Velveteen Lops

I fell in love with the plush, velvety Rex coat more than 30 years ago, when I first began to raise rabbits. I'd also found the lop eared rabbits absolutely adorable, but stayed with the Rex because of their coat.

I was absolutely delighted to discover, once I got back into rabbits, that there was now a lop eared rabbit with a Rex coat! Both of my "wants" in one package, which led, of course, to my owning my first Velveteen Lops.



"Kritter" was my favorite of the first Velveteens, people oriented, very laid back and perfectly happy with life, a true ambassador for the breed. A very plush black, he was wonderfully hugable.





I had hoped these would be my show rabbits, although they are still one presentation away from ARBA approval. Having been a livestock breeder all my life, being involved from the ground floor, so to speak, with a new breed, was definitely appealing.


Since I was very focused on the pinto color pattern in my horse breeding program, it was only natural that I have gravitated to the "brokens" in rabbits and Thumper was my first young Velveteen Lop. Truly a character.







I had problems getting does bred and have only had two litters of pedigreed Velveteen Lops to date. Since vision impairment from an accident now prevents me from driving, my plans to show are on an indefinite hole. Consequently, I am not sure I will continue actively breeding Velveteen Lops, although I still have several.

Attack rabbit!

The Rex breed seems to tend to be a fairly docile breed, in general. Since this is the breed I've always had all of my rabbits have accepted handling with resignation at least and some have been actively friendly.

I've always been a bit surprised at the number of people who have mentioned having rabbits that are difficult to handle, that will bite when they attempt to remove feed pans or reach in to feed. I have had does that will grumble at me when I count babies or handle them the first week or so but I've never had any of my rabbits show aggression otherwise. I've been scratched, of course, picking rabbits up that are not handled routinely and are apprehensive, but I have never had one offer to bite.

That is, until I started photographing a litter of Rex babies, just three weeks old and discovered that I have an ATTACK RABBIT!




He insisted on sitting in the corner, looking grumpy and definitely uncooperative.


" I don't WANT my picture taken!"






I told my husband to put his finger in and poke him to see if he would move away from the corner. Bunny responded with aerobatics that landed him in the middle of the cage, in fact, I think a backwards somersault, but he definitely was not impressed.



He began by sneaking up on that "thing" that poked him through HIS cage.





Then, he decided he wanted no part of whatever it was in HIS cage. He attacked, trying to bite! He was so fast I couldn't get pictures of the actual attack though it didn't help that we were both laughing so hard I couldn't have focused the camera anyway.

And I have to admit ... now ... I have seen an attack rabbit ...

Tri-color Rex

When I decided to raise rabbits again, I already knew I wanted Rex and my first purchases gave me castors, opals and blues. As a self-confessed color breeding enthusiast, the next step, naturally, was to decide what I wanted to add with all the gorgeous colors to choose from.


The first pictures of the tri colors settled that question. Since an allergy to cats had always kept me from having a calico cat, calico bunnies seemed a reasonable substitute. Since the ARBA convention was being held in Louisville, KY I found a breeder with exactly what I had in mind who planned to attend the and she agreed to deliver her to me at Louisville.



I also found a breeder in Kentucky who was forusing on the tri colors. She had a tricolor buck with a heavier pattern as well as a solid red doe. With the purchase of these two, I now had the breeding trio of the tri colors I had hoped for and was on my way with the tri color Rex.









Since then, a friend of mine decided to go into rabbits as well, buying several Rex from a breeder in Indiana. One of her bucks is a broken black, which can be bred into the tricolors without problems, so I now have several options for my tricolor Rex breeding program although I will most likely keep a promising black junior buck to breed to Star, the tri color doe, in the future.
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Beginnings ... the Kaleidoscope Rabbit project

My livestock raising adventures started when I was five years old. My grandmother gave me six baby chicks to raise when a coyote killed the mother hen. I raised those baby chicks, sold them in the fal, saved the money and bought 25 baby chicks the following spring. By the time I graduated from high school, I no longer owned chickens, but had four commercial Hereford cows that I ran on shares with my parents, under my own registered Montana brand.

As an adult, even though I did not live on a working ranch or farm again until recently, I have always managed to have animals around me and have usually been raising something. Although rabbits were not something I had as a child, I raised them for several years for the table when I lived on a "hobby farm".

Very recently, I started with rabbits again, for the table, going back to the Rex breed I had before and of course, as usual for me, it has expanded into a more extensive project that I planned for.



The first thing I found was the new colors! I had blacks and blues before and had never seen all of the new-to-me colors that now exist, so I'm now like a kid in a candy store ... I've got to have one of those ... and one of these ... and ooooh ... look at that one!

The sable point kit in the above photo is one of my first "fancy colored" litters and I am spending a great deal of time reading the various rabbit color genetics books I've collected. Unfortunately, it does seem that the learning curve is a bit slower than it was with the horses, 20 years ago, but I can't deny I'm having fun.

When I had the Rex before, I loved the feel of the pelts, there is absolutely nothing as plush and luxurious as the Rex fur and I not only had them for the table but also used the pelts for some small craft projects. With more time I have hopes of doing that again.

I can't convince myself a patchwork fur sleigh robe could be considered a necessity in Kentucky as I did in Montana, as there hasn't been enough snow in the 10 years I've lived here to even use a sleigh. However, I'm thinking that I could justify a lop robe at least. After all, this is a project to keep me busy in my coming "old age" and I'm sure the arthritis in my knees will eventually require a lap robe to keep me warm in my recliner some day.