What Breed is my Rabbit?

There are so many rabbit breeds out there! It can be intimidating to try to figure out what breed your rabbit is if you are not sure of its genetics. Here, we will give you a sort of flow chart of characteristics to look for when trying to deduce what breed your rabbit might be. Many of the rarer breeds won’t be mentioned here, but hopefully this guide will be helpful when looking at more common or unique breeds!

Keep in mind many wonderful pets are mixed breeds, so you may never know exactly what they are, but it’s still fun to guess!

Ears

The first thing you’re going to do is look at your rabbit’s ears.

Are they lopped?

Lopped ears bend down and hang beside the face. These rabbits are adorable, and very easy to identify as a group. If your rabbit’s ears are lopped, it is most likely one of (or a mix of) 5 breeds. These breeds are American Fuzzy Lop, Holland Lop, Mini Lop, English Lop, and French Lop.

Does your lop have long hair?

If so, it is most likely an American Fuzzy Lop. There is also a genetic mutation that can result in “fuzzy” Holland Lops, but this is less common.

Is your short haired lop a smaller rabbit, or is it larger?

The two most difficult lop breeds to tell the difference between are Holland Lops and Mini Lops. They are both smaller rabbits and have similar features that to the untrained eye might be very similar. To tell the difference between them, first look at their size. Holland Lops are a dwarf breed and only weight 2-4lbs., while Mini Lops are a bit larger, weighing 4.5-6.5lbs. Being dwarfs, Holland Lops also have blockier heads and shorter ears than Mini Lops.

The larger lop eared breeds are much less common but easier to tell apart. English Lops have massively long ears. Ear tip to ear tip, their ears can measure a whopping 28 inches! Owners of English Lops have to be careful to keep their rabbit’s toenails trimmed regularly because they can actually damage their ears while treading on them. French Lops have proportionate ear lengths, they’re just massive rabbits. French Lops weigh from 10 to 15lbs. and look like giant Mini Lops.

Are they “airplane ears”?

Airplane ears are when your rabbit’s ears instead of being upright or lopped meet somewhere in the middle.

If your rabbit has airplane ears, first think about its age.

Young lop rabbits need some time for their ears to fully drop! The airplane ears in the image above are actually on a young lop, and as the rabbit aged it’s ears dropped.

If your rabbit is an adult or nearing adulthood and it still has airplane ears, it is most likely a mix between lop and non-lop breeds.

Are they super short and thick?

These are ears most typical of dwarf rabbits. Keep in mind that American Fuzzy Lops and Holland Lops are also dwarfs, but we discussed them in the prior section, so won’t be mentioning them here.

There are lots of dwarf breeds! When trying to identify what dwarf you have, think about fur, and color.

Is your dwarf rabbit fuzzy?

If your dwarf rabbit has long hair and straight ears, it is most likely a Lionhead, or a Jersey Wooly.

Lionheads are the more common of the two. These rabbits are very unique in that they have long hair around their necks that forms a “mane”. They also often have long hair on their hindquarters as well.

Jersey Woolies have long hair everywhere accept their faces and ears.

What color is your rabbit?

If your rabbit is a short haired dwarf with non-lopped ears, the most common breeds it could be are Netherland Dwarf, Dwarf Hotot, and Polish.

The most identifiable dwarf based on color alone is the Dwarf Hotot. This breed is usually solid white accept for black, blue, or chocolate rings around its eyes, appearing almost like it’s wearing mascara. Super pretty and unique, these rabbits always stand out. However, it is also common to have Dwarf Hotots pop up in litters that are “mismarked” with color on other parts of their bodies. Some might even be marked more like a Dutch rabbit. Because of this, some mismarked Dwarf Hotots might be indistinguishable from a broken Netherland Dwarf.

Polish rabbits are similar in size and characteristics to Netherland Dwarfs, but usually have slightly less chunky heads and slightly longer ears. Because genetics can vary and produce a Polish with a larger head or a Netherland Dwarf with a smaller one, think about what color your rabbit is. Polish come in black, blue, chocolate, lilac, blue-eyed white, ruby-eyed white, and broken in any of those colors. Those are a lot of colors, but Netherland Dwarfs come in all those colors, and every other one. There is an extremely large variety of Netherland Dwarf colors, so if your rabbit is short haired, a dwarf, and is an exotic color, it is most likely a Netherland Dwarf.

Are their ears just normal?

If your rabbit’s ears just look like normal rabbit ears it could be one of dozens of breeds with this characteristic. Let’s narrow it down by looking at some other traits!

Fur

Fur type is another quick way to identify your rabbit’s breed! Here we will be looking at rex fur, woolly coats, and normal fur.

Is it short and plush?

If your rabbit’s fur is short and plush, it’s a rex breed! But which one exactly?

Hint: If you’re not sure if your rabbit has a rex coat, look at its whiskers! Rex furred rabbits often have curly whiskers.

Is your rabbit on the small side?

Mini Rex are the most common rex furred rabbits! They average 3 to 4.5lbs.

Is your rabbit on the larger side?

Standard Rex (also just called Rex) are usually 7.5 to 10.5lbs. They look very similar to Mini Rex, just much larger.

Does your rabbit have lopped ears?

Velveteen Lops are so far an unrecognized breed, but they are super unique! Size wise they are between a Mini Rex and a Standard Rex, and what makes them really unique is the combination of English Lop features with a rex coat. Oh, so pretty!

Is it long haired/woolly?

Welcome to the land of woolly rabbits, primarily made up of angoras!

There are several rabbits that can fall into this category.

Is your rabbit small with upright ears?

There are two dwarf, long haired rabbit breeds. The first is the Jersey Wooly. These rabbits usually weigh around 3lbs and are characterized by their small size, thick, upright ears, and wool coats. Lionheads also fall into this category. These rabbits are much more common out of the two, and usually weigh 2.5 to 3.75lbs. What really sets the lionhead apart is how they have a woolen main around their heads reminiscent of a lion, and often they will also often have a wool “skirt” around their back legs.

Does your rabbit have woolly tufts on the tips of its ears?

There are three angora breeds with face furnishings. English Angoras, Giant Angoras, and German Angoras. Basically, they have fur everywhere, whereas other angora breeds have short hair on their faces and ears.

English Angoras are the smallest of the three, weighing 5 to 7.5lbs. These rabbits are available in a whole range of colors and are capable of shedding.

German and Giant Angoras are very similar. They are usually 9.5 to 10lbs and are most often seen in the ruby-eyed white variety. Giant Angoras are the only ones of the two that are recognized by the ARBA and they can only be shown in ruby-eyed white. That doesn’t keep wool breeders down though! Many breeders will have different colored German or Giant Angoras sprinkled into their herd to keep things interesting.

An interesting characteristic of German and Giant angoras is that they cannot shed and must be shorn on occasion to keep their wool and skin healthy.

Does your rabbit have short hair on its face and ears?

If your angora has only short hair on its face and ears, it is most likely either a Satin Angora, or a French Angora.

Satin Angoras are really pretty. They look very similar to a small French Angora (6.5 to 9.5lbs.), but their hair follicles are very thin, and their hair shafts reflect light, resulting in a beautiful, luminous coat of wool. This beauty comes at a price though, and because of how fine their wool is, they are the hardest of the angora breeds to keep mat free.

French Angoras are slightly larger than Satin Angoras, and weigh from 7.5 to 10.5lbs. They may not have the luminous sheen of Satin Angoras, but due to their prevalence of guard hairs, they are one of the easier angora breeds to groom.

Does it have normal fur?

Most rabbit breeds have “normal” textured fur. Keep reading though and find out if your rabbit has some other characteristics that might help it stand out!

Size

If you have an idea of your rabbit’s weight, that is a great way to narrow down what breed it might be!

Take a look at our breed spotlights to see lists of all ARBA recognized breeds along with their ideal weight range.

Dwarf rabbits are the tiniest rabbits you can get! Potential weights range from 1.1 to 4.25 pounds, but most dwarf rabbits are between 2 and 4 pounds.

Small breeds have the small size that makes them popular as pets and exhibition animals, but they do not carry the dwarf gene. Here, we are considering small breeds to be non-dwarfs with a maximum show weight of 6 pounds.

Medium breeds: there are many rabbit breeds that fall into this category! Here, we are considering medium breeds to be rabbits that have maximum show weights from 5.6 to 9.5 pounds.

Large breeds: ranging from 7 to 12lbs, there is a lot of variety in the large breed category. Many of these breeds were traditionally raised as commercial rabbits, but they can all make fantastic pets as well.

Giant breeds are truly a sight to see! From the 10+ pound Giant Angora to the 22+ pound Flemish Giant, there is a lot of variety amongst these breeds.

Conclusion

Looking at your rabbit’s ears, fur, and size are just a few ways to help deduce what breed it is! If your rabbit is mixed, keep in mind that it may be difficult or impossible to figure out exactly what it is a combination of.

We hope you found this guide helpful. Happy hopping!