Animal Lover

by Jennifer
(Iowa)

We rescued an abandoned sable point mini rex. The animal control personnel said it was a boy...yea!

After further investigation he is really a SHE.

My concern is that we don't know how many male wild rabbits may have said hello to her since she was outside our house for 4 days before we took her in. What are the chances she is pregnant? She dug the bedding away from the back right corner of her cage...opposite her food and is always laying there without the bedding.

If she has babies would we be able to find them good homes since the male would have been a common cottontail? She has the best temperament of any animal. Anyone can put their hand in her cage and she has never reacted skittish or tried to bite. We all love her and I wonder if she could ever be showed without papers.

****Karen Sez****
No worries on the baby front - cottontails cannot make babies with our domestic rabbits since the chromosome counts are not comparable. Well, I suppose she *could* be pregnant if she bumped into a stray domestic rabbit...!

Do you know whether or not the animal still has its reproductive capabilities intact?

Yes, if your sable point mini rex conforms to the mini rex standard, you can show the rabbit. The only thing will be that you cannot register it without a pedigree.

Should you desire to breed the doe, you simply keep records going forward, and in three generations you will have created pedigrees for the newest offspring.

As long as a registrar checks the animals over and agrees that they meet the standard, they can be registered as mini rex rabbits.

Good luck, have fun, and God bless you,
K