What breed could this be?

[NZminilops]

Hi everyone, I am trying to decide what breed my mother-in-laws rabbit could could be. It's small in size, around 4 pounds, and has loose ears but no lop ears, just not as stiff as sticky- uppy ears. Sometimes they are stiffer and other times looser.

Have also included a picture of it nest to a holland lop type rabbit for size comparison. Any ideas would be great

 

[jordiwes]

My guess is some sort of English Spot/Holland cross?

This is an amateur speaking.

 

[NZminilops]

Any guess is better than no guess!

The guy from where we got it from said it could be a rex cross with a holland lop but he couldn't be sure as he had TONNES of baby rabbits all running around together and didn't know which babies belonged to which parents. It's a kids petting zoo type place and has sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs etc. There were so many bunnies there, it was mind boggling.

 

[NZminilops]

Thanks for the english spot idea, after looking at pictures of them on google and reading about the body type, weight etc., it does seem very possible he is an english spot crossed with something small and lop eared. He is a pretty rabbit anyway and very friendly.

 

[SunnieBunnie Rabbitry]

Pam could probably word this much better than myself, but...

The rabbit appears to be that of a Mini Lop, or some cross of.  As far as the coloring, it is called Broken Tort and is found (with the same pattern) in Mini Lops.  It's actually one of the more popular colors in Lops.

Personally, I do not see any English Spot resemblance, as far as the breed goes... but that's just my opinion.

~Sunshine

 

[pamnock]

I agree that it's probably a lop/lop cross with a lot of ear control.  It is a broken tort, a color more common in Holland Lops than in Mini Lops.

Most certainly has a lop coat!


Pam

 

[NZminilops]

Thanks for that everyone , I don't think we have the tort colourations here but would be called broken sooty fawn here, as just about every single lop rabbit I have come across seems tobe coloured. It's like an orange-tan colour on top fading to a grey the lower on the body it goes, with a dark nose.

I do recall that for around a week when he was still little that he did have first one ear lop for a few days, go back up, then it happened again on the other side. He has a pointier nose than my holland, but flater than my mini lop, so possibly a cross between those breeds? I have actually got a baby boy that is a holland mini cross so will see how his body and face turn out, and compare.

He does have a nice coat, he's very silky and soft. He's a free range rabbit too and has the time of his life, he is still very social and walks in and out of the house as he pleases. Cool wabbit :great: . His best friend is their cat and they stick close all day.

 

[Krissa]

minilops wrote:

This is the cutest picture, you better hide him or I'll have to sneak over and bunny-nap.

 

[NZminilops]

Hehe, good luck with finding cheap plane tickets to New Zealand :bunnydance:. He is a cute bunny, I am liking his ears a lot, I wish I could find a sticky-uppy eared rabbit for sale around here but they all seem to be lops lately.

 

[peapoo_bunny]

i agree on the mini lop. lop cross thing... that bunny looks like petey except his ears flop

 

[cheryl]

ohh i dont know which breed he is,but i do know he is an absolutely gorgeous little guy :bunnyheart



cheryl

 

[Star Lit Rabbitry]

Hi There,
I think the guy you got him from was probably correct. He is too small to have mini lop in there and has the wrong body type for it anyways.  My best guess would be a Holland x a Mini Rex and this is why. He's got the classic cubby cheeks and width (to hold his ears open) along with the shortness of body common to Hollands. Mini Rex also tend to have cubby cheek but a longer face which he does have. I'm not sure if it's just the photos but him standing the way he is is also something you see mini rex do, his body type is close to that.  You could do a test breed to a rex and see what type of coat you get on the little one's as if he's out of a rex you'll get roughly half normal fur and half rex.
Hope this helps and good luck with him!

 

[kismet]

He looks exactly the purebred Holland Lops I have seen with ear control. He just has that classic Holland look...pet quality but Hollandy nonetheless. Look at the ear shape in the last picture where his ear is standing up... that's the exact ear shape the Holland people want but it's sticking up instead of lopping. If he was a Mini Rex mix his ears would be more narrow. His body type seems too upright to be a Mini Lop or a Mini Rex mis and he's too small to be a Mini Lop anyway. Like Pam said, bkn tort is a very common color in Holland Lops - not in Mini Lops or Mini Rex or even English Spots. English Spot would be more racy and skinny (notice how thick his front feet are and how chubby he is overall) and would have a different shape to the body. Also the English Spot markings are not like normal broken markings - this bunny has normal broken markings, just lightly marked. English Spot would be different.

So...my guess is Holland Lop with ear control. JMO of course! :bunnydance:

 

[NZminilops]

Thanks kismet! We don't actually have holland lops in New Zealand but he have a rabbit breed that I think is exactly like it and I suspect is really holland lop, but ours are called minilops. They are very popular.

The reasoning why I thought he may have something else in him also is that he was bigger than my holland lop style rabbit I had at the time (he grew a big bigger than in those pictures), his nose was a bit longer and his body was not as compact. Could he be, say 3/4 holland and 1/4 something else maybe? I think that the pet quality part certainly shows with the nose anyway, as my new holland lop kinda bunny is purebred but has a longish nose and isn't very typy for the breed.

I've included some examples of NZ 'mini lops'. The first three are very typy and indicative of how the breed should look, and the other 2 pics are pet quality rabbits.

I do agree now that he must have at the very least, half mini/holland lop as he does have a similar body style, but he's got something else in him with that funny long nose and 'up' ears.

 

[NZminilops]

Oh! Lol, and was going to say he looks fat because they feed him a whole banana and a whole carrot a day! No matter how often I have said that it's a huge no-no they always claim that he makes them do it, sheesh.