is a real sweety and loves to be held and petted.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat: Our Serena is the same, but its not easy carrying a 19 pounder around.

 

[littl3red]

Still, anyone know anything about French Lops? I'm clueless about 'em. :?

 

[bad kelpie]

Lump is a french lop. She is sweet and mellow, and really really food motivated . She doesn't startle or get stressed out. Basil (checkered flemish mix) is pretty good about this most of the time, but will thump at my roommates dogs (one of them chased him once), if he sees them. Likes my dogs though.

 

[Blue eyes]

littl3red wrote:

Still, anyone know anything about French Lops? I'm clueless about 'em. :?

We had a french lop and must confess that he was a favorite. He was such a ham! Never shy. Loved to beg. Checked out any newcomer to the house. Didn't just get along with our Newfoundland, but actually bonded with him.

He was also smart. He had free reign in our kitchen/dining area/hallway/laundry rm which was tiled, but knew he wasn't allowed on the carpet. I used to block it off, but he learned not to go there.

Unfortunately, french lops are near impossible to find in AZ. We lucked out and got him from a rescue who got him from a hoarder situation. We were actually on Animal Planet with our french lop!

 

[littl3red]

Aww, that's so cool! :biggrin2: He's adorable. My dogs and rabbit don't get along so well yet...

 

[blondiesmommie]

We were actually on Animal Planet with our french lop!
[/quote]


That's cool! When and what for??

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

I have Fraggles who is 3/4th checkered giant and 1/4th rex. She is big at over 14 pounds and likes to stretch out most of the day. She also likes to be the boss and when its time for a petting you better drop what your doing immediately. But she is a big love and we adore her. I would love to have a purebred checkered one day

 

[kmaben]

We just recently got our french lop franklin. He's a sweetheart of a guy and pretty laid back. He likes all the other animals (cats, dogs, lives with the bird) but he's having issues with our other rabbits. It's probably just him though. Wendymac on here breeds them and could probably give you some great information. They shed like crazy though.

 

[Blue eyes]

blondiesmommie wrote:

We were actually on Animal Planet with our french lop!

That's cool! When and what for??


Animal Planet was doing a segment called "Animal Planet Heroes, Rescue Phoenix" (or something like that). They featured our local rabbit rescue group saving over 50 rabbits from a hoarder. I happened to adopt one of those rabbits (the french lop) . They wanted to include a follow-up on what happened to one of the rescued rabbits so our rescue group recommended me and our bun Gandalf.

So Animal Planet came to our house and filmed us with our bunnies (we already had a girl bun prior from the rescue), with our Newfie, with 2 of my boys and me.

So that's how we had our 3 minutes of fame. That was about 9 years ago.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We have Serena, a pure and very large (19 lbs) Checkered. She's a giant snuggle bun and loves to be held, rubbed and cuddled. If you lay on the floor, she will get up on you and snuggle down in the middle of your back or spend hours on your lap allowing you to rub her (mandatory).

 

[bunnychild]

littl3red wrote:

I've been looking into getting a Flemish Giant, maybe here in a couple years, but then I realized I haven't really looked into other giant breeds. I would love to have a giant, but I'm not stuck on Flemish, so I have some questions:

1) What giant breeds have you had/interacted with?
2) What were they like?
3) Which is your favorite and why?
4) What types of enclosures do you use for giant breeds, if applicable? I will probably give my rabbits their own room someday, blocked off with a baby gate, with plenty of time out, is this acceptable?

1) French Lop (Big Louis) and mix breed (Zelda) are the only giant rabbits I've owned, but I have tattooed chinchilla and americans.

2) French Lop is very sweet and kind of like a dog. Mix breed was very friendly. chinchillas were actually very cuddly and americans were pretty calm.

3) French Lop for sure because they are a good companion rabbit and are totally show stealers.

4) Big Louis has a large hutch and I walk him everyday that weather permits and gets brought inside occasionaly.

Only cons of the giant breed for me is that they go through alot of feed, and when they kick it hurts alot.

Hope this helps.

 

[bunnychild]

double post