| About Lionheads: -General Information: Lionheads are a very unique rabbit distinguished from other rabbits by a "mane" of wool that encircles their head - similar to a male African Lion. The rest of their body has normal roll-back fur. They are known for their good temperment and usually are good mothers to their young. The Single Mane look like the previous description at 7 weeks already, and at present most of them loose their mane in adulthood. The Double Manes look like an angora kitten with longer ears when they are 6-8 weeks old. They are born looking like a normal rabbit, but then grow wool all over their bodies and molt out (at 10-12 weeks) most of the wool on the saddle area and face.... there is often wool still flanking their legs which is what disqualifies them from the show tables as a Senior if they have too much flank hair.. The Double Mane usually (but not always) have a fuller mane, and tend to keep their manes better into adulthood.. Sometimes a "Teddy Style" will result when you cross two Double Manes which means they retain their wool all over - very cute, but unshowable as fuzzy hair on their face and too much flank wool.. They can still be used for breeding, but its recomended you only breed them to NoMane or SingleManes for the best results. Here is a basic table for breeding probabilities with the Mane Gene. For more information on genetics, please check some of the links where everything is explained in greater detail! Click here to go to a great genetics chart designed by Brenda Lidner . History The Lionhead rabbit is believed to have come as a result of a mutation from a Belgium Dwarf and a Swiss Fox rabbit cross in Belgium, 1996. Another theory is that the mutation occured while trying to create a Dwarf Angora. Whatever the origin, the Lionhead rabbit is quickly becoming a new favourite in the United States (around for the last five years), just recently entering the Canadian market. Lionheads come in an errect eared version here in America in a variety of colours, their weight averaging 3.5 lbs (top weight for showable is 3 3/4 lbs). The lop-eared version is popular in Europe, and is sometimes available through other breeders here in America. ARBA will only pass one version here, which will eventually be the errect eared version. Prices for Lionheads span from $50 canadian (singlemanes) to $250 american (what I've paid plus shipping charges for bringing them in from the States) which is why they are a more expensive rabbit to own. This in mainly due to its scarcity, plus the prices we as breeders have to pay to start our stock. The more developed lionheads (close to the standard for showing) cost the most and give you the closest resemblance to a lion look. There are only 8 colours they are working on to pass for showing - chestnut aguiti, black, siamese sable,, tortoise, and Ruby Eyed White, Fawn, Sablepoint. and Blue.. Many more colours than that are available (60 recognized ones in England!) as it is a diverse gene pool we are working from! I breed for both show and the pet market - show colours I'm working on are tort, REW, Siamese Sable, Blues, and sablepoint mostly. I do enjoy many other colours which I breed for fun.... For now, we are showing lionheads for exhibition only at the rabbit shows - Tort passed its first presentation in Nov. 2005 with Arden Wetzel's standard - thus begining its journey to becoming "official"sometime in 2008. |
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| We've moved to lionheadrabbit.org |
| A bit of Lionhead History & Facts: |