# Lionhead "mix" rabbits



## thumpingBerry (Sep 20, 2016)

Can lionheads that have a background that includes longhair have longer manes than those who don't?

I've mentioned two breedings I did a few months ago. I'm still 99% of the thinking that I should never have done these breedings (impulse breeding), but still, it happened. And I have a beautiful little male I am planning to keep, that is much calmer than his dad and more suited to my home. The dad, BTW, due to his activity level, I decided to surrender to a rescue. That way he will be fixed and get a home that can give him more attention and out of cage time that I can give him. I hated to do it, but I think it was for the best for him. I doubt I will breed any more litters.

Anyway, the dad was a lionhead lop from a pet store. One mom was a fuzzy lop (which is the male I'm keeping), and the other one was an English Angora, English Lop mix with shorter fur (planning on keeping a female from this litter). His lionhead (lop) babies all seem to resemble double maned lionhead (lops), or at least it appears to me that way although I haven't seen many double maned lionheads to compare. 

The lionhead lop babies I have kept back, at 3 months old, have a good amount of mane around their head and it is about 4 inches long, plus mane along their sides and back maybe of 2 inches. Gorgeous little bunnies, but their fur takes some work to maintain right now. I hope they end up having more fur than their dad does as he just had some right at the back of his head on his neck.

I will try to get some pictures up of them, right now I am procrastinating on tasks I need to do, LOL ... kind of a busy time for the next couple of weeks.


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## Aki (Sep 21, 2016)

All Lionheads have long hair rabbits in their backgrounds - France doesn't recognize it as a breed considering lionheads are just angora / short-haired mixes (which explains why so many of them don't turn out so great when they grow up, with some long strands, some short). What you get is always a lottery.

Of course, as you clearly already know, rabbits from petstores should never be bred. You don't have any background on them and if they were bred correctly by responsible breeders, their breeders would sell them themselves (there is very little money to be made from selling to a petstore - when you do it, it means that you don't want your name associated to the animal). Moreover, crossing different species is bad form. I'm not against breeders - responsible breeders who better the breeds and reproduce healthy animals with good backgrounds. Being a breeder is hard work and it costs a lot of money. But 'it was an impulse breeding' seems like a feeble excuse to me - animals aren't toys, you are putting the doe's life at risk everytime you breed her and you are releasing rabbits who could have unknown genetic problems (you also bred from a male you gave up because you found his temperament lacking) into the world.

There's nothing personal here, but I don't think there is something that sickens me more than to hear someone explain that they bred their pet and then surrendered one of the parents to keep a baby. You promised to take care of this rabbit by taking him home, then you used him and tossed him. From your explanation, I also assume you don't have any money to neuter the babies you are keeping? You do realize that females, in the very least, must be spayed to avoid ovarian / uterine cancer, mastitis, phantom pregnancies and the like?
Before impulse breeding again, please think again and read those articles:

http://rabbit.org/category/breeding/

Keeping one rabbit in good health for 8 or 9 years is, in my opinion, more worthwhile than producing 8 or 9 rabbits that won't be cared for correctly.
If you really are interested in breeding, begin to go to rabbit shows, study genetics and go talk to responsible breeders.


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## thumpingBerry (Sep 21, 2016)

Aki said:


> All Lionheads have long hair rabbits in their backgrounds - France doesn't recognize it as a breed considering lionheads are just angora / short-haired mixes (which explains why so many of them don't turn out so great when they grow up, with some long strands, some short). What you get is always a lottery.
> 
> <snip>But 'it was an impulse breeding' seems like a feeble excuse to me - animals aren't toys, you are putting the doe's life at risk everytime you breed her and you are releasing rabbits who could have unknown genetic problems (you also bred from a male you gave up because you found his temperament lacking) into the world.
> 
> ...



The lionhead gene is caused by a mutation. They are not simply a mix of angora and short haired rabbits. If that were true, a longhair rabbit of any breed x a short haired rabbit of any breed could produce lionheads. The lionhead gene is dominant ... it only takes one lionhead gene to produce a lionhead. Longhair in rabbits is recessive ... it takes two longhair genes to produce a longhair.

Back to my .male I gave up ... I miss him. I did this FOR HIM. He deserved a home where he could be out most of the time, and I cannot give him that here. He had a great temperament, and was really my only bunny that would come running across the cage to me, then lay his head down for me to pet him. But he was a hyper bunny. It bothers me that I am thinking about keeping a couple of his babies, just for the reason I let him go.

It sickens me that most average people think of rabbits and guinea pigs as throw away pets. I've bred guinea pigs, including breeding for show, but quit because of the lack of quality homes. I do not encourage breeding of any animal. I have admitted and AGREE that these rabbit babies never should have been born. I have tried my best to get these babies into forever homes that have agreed to not breed them.


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