Rabbit Breed and Age?

[pingoose]

Hi all,

I recently took in a rabbit who was dumped at my local park (keeping her separate from my other rabbit for now, intending on bonding them eventually), and I’m sort of bewildered on what her breed and age are.

Pictures are attached.

Her coat is completely white and she has blue eyes. One of her ears is lopped, but the other is upright. She has small, dainty feet - contrasting with the thicker feet of my Holland lop. Her head shape reminds me a bit of that of a mini rex, though I could be wrong.

I'm assuming she's some sort of mix, but I'd like to know more specifics for the sake of estimating a healthy weight, age, and such.

My vet said she's about 6-8 months old based on her teeth, but I know that isn't exactly the most precise measure of age, plus unfortunately he doesn't really specialize in rabbits (having difficulty finding rabbit savvy vets near me). As such, I'd like to get a second opinion if you all have any idea. Would like to know so I know when to get her spayed, what her diet should be like based on age, etc.

She's about 2.5 pounds, and has grown about 30-40% since I took her in about 4 weeks ago. However, I'm thinking she might have been malnourished when I first took her in because she was rather lanky and had relatively soft stool at first - I wonder if this could have had an impact on her growth.

Her behavior is also wonderful - she is not spayed but of course I plan on getting her spayed once I get more clarity as to what her age is. Very social, very relaxed. No signs of territoriality yet, no grunting/honking, humping, circling, spraying, etc. This is a bit bewildering to me since my Holland lop (also female) displayed a lot of these behaviors when she was around this supposed age - 6 months - before I got her spayed. I'm thinking if that she actually is of age to get fixed, then shouldn't she be displaying some of these behaviors?

Apologies that this was rather lengthy - thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this. I'm happy to answer any questions that might help clarify things.

 

[zuppa]

Hi, she looks like a mix between a holland lop and a dwarf, if she's still growing so fast I'd say she could be a bit younger maybe 4 months. She looks a bit like my Bernie after she was very sick and thin, only Bernie is broken cream but she definitely had blue eyed whites in her family. I adopted her from a family who got her from a pet store as a mini lop at 8 weeks and she indeed looked like a mini lop but then grew more and also got very fat so looked more like a holland lop. She also keeps one ear up sometimes, depending on her mood.
It was very nice of you taking her in, well done

 

[zuppa]

By the way I might be wrong but not sure if you can really estimate age from their teeth, they keep growing and always look very new. One of my rabbits Fred he was also dumped people found him in a cardboard box near supermarket and he was in a quite bad state but his teeth were perfect, I thought he was very old he barely could jump and had more health issues but in a few months he didn't look that old so now I think he was about 3 months old then, just it was all very stressful for him so he looked very old.

In my experience people would dump if they got a baby at 8 weeks lovely-lovely and by 12 weeks baby grew a bit and not so lovely so kids just got bored and don't want them anymore, so I think 12-14 weeks is kind of risky period when new owners with no experience nor understanding of rabbits would get rid of them. Also many people think that rabbit are just short live pets

 

[Preitler]

Just looking at the pictures, I too would guess her younger than the vet said. Also, growth rate would hint that way.

It really depends on the individual what hormonal behaviours they show, that can range from none at all to vicious furys. Everything normal.

Good catch

 

[pingoose]

Hi, she looks like a mix between a holland lop and a dwarf, if she's still growing so fast I'd say she could be a bit younger maybe 4 months. She looks a bit like my Bernie after she was very sick and thin, only Bernie is broken cream but she definitely had blue eyed whites in her family. I adopted her from a family who got her from a pet store as a mini lop at 8 weeks and she indeed looked like a mini lop but then grew more and also got very fat so looked more like a holland lop. She also keeps one ear up sometimes, depending on her mood.
It was very nice of you taking her in, well done

Just looking at the pictures, I too would guess her younger than the vet said. Also, growth rate would hint that way.

It really depends on the individual what hormonal behaviours they show, that can range from none at all to vicious furys. Everything normal.

Good catch

Thank you very much for your input guys! Interesting about the dwarf/Holland lop! It definitely makes sense. And I'm glad you guys also think she might be a bit younger. Do you think she's at least of age to get spayed?

I'm planning on taking her to a spay/neuter clinic locally that does many, many rabbits, so I'm thinking that they'll catch it if she's too young, but better be safe than sorry.

 

[zuppa]

It depends on your clinic some take girls only from 6 months others from 4 months old, I think it depends on how experienced vets are with rabbits, also size/weight is important I believe that's because of anaesthetics.

Anyway, if your vet thinks she's too young they will tell you to come later, if she's in good state and not underweight they will take her now so don't think there's too much risk

Here is an article might be useful to you
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html
Pre- and Post-operative care of Rabbits
Dana Krempels, Ph.D. University of Miami Department of Biology

She looks like about 4 months to me but I can be wrong, if you could post some pics from when you got her first if you say about 4 weeks ago maybe we can tell you more

 

[Pippa and Buttercup]

I am not really sure what breed she is, but I think she may be a little younger than what the vet said. Apart from that, it is awesome that you decided to keep her and take her home with you, she looks adorable. Hope the bonding goes well