lionheads rabbit

People are talking about the lionheads rabbit, which is being accepted as pet in many houses. It is called so because of the similarity of its appearance of wool around its face with that of the mane of a lion. It has been recently introduced in the American society and there are different thoughts about the origin of the animal. The popular belief contributes to the fact about its appearance from a cross breed of Swiss Fox and Belgian Dwarf, which took place in Belgium. The new class of the animal was very much appreciated, which prompted more breeding of the kind to meet popular demand.

The animal has not received any recognition from breeder’s association in America until now, but has already received the recognition certificate from British authority. The lionheads rabbit is a small animal and weighs between two to three pounds with shorter ears, but longer wools on the face and particularly around the head. The thick mane is the main attraction of the animal with varieties. Some have double or single manes; others have no manes at all. The animal, with double manes, has long wool around the face and on hips and tail and so on. The animal with single mane has the wool around the face only and rarely elsewhere, which also reduces with age. Animal with no mane has no such wool anywhere on the body and is similar in appearance with a dwarf rabbit of Netherlands.

The lionheads rabbit is brought generally from England and Sweden. The characteristics include round head, developed muzzle with long thin hair in a small body with medium legs for support. It has the peculiar and shorter ears than the ordinary rabbits. As a pet, it is a very good choice because of its cool nature with an affinity to human touch. It can prove to be an extremely gentle domestic pet when it is brought up from infancy. Generally, it is a healthy animal that saves the owner from the anxiety of attending illness of pets. Grooming is not a problem with the animal, as in other rabbits. Breeding is another positive factor, which is easier than the normal rabbits and mothers feed litters with enough milk.

The lionheads rabbit is supplied to America from Europe since 1999. It started with individuals taking interest in the animal and importing the breed in different parts of the nation such as in Northern Minnesota and Maryland for breeding purposes. Due to the absence of uniformity in size and type, breeders experimented with crossbreeding with other breeds of rabbits such as Britannia petite, Netherland dwarfs, Holland and Polish lop, and Florida whites and so on. All these experiments were done to get suitable species for the proposed standard for use in America.