* Interesting Info *

An Amazing Anomaly

You've no doubt heard about hairless dogs (to date I think there are at least are five hairless breeds) as well as other hairless animals such as rats, chickens, cats or cavies. In here you can see some fascinating examples: http://209.17.131.1/index.asp?ct=1&ch=1&it=10

BUT have you ever seen a Hairless Bunny Rabbit?

What you see is real – no trick photography, nor has the bun been shaved or artificially modified! This amazing little character is quite rare and was accidentally bred here in Australia. Considering that she is the result of inbreeding (parents are brother and sister), we can presume what occurred is a genetic fault. It's also interesting that in previous litters her mother regularly produced a kit having a bald patch on its forehead. In maturity however these oddballs grew fur over the bald area.

Since she has an uncanny resemblance to a Kangaroo her breeder nicknamed her 'Little Roo'. These photos were taken on 31st December 2005 and it is yet to be determined if or when Roo will also grow fur – will keep you posted.

From the onset the hairless kit struggled to thrive and if her more robust sister hadn't been removed from the nest and fostered to another doe she may not have survived. Her sister is quite normal and is a lovely Sussex colour. Even though Roo has tufts of fur on her muzzle and around her eyes, for obvious reasons her colour is too difficult to determine. Nevertheless this naked four week old Mini Rex is here to captivate and enthrall us with her amazingly bizarre appearance.

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Two weeks later: as you can see Little Roo has grown some patches of fur, so apparently it looks as if she'll only be temporarily hairless.

Postscript: unfortunately I have to report a sad ending . . . .
Roo failed to thrive and grow as a kitten normally would and several weeks after these photos were taken she appeared to lose even more condition. She continued to eat but was noticeably drinking more than average consumption of water. Then one morning Roo was found deceased – just as if she had gone to sleep and never woke up. Hairlessness is known to be caused by a recessive mutation and is usually fatal. Although it was hoped she would survive no one could have prevented the predestined fate of sweet little Roo.

I received the following from Sarah Giers a US breeder (with thanks and appreciation) for granting permission to include more fascinating info.

"It is the fur less gene at work. It tends to appear more commonly in rex coated breeds, which is where
I got it. Rabbits that carry the gene often display a bald patch on the forehead (or elsewhere, though normally on the forehead). That bald patch usually grows in as the rabbit gets older, but it is a good indicator that the rabbit carries the fur less gene. If a baby gets two fur less genes, it will look like the bald one in the picture (or sometimes it will be even more bald). There are actually a variety of bald rabbits that were developed for use in warm countries as a meat rabbit.

The genetics are reasonably well understood. A rabbit with no fur less gene (FF) will be totally normal. A rabbit with one fur less gene (Ff) will often display some balding as a baby, but that will usually grow in. Not all will display any balding. A rabbit with two fur less genes (ff) will be mostly or completely bald. In my experience the ff babies do seem to be rather weak and die, The Ff babies can sometimes be a little weaker, and they tend to need a little extra care, but once they reach about 4 weeks, they are fine. However, if a whole line of ff babies was developed, there must be stronger lines of fur less rabbits. I cannot imagine that it would be of any use to create a whole variety of fur less meat rabbits if the babies were so fragile."

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Lucerne Tree versus Pellet study

On three separate occasions a NSW commercial rabbit breeder conducted a study using twenty youngsters divided into two groups. Each group, from weaning age until three months old were fed either a diet consisting solely of commercial rabbit pellets (based on lucerne hay) or foliage from Lucerne trees. Tree Lucerne (Cytisus palmensis) or otherwise known as Tagasaste, is an attractive evergreen woody shrub/small tree with grey green leaves.

The tree is well renowned in agriculture circles for providing nutritious livestock fodder. I found it interesting that the youngsters on the 'tree foliage' gained weight at a slightly slower pace, however at the final weigh in both groups were on par. Another minor difference noted by the breeder was that he thought the pellet group displayed a slightly healthier coat.

Food for thought and great food for bunnies!

Left: a healthy Lucerne tree and on the right a close up of its foliage.

A Kitten's Week by Week Growth Chart

It's fascinating how tiny baby rabbits double and quadruple in size in such relatively short period of time.
A major influencing factor is because rabbit's milk is very rich in comparison to many other mammals and certainly the composition of their milk is unique to their own species. The newborn kitten was placed on a cup saucer measuring 15.24 cms (6 inches) across. Bear in mind the growth rate example is basically applicable to breeds of comparative size, such as Mini Lop, Mini Rex and Jersey Wooly. If I took photos of a kitten from a tiny or much larger breed the results would be considerably different.

(for those that may question if my methods were humane — to help maintain body warmth the photos were taken within a few minutes on a pre warmed plate and cotton wool)

Day One

A butterfly marked Mini Cashmere Lop just a few hours old and highly vulnerable! At this stage kits are hairless, eyes are closed and the only way of finding their way around is by their senses (seeking warmth) and ability to crawl. A warm nest is essential for survival. The rounded tummy indicates that the kit received a good start in life with a generous feed of mother's milk.

One Week Old

Not so naked now! The pink skin has developed a thin covering of white and blue fur colour. If lost out its cozy nest he or she is still vulnerable to exposure. In three days time the eyelids will open.

Two Weeks Old

Kits at this age may start to nibble so it's highly advisable to line the nest with edible meadow hay. This practice begins the natural process of weaning (as it is meant to occur in wild and domesticated rabbits) and surely helps avoid digestive upsets in the future.

Three Weeks Old

— and starting to fill up the plate! She's out of the nest box now and running around with siblings.
She also drinks from the water bowl and shares breakfast and dinner with her devoted mum Celeste.

Four Weeks Old

One of her brother's was curious as to what she was getting up to every week, so he came along to find out. He is a siamese smoke colour and the other two littermates are red-eyed whites. During the week I noticed the kittens were jumping up on their mum's resting shelf. It's quite a leap (10 inches/25.4 cms) for such littlies and no doubt from hereon the shelf will become quite crowded.

Five Weeks Old

I decided to call this little sweetie 'Anastasia'.
Anastasia and her littermates are very active and act as if they are always pathetically hungry. Perhaps if they didn't spend so much time jumping up and down like yoyos from the elevated shelf, they wouldn't work up so much of an appetite!

Six Weeks Old

Obviously it won't be long before she'll outgrow the plate! You probably can't tell from the photo but due to the onset of her first moult and extensive rainfall (moisture in the air) her soft baby coat is starting to matt. I'll probably clip Anastasia soon, so she doesn't have to put up with the time consuming hassle of combing and brushing out felting/tangles.

Don't be too hasty to judge a buck!

Poor falsely accused Bellamy!

There's an interesting story about this fellow . . . .
When Bellamy was a kitten he went to someone who requested a good show/breeding buck. A while later I received a call from the owner (in NSW) saying she intended to relocate him as a pet as he didn't have any testicles. I was perplexed as this would have been a first for one of my bucks, as his breeder I had to confirm this myself, so I offered a replacement bunny and organized the exchange. When I first saw him he was 4 ½ months old and my initial thought was that he was very small for his age. A quick health check confirmed he was under condition (I could feel his backbone), which is a common indication that there probably wasn't enough protein in his diet. I also managed to detect tiny little scrotums and decided to feed him up and wait and see. Well with proper nutrition Bellamy grew bigger and in his maturity developed quite normally. He was obviously a slow developer or more to the point his growth was unnaturally inhibited by an inadequate diet. He definitely has gonads now and quite capable of siring lovely little babies!