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Rabbit Breeds
If you take a look at the variety of rabbit breeds, you might be amazed at the huge variety that exists among rabbits. Selective breeding of the European wild rabbit has resulted in tremendous variations of body sizes, styles, colors, and fur.
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What rabbit breeds appeal to you? Big? Little? Lop-eared or straight-eared? Short-haired or wooly? Solid-colored or spotted?
All Breeds of Rabbits in USA: We’ve identified all 47 breeds of rabbits recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA).
Body Types of Rabbits: All these breeds can be further classified into FIVE body types of rabbits.
Meat Rabbits: We’ve also identified the breeds most frequently raised for meat.
Angora Rabbits: Learn about, and find links to, 12 breeds of rabbits with angora wool around the world, some bigger than others.
Pet Rabbit Breeds: Pet Rabbits can be any breed or combination that strikes your fancy. Here are some ideas you might like to consider as you decide on getting a pet rabbit.
Small Rabbit Breeds: Small rabbit breeds are often chosen for pet rabbits, especially for small or young handlers. Plus, they are likely to need less space and feed.
Rabbit Breeds Around the World
It is believed that upwards of 180 domestic rabbit breeds exist across the globe, some of them flourishing, some of them critically endangered.
We wanted to tell you at least a little bit more about these breeds, so we created a short rabbit breed description for each breed, and links to full information on many of the 175+ breeds.
Because there is such a variety of rabbit breeds, these short descriptions stretched to three pages. We alphabetized the rabbit breeds to make it easy for you to find the breeds you wish to learn about.
Here are the links to these three pages about all the different rabbit breeds...
Telling the difference between wild rabbits, domestic rabbits and hares
All domestic rabbits are descended from the European wild rabbit (Order Lagomorpha, Family Leporidae, Genus Oryctolagus, species cuniculus).
The wild rabbits in the Americas are an entirely different species, and indeed, cannot interbreed with domestic rabbits, having a different chromosome count (Order Lagomorpha, Family Leporidae, Genus Sylvilagus). We call them cottontails because of the flash of white tail as they bolt away from their predators. Some species of cottontails have gray on their tails; these are often called simply brush rabbits.
You'll also find 'hares' in the Americas (Order Lagomorpha, Family Leporidae, Genus Lepus). Hares are almost comically long-legged, with ears so long you might wonder why the hares don't just topple over in a breeze. Belgian hares are reminiscent of hares in body type, but they too are domestic rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus).
Domestic rabbits live in burrows. Their young are born blind and furless. They require significant feeding and nurturing until they are ready to fend for themselves, usually by about 4 weeks of age in the wild.
On the other hand, hares nest in little concave hollows ('forms') in the field or brush, as do cottontails (see picture). However, baby hares are born with eyes open and fully furred. They need to be capable of fending for themselves and hiding from danger at an early age, since their nests are so exposed.
