Blind Rabbits

Hello, I would be grateful for any advice from other owners of rabbits.
We have a male and female dwarf lops and they have just had their first litter of 4 kittens.Tragically 2 of the kittens are white and were born blind , we consulted a vet and she confirmed there was a chance of pure white rabbits being born blind and for some reason coloured rabbits are far less likely to be affected.

My question is has anybody else had experience of blind rabbits , is it possible for them to have any quality of life or is it kinder to put them to sleep.We are willing to put in the extra effort if it means they have a chance of having a near normal life and really don't wish to put them to sleep but we don't want to cause them any more pain than they already have to endure.

Thanks

How old are the babies now? Did the vet confirm they were blind? How do they behave comparison to the other babies?
Sorry - lots of questions

I have no experience with blind rabbits but many animals born blind cope very well. They have never experienced sight and won't miss it, also like humans, their other senses can start compensating for the one they have lost.
But make sure they can find their food. We once had a blind guinea pig at school and it died young I am not quite sure why...could be that he was unable to find his food or had other genetic defects we didn't see.

Are you sure these rabbits are blind though? Far from all white rabbits are blind. We've had plenty of albino rabbits born at school and they all had okay eyesight. We even once had an albino guinea pig The blind pig was not related to it...he was black with a white stripe (almost dutch...but with very little white) we noticed he was blind because his eyes were clouded and he was often sitting on his own, while his siblings ran around in the pen following their mothers and the other guinea pigs.

Hi there. I have a blind bunny. He wasn't born blind though. He has lost an eye due to glaucoma and swelling and the other one is going the same way. This is all very recent and he seems to be managing very well indeed. He does have a wifeybun and she helps to guide him round. She also ensures that the one remaining eye is very clean at all times - she grooms him all the time.

He also manages to find his way around very well too because since he went blind, we haven't changed his environment. This means that he senses his way round perfectly. The only time we have had a few problems is at feeding time when he gets so excited that he has a tendency to rush around and has bonked his head on the container that I store the pellets in whilst I put some in the hutch.

I would guess that for babies, it might be a plan, that they always have access to a bunny that isn't blind. So if you are going to pair them up, maybe keep each blind bunny with a seeing sibling (dependent on their sexes of course). This way they will always have a pair of eyes available to them.

I am of course no expert to I am sure that someone with more experience will give you some information too.

:wave:

Any blind rabbit born in the wild would perish...HOWEVER, this need not be the case for domestic buns. ZakuraRabbit has a very valid point = You don't miss that you never had.

Rabbits (per say) have a very keen sense of smell and I would therefore be VERY surprised if a blind one had problems finding it's food...Okay, a change in environment may pose a problem - a blind rabbit may take a while to sort out where things are but otherwise? I think they will no doubt cope very well.

I personally wouldn't put them to sleep - I would be more inclined to "give them a chance" and see how they go...

I'm not too sure where this "pure white = more chance of blindness" comes from. I too had that kind of idea in my head and researched online in being told one of my "soon to be" buns was a blue-eyed white (tiz too...with grey nose!:lol I found exactly NO evidence to suggest a white rabbit would be a blind one - EVEN if blue-eyed! Has your vet acctually tested their sight at all??

TP

Aww I have had a couple of blind bunsters & have to say they still have absolutely the same quality of life that a non-blind babbit has!! Definately dont have them put to sleep, they will adjust amazingly, Honestly! Good luck X

Barney has catereracts so has limited vision. He was much more confident when paired up with a fully sighted rabbit...she even rounded him up the other day when he hadn't realised there was some carrot out for them.

It was recommended for me to have him as a house bunny though as I guess they wouldn't be able to hide so quickly from danger.

Becki xX said:

Aww I have had a couple of blind bunsters & have to say they still have absolutely the same quality of life that a non-blind babbit has!! Definately dont have them put to sleep, they will adjust amazingly, Honestly! Good luck X

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I agree with Becki: my rabbit Harley became blind in later life as a result of severe cateracts (a complication of untreated EC) and he managed perfectly. He was paired with a sighted rabbit whilst with me, but also managed very well on his own whilst in rescue. Your babies have a great chance of living a happy, healthy life and I certainly don't think that putting them to sleep is the best option for them. They sound gorgeous: good luck x

Blind rabbits are absolutely fine the only thing I would try to do is put a sighted one with each as they will then be able to follow the sighted one, I have a dad and son who came in and dad was blind and he was absolutely fine as his son used to push him to the food, all I would say is don't change their cages round as they will get used to where stuff is

Elaine

Assuming this is a deliberate litter can I suggest that you cease breeding from these rabbits if they are producing blind kits? Its suggests a serious genetic fault which should not be encouraged.

We had a blind rabbit once, blind from birth as a result of brain damage, Bobbin, a dutch rabbit.

He used to bob his head up and down (hence the name) and run in ever increasing circles to figure out his territory and where the boundaries were so after would he could play without bumping into things. Such a clever rabbit, he had a wondeful life, and very affectionate. I miss Bobbin, he lived a good 8 years if I remember rightly.

Blind rabbits

Rabbits in the wild spend quite a high proportion of time below ground which is dark and to the rabbit a secure safe place. It therefore follows that if the rabbits feel safe and secure in their familiar environment, not being able to see is not such a big impediment as we find it .

We have a blind rabbit..Jack who is a house rabbit who negociates his way round most of the house with no problems and even feels confident enough to run. Yes he does bump into things at times if things are moved but he has never injured himself and I would judge his quality of life to be excellent in fact far better than that of a human being who has to deal with unfamiliar surroundings and has to perform far more demanding tasks on a daily basis.

We also have a deaf white lop bunny.... Harry who deals with his deafness less well than Jack with his blindness. Harry is frequently unaware if someone approaches from the rear and is often startled whilst Jack almost uses his hearing to accurately locate and "see" people and never feels starled or surprised.If it were not for his mate Lil, Harry would be unaware of anything he could not see and he is often only alerted by the movement of Lil.

We have also paired up two blind bunnies with success and no problems, however I'm led to believe pairing up one sighted to one unsighted bunny is far more tricky and something we have never attempted.

I hope this helps in your decision

I have 3 blind rabbits and one of them is paired with a rabbit with good sight, he looks after her The other two are badly disabled as well so they haven't got a partner - another one of our buns has cataracts now and can hardly see but is happy and content
Please don't write off blind rabbits, they can live wonderful lives and as said, what they haven't had they don't miss

hi we had a blind bun...he was bonded to a sighted doe who seemed to help him alot.make sure you keep things nearby ie littertray, food,hay, water etc.
they learn very quickly to use their other senses.bumps was 6 yo when he died.he had a fantastic full life. animals are great at adapting.