Wascally Wabbits

Bailey and Holly

Why have we got Rabbits you may ask, they don’t contribute anything to the farm.  Well it’s just because I always wanted a pet Rabbit when I was a child, so I’m fulfilling a childhood desire and they are so adorably cute as well. In Queensland it’s illegal to keep Rabbits so once we moved to Tassie I thought, why not have a pet Rabbit. Now to convince the better half it’s a good idea. Ummm…. Darling I thought of a really cool Christmas present we could get the kids (both grown up and in their early 20’s). Well any excuse will do won’t it?

 When our youngest Daughter flew down just before Christmas I told her about my idea and she thought it was great. The next day Jess and I went into Devonport to do some Christmas shopping and we just happened to go and look at the pet shop. Sitting in one of the cages were the most adorable pair of young Miniature Lop Eared Female Rabbits. Jess and I couldn’t contain ourselves we gooed and garred over them.  Anybody hearing us would’ve thought we were looking at a couple of babies. I told the lady in the shop we loved them but just had to convince Hubby it was a good idea. When we got home we worked on John, subtly of course.  It worked.

The next day into town we went to pick up a Rabbit Hutch (a two storey one so they have more room to run around in) and the Rabbits (which luckily were still there).  Then it was up to Jess and Fiona to name them. Jess called hers Bailey (because it’s the colour of Baileys Irish Cream) and Fiona called hers Holly (because it was near Christmas time).  Every now and then I let them run around inside for more exercise and don’t they love it.  They are curious little critters and like to check everything out. Prada our miniature Poodle thinks they are fun and likes to throw her ball to them. I’m convinced she thinks they are dogs she does the same thing to the pigs it’s hilarious to watch.

 Here’s a quick history of the Miniature Lop Rabbit. They can be traced back to the Netherlands during the late 1940’s when Adrian de Cook had a vision to produce a miniaturised version of the larger French Lop. He used a French Lop buck and a Netherlands Dwarf doe but it was unsuccessful the litter being born too large. In the second attempt a Netherlands Dwarf buck was crossed with a French lop doe it went well although the ears were all erect. Then one of the does was mated to an English Lop buck. The English Lop was chosen because it is a smaller size than the French Lop and it has very long lopped ears. This was very successful and all ears were floppy. Now for some interesting facts, did you know Rabbits need to eat their own droppings this enables them to digest even more nutrients. A shame mine don’t eat more, every morning there seems to be so much Rabbit poo for just two little Rabbits. A healthy and cared for Rabbit can live up to 10 years. You can toilet train Rabbits to use a litter tray (that I’d like to see). Rabbits can’t sweat so to regulate their body temperature they use their ears.

The Hutch

Michelle