What is he?

[MrJackRabbit]

So the buck we recently rescued from a dinner table situation is raising some eyebrows among members of the rabbit community outside of this forum.
He is a cross breed of some kind but we can't figure out what!

Jack's 4 months old and medium size (haven't weighed him yet but he's bigger than our other rabbits). He's white with grey tickling along his snout and ears and has blue eyes. He has a long pointed face, huge ears, a long tail, huge hind feet and long slender legs and body.

I've had two very different suggestions thrown my way, some feel he has the features of a Belgium hare, some think American hare... others feel strongly that he has some giant in him but that his cross breeding has diluted his size.

There is also a suggestion of English lop (with un-lopped ears) mixed in due to his face shape, the female we rescued him with is an English/German lop cross who's ears lop normally and could be his sibling though we don't know for sure.

Can anyone help please!

(Please note the cage he is in is temporary due to him being unexpected! A fleece bedding is being obtained for the floor during his stay in the cage)

 

[XxlizannaXx]

Good Thing you rescued him just in time and he looks like a mix between a netherland rabbit and an english lop


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[Korr_and_Sophie]

He reminds me of my Rhinelander Felix in his body. He also looks like a Belgian Hare. Both are full arch breeds, so do look somewhat similar. Both breeds as well and many giant breeds do have big ears, so I would not say is has English Lop in him. There are also Checkered Giants that are large and are bred for meat.

It can be tricky to determine the breed sometimes. Not knowing what breeds are common where you can does make it a big harder. Some people who bred for meat don't really care what they are breeding as long as it works out well, so they might just breed whatever they have around.

If you can get a weight, that can be helpful. Felix was about 1/2 is adult weight at about 10 weeks old and at 4 months he was about 7 pounds, he is not a bit over 8 pounds. This might help you a bit if you know his weight you can estimate what he might be as an adult. Most breeds are done growing around 6 months, but the larger breeds can take a bit longer.

 

[BunnehChronicles]

Flemish?

 

[FreezeNkody]

Kinda looks like Flemish mix. Very pretty coloring.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Looks like he has ears of a Flemish. The coloring reminds me of our girl Lilli--she's part Californian. Legs are different from any kind of Hare I've seen--100% rabbit and cute too.

 

[akane]

You get huge ears whenever you cross very different sized breeds. Like my mini rex x american sable that we just refer to as floppy ear. She isn't much bigger than a mini rex but has huge ears and feet.

I also had some mini rex x creme d'argent and checkered giant x New Zealand that had the same characteristics just in different sizes. Usually the giant breeds win out and produce large rabbits even when crossed with small rabbits while large-medium breeds with small rabbits make medium-small rabbits. The color looks lightly marked himi possibly diluted or carrying a nonextension gene which can mess with himi. On odd occasions blue eyes at least under certain lighting can happen with any C locus gene (chin, seal/sable, himi, rew) and with dilutes (blue, lilac, opal...) instead of their standard eye color. Don't know if that helps you narrow down breeds in your area any.