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Welcome to
our extended-family of
Cuddly Bunnies!
ROSS RABBITS is
the name of this website - and is not a business or trading name. We're
just a family of pet bunny-enthusiasts following our long-term hobby, spanning more than 35
years and continuing....!
The initial interest in 'small furries' began early in 1972 when we started switching from keeping and breeding guinea-pigs and moving more towards focusing on companion pet rabbits.
The interest
has continued and developed to become our interest and the rabbits live
both indoors as free-range house-rabbits in our home and outdoors in the garden.
Since taking early retirement in 1995, we can now dedicate our lives
totally to our bunnies and become their 24/7 slaves!
Our bunnies are primarily our family pets -
and we produce occasional litters to maintain their lines.
We raise Mini Lops, Dwarf Lops and
big French Lops - focusing on producing blue, fawn and harlequin mini lops, blue
and occasional harlequin pattern dwarf lops and aiming for blue
and blue
butterfly French Lops. During 2004, after two years of careful selective breeding and
studying of colour genetics,
we succeeded in introducing fawn to our French Lop lines and are continuing to raise more
fawn Frenchies with the
possible addition of fawn and orange butterfly in 2006-8.
Our Bunnies are Pets:
All
of our bunnies (they are 'bunnies' to us, not rabbit!) are, first and
foremost, our family pets who are snuggled, cuddled and fussed throughout
the day - every day! All exercise in our garden during the daytime and
summer evenings while other live indoors with us as free-range
house-rabbits where they have the freedom to explore and receive extra
cuddles 'on demand'. Naturally, the house is bunny-proofed with
cables run through conduit downstairs and tucked under carpets or taped down out of bunny-reach
upstairs.
During spring 2003, all of our French Lop hutches were replaced, followed by our mini lop hutches in spring 2004. Our furry family now have spacious purpose-built 'apartments' complete with electric strip-lighting - so no more long winter days of daily cleaning by torchlight! They also have a night-light on a timer, electric fans during the summer, baby-listening system and CCTV to ensure we don't miss any overnight excitements and a security system. We have two 24h webcam focussed on the house-buns and hutches and, next, we'd like to have an extra 24h webcam focused on the garden so everyone viewing this site can watch them all at play. One day.....
We generally retain several females from each litter we breed which helps us maintain our lines and ensure our favourite families remain with us for future generations. Having said this, we do keep a few boys but this is purely for sentimental reasons and these are pets-only as we do not in-breed.
Most of our lines have been bred by us over multiple generations and we aim to continue this over the coming years. For this reason, more males are offered for adoption because we keep only girls and introduce new bloodlines via carefully selected fathers.
We
focus not only on breeding selected colours but also, and much
more importantly in
our opinion, cuddly, snuggly and affectionate
personalities. We are proud to say that our bunnies have the friendliest characters you could
possibly imagine.
If you are looking for a furry friend as a companion pet rabbit, a bunny who will sit on your shoulder and lick your ears, join you on the sofa to watch TV, bound across the garden to sit on your knee, jump into bed with you to read (or chew!) the Sunday paper, go for walks on a lead and harness and generally become a fully-fledged member of your family/household, then look no further - you have found the bunnies you're looking for! However, if you are wanting a bunny who will sit still and look pretty on a show table then it's probably better to look elsewhere - our gang want to be picked up, fussed, cuddled and generally spoiled rotten!
As our bunnies are our pets whom we have
lovingly reared and raised, the continued welfare of any babies available for
adoption is always our prime concern.
We have invested a lot of time in our furry mob and their litters and we want to ensure any babies who leave move into the best homes possible as our responsibility towards them. For this reason we will ask you a few questions about your rabbit-owning experience and how you plan to house and care for your bunnies. This is to be certain that bunnies will be suitable pets for you and your household and that your bunny ownership will be a mutually rewarding experience. We will also strive to provide ongoing advice and support throughout the life-time of bunnies adopted from us.
Exercise and Socialisation:
Our
bunnies are fully socialised from a very young age. We recognise the
importance of handling in a baby bunny's early days and go out of our way
to ensure they are all handled, fussed and snuggled from shortly after
birth and every day thereafter. This is especially important in large
breeds who have the potential to become quite unmanageable if not correctly
socialised - they have equally large teeth and could inflict quite serious
damage if they wanted to, hence we rear them to give loving licks instead!
Along with their careful selective breeding, this regular handling guarantees they are used to gentle human handling with no negative experiences which can introduce fear or apprehension. As a result, our bunnies grow up with love and affection - and continue to demand this throughout their lives!
All our rabbits either run free during the daytime or play and socialise in smaller
groups in large pens. They have tunnels to explore and toys - jingle
balls, Ka-Bobs, tunnels, chews, gnaws, danglies, hay racks (great to rest in!) etc and
thanks to our bunny adopters and contacts throughout the UK and beyond, we have
been able to source a very wide of bunny toys and novelties - and now share
these with other bunny owners via our non-profitmaking online 'shop'.
In addition to playing with their toys, our furry mob list 'redesigning
the garden'
amongst their special skills and hobbies.
Our Affectionate Bunnies:
Our
bunnies have exceptionally tame, friendly and affectionate personalities and we
have never experienced fighting or 'bonding' difficulties amongst them
but, of course, they are all very carefully socialised at a very young
age..
The
females happily play together in the garden, share food bowls, groom each other
and flop down in a furry mound for an afternoon doze. Visitors often
remark on this - once they've watched the bunnies bound across the lawn to
greet us in the garden and then come for strokes and nose-rubs.
All enjoy fuss and attention and some will roll onto their backs for tummy-tickles, while the youngsters in their hutches or pens, come to us and lick our hands. When we climb in to join them, they then climb all over us, run up trouser legs (which tickles!) and seem to love snuggling into our necks or whispering their bunny-secrets into our ears.
Companion
Pets:
An increasingly popular trend is for pet rabbits to become companion 'house-rabbits' and live happily in the home with their owners. Most, especially the larger breeds, are happy to be left unsupervised during the daytime - providing all electric power cables are safely tucked out of reach (see litter-training page) and they have access to food, water, a few toys (see online 'shop') and, of course, their litter tray! We recommend hooded 'Cat Loo types for larger French Lop bunnies along with a large plastic dog bed to line with fluffy 'Vet Bed' to become a cosy bunny bed!
French
Lops:
With their large body size, big Frenchy bunny-hugs, heavy features and placid, docile, affectionate natures have to be our favourite breed.
They are a very large breed and hence need a lot of space.
If housed outdoors then they'll need a 6' x 3' x 2' hutch plus a large run but, ideally, they're much better suited to living as house-bunnies with almost unlimited free space to roam and explore and this is how we like our buns to live, where possible.
In
many ways, Frenchies resemble affectionate puppies and will even enjoy going for walks using a
lead and harness. We take ours out regularly to local fields or even for an amble
up and down the road - hoping they'll stay away from a neighbour's tasty
lavender bush!
They are also very huggable - and, with their huge paws, can almost hug you back in return!!
Friendly Characters:
Almost all
our female
bunnies
have been bred by ourselves and all are extremely calm, tame and friendly.
Producing cuddly, furry bundles is one of our main objectives since we believe it is pointless
breeding bunnies with poor temperaments as these might bring less pleasure to
their owners and could lead to them receiving less fuss, cuddles and
attention.
Our bunnies always come to the front of their overnight hutches for fuss and cuddles and we feel most guilty if we should happen to pass an occupied hutch and not open the door and cuddle its occupant/s. So, we give into temptation each time and, of course, we can't cuddle one without then snuggling the next 20...! Then, it's a case of "Oh dear! The whole day's passed....!".
Hence, I
think we can safely say that our bunnies occupy all of our time - and
don't they just know it!!
Also, when we sit or lie in the garden with them, they come to us for nose-rubs then walk all over us. Mayflower has a novel habit - she likes to stand on her human-mum's head during the morning hutch-cleaning sessions. Whilst it's a lovely feeling, it doesn't really help with the hutch-cleaning...!
We strongly believe in
breeding rabbits of
excellent temperament, character and personality with a love of being handled,
cuddled and snuggled. A nasty, vicious or over-timid pet is far less
rewarding to own and doesn't really benefit anyone - bunny or human. So,
this is our first priority, then followed by breeding for colour - and always to
maintain our lines.
We handle our babies from as soon as possible following their birth, usually within 20 minutes of their arrival - as soon as they are settled. This regular handling with fuss, love and snuggles ensures that our babies are always noticeably tame and friendly pets who will be most rewarding to own and a complete contrast to the bunnies available from some 'other sources', DIY stores and pet shops. By the time they leave us they are fully-socialised, used to lots of daily handling, grooming, a good diet and the vast majority are litter-trained. All will make superb pets while some could go on to become show-rabbits.
Litter-Trained
House Rabbits:
Most of our bunnies are litter-trained from a young age to become possible house-rabbits - a benefit rarely seen in 'pet shop rabbits' (again, the purchase of we strongly advised against).
We always encourage bunnies moving indoors as they greatly benefit from the increased contact with their slaves and it can be a very mutually rewarding experience. An indoor cage provides a perfect base for storing water bottles, food bowls, litter tray and toys and an attached play pen offers extra space for play and exercise when unsupervised - while you're out at work or overnight.
Most of our range of indoor cages and play pens will also pack flat for travel so your bunnies can join you on holiday - and even travel to their destination in their home, rather like their own caravan! Both are available to order online.
Breeding
Philosophy:
Primarily, all our bunnies are our family pets whom we raise to maintain our lines and to introduce different colours to our furry family. They also have varied treats, toys and tunnels to explore, together with lots of daily fuss, love and mutual affection!
Our
bunnies live with us at home as family pets, either in the house or outside in
the garden. They are never bred for profit or
income. Any sales revenue helps to contribute just a little towards their
upkeep: ie. healthcare, vaccinations and feed bills.
Unlike commercial breeders and some show-breeders, we do not in-breed as this can lead to congenital defects which can lead to expensive and ongoing vet bills for treating or attempting to keep congenital conditions under control.
Our bunnies are not over-bred. Generally, our Frenchies will have their first litter at 10-12 months of age and two litters in their second year following which they retire gracefully to sun themselves in the garden or become an animated hearth-rug in the lounge.
Bunnies for Adoption
As we are very small-scale,
non-commercial hobbyist pet owners/breeders, we won't always have babies
available for adoption but we do keep a waiting list of enquirers.
So, if you're interested in welcoming one of our bunnies into your home,
please get in touch.
Like most dedicated pet owners, we're quite fussy about where our 'babies' move to so we'll ask you a few questions first, just to make sure a bunny will be a compatible furry family member for you.
We do not make any profits from the sale of our surplus babies and any income is used as a small contribution towards the care of our bunnies.
Rescue and Rehoming:
Occasionally, when we have a spare hutch, we will offer this to a needy bunny who requires either rescue and ongoing care or rehoming. Only genuine cases will be considered.
Previous rescue bunnies have included a dwarf lop (Figwort) who had been kicked and hit with sticks by his original owners, English Angora (Hattie), a matted and wasted-away cashmere lop (Hyacinth), several mini lops, a French lop (Giles) bought as a pet for a 2 year old toddler and had a broken leg caused by mishandling, and our absolute star, Penelope - read about her at Penelope's Story.
Some bunnies will be offered nursing care and eventually re-homed (eg Figwort and Hyacinth) but most will spend their remaining days/years here.
We've added a just a few of our many bunny pics on this site but please take a look at our bunny photo albums at:
http://photos.freeserve.com/rossrabbits@ukonline.co.uk
and: http://community.webshots.com/user/rossrabbits
Visit our French Lop website at: http://continue.to/frenchlops
We also have a family woodwork/marquetry site at: www.vagavalley.co.uk/wrenwood
We are members of the Rabbit Welfare Association
Click here to read the Bunnies' own online journal to share their outlook on life and latest news
