Does anyone know? Bunnies from breeders

I was at the vets today and the nurse had a phone call off a bunny owner wanting advice.

She had got the bunny from a breeder and it had one of those breeding rings on his back leg. The breeder informed her that the ring would expand and grow with the bunny. Anway, the owner is concerned that it may not be growing and looks a little tight.

Can the vets just cut it off? Or is there a law or something that prohibits this. Obviously, if it is too tight it will have to be cut off but if it does does it need replacing? I don't know anything about these things. I advised the nurse to ring the RWF but I was just curious.

If she has the bunny as a pet and does not intend to show him, then she does NOT need to keep it on him and it can be drilled off.

It would NOT grow as the bunny did as it is made out of metal :?

Rings are placed on the rabbit's foot when they're babies, so they grow into it. Why a ring would grow with a bunny, I don't know :shock: but they certainly can be removed. She couldn't replace it if she wanted to show the rabbit, but if it's at the stage where it's too tight then I'd have it removed regardless of whether it made the bun "void" in the show ring or not

I *think* that the general advice is to have the ring removed next time the bun goes under a GA for anything but I’m not 100% sure. I imagine that if it’s causing discomfort it will need to be removed before then but I don’t know if light sedation or anything may be needed. Never seen one in person, just read about them online and in bunny books so once they're slipped on and the bun has grown a bit, I don't know how the process of removing them goes.

I don’t see there would be a law against removing it or a requirement to replace it if it gets taken off though. It's really more of a 'brand label' (for want of a better term) with information like the breeder's registration number on it and maybe the year bun was born as well, stuff like that.

Thanks for that everyone. I will pass this onto the nurse. I've never seen one in person so I don't know how easy they are to be removed. Don't know why the breeder said it would grow with the bunny though ? :?

If its a pet then they can be taken off.
Blue has one and it doesnt cause him any pain, it's generally put on when they are young for the bunnies to grow into they certainly dont grow with them :shock:
It wont be able to be taken off normally as we had to have them cut off which is very delicate and would need to be done by vets.

Emm-Jane76 said:

Don't know why the breeder said it would grow with the bunny though ? :?

Click to expand...

Maybe she thought she was planting trees with those tree-cones that grow as the tree grows :roll:

I do know one thing about breeder rings, which is that certain breeds have a set 'ring size' (i.e 'medium') so if the ring is too tight it could be that the breeder put the wrong size on.

Hope the bun in question gets it removed without problem :wave:

Thor was rung, and I got the vets to cut it off as soon as I could. He's huge now so I can only imagine it would have been very uncomfortable for him if I'd left it on.

Bunnies only need to have their "rings" left on if they are going to be shown with the British Rabbit Council. Also if you got a bunny from the breeder and wanted to show you need to change the buns registation details.

If you do plan to show with the BRC email them to ask what to do as once a buns passed 6 weeks old they are too big to be rung.

I found all this out when I was researching showing but more info is on the BRC website.

If this bunny is a pet I would personally get it cut off asap

Hope this helps

does anyone know?bunnies from breeders

The ring will have the date and details of the breederif you want to know who it is ring up the BRC as they have a list
I would have the ring removedi have had this done by my vet i took in a Cashmere boy many years ago and when he went to be castrated the vet found his breeder ring embedded in his leg:shock:luckily he recovered well but it could have been really nasty if infection had set in

to be honest the new rings are made of ali and i have cut several off with dog sisscor type toe nail clippers