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Is the breed Rex/Mini Rex more delicate than other breeds?

Happy Hopping

Wise Old Thumper
Is there some fundamental difference between Rex or mini rex vs. other breeds?

I notice a few some things about my mini rex Bobby:

1) Since I got Bobby in May, she has 2 very mild ?? problem that causes him mild pain. Today is the 2nd time. I notice his belly is moving in and out and hiding in a corner. So gives him 0.17 ml of metacam, then in 45 min., everything backs to normal.

2) he never eats any fruits until 1 mth. after I got him. The Oxbow makes all the difference, it could be his previous owner screws something up, since then, he eats fruits and veggies.

3) I read from 1 of your people post that she has a rex, and because she's a rex, she's different than other rabbits. I can't remember who wrote it, and I want to find out why is there a difference
 
I dont think in general rex's are more prone to stasis (which I belive it what you're describing) they are more prone to sore hocks because of thier fur type :wave:

It isnt important to feed rabbits fruit anyway, my pair very very VERY occasionally get a tiny bit of apple, they much prefer greens (and its better for them)
The fruit can upset thier tummies, prehaps stop feeding that (it may have something to do with the pain)

There's lots of people on here who have rex's Jane has many of them, but no idea who you're talking about
 
I think with any "pure" breed rabbit there will always be a highter likelihood of them developing problems. Rabbits (or any animal) who are mixed breed have that hybrid vigour.

AS has been said they are more prone to hock problems though of course.
 
I think with any "pure" breed rabbit there will always be a highter likelihood of them developing problems. Rabbits (or any animal) who are mixed breed have that hybrid vigour.

AS has been said they are more prone to hock problems though of course.

Yes, I believe this, that the pure bred bunnies are more vulnerable.

They all have their areas, like rexs are sore hocks and heart problems, nethies and flat faced bunnies are teeth, larger breeds are heart, hotot and other white feeted bunnies can be megacolon (although that's not exclusive), lionheads have a lot of genetic problems. Any breed has its bug bears, although I have yet to learn what the dutches is.

Also you will get individual bunnies prone to their own sets of problems be it gut, joint pain, respiratory issues, etc.
 
I think with any "pure" breed rabbit there will always be a highter likelihood of them developing problems. Rabbits (or any animal) who are mixed breed have that hybrid vigour.

AS has been said they are more prone to hock problems though of course.

I wouldnt say this is the case. Badly bred crossbred rabbits are more likely to have problems, just as badly bred purebred rabbits.
 
my mini rex HAD small amt. of fur came off on the back of his feet when I first got him. But thru out the months, all those furs has grow back, and there is no worry on sore hock

I have to do a search on who said that statement
 
I would search Jane's posts - I think she's mentioned before that she believed rexes were more prone to heart problems. My own rex, dies of a heart problem - she did have the early signs of sore hocks at one point, but they cleared up pretty quickly with sudocrem & rubber matting
 
I've got 2 rescue rexes, so far they are tough as old boots and loving the cold weather. Happy to share my experiences as I'm pleased that mine haven't succumbed to sore hocks or upset tummies so I must be doing something right.
Jane is definitely the rex expert though.
 
I've had my mini rex since May and he's had no major health problems so far other than starting to show signs of hocks which I have used tea tree cream on and they cleared up straight away.

We are getting another rex that was mistreated and she had very bad sore hocks and a runny eye when she was rescued and but thanks to Angie (bunnymadhouse) they are clearing up.

I don't have any experience with other rabbits but would presume that most breeds are prone to different things and that it mostly depends on the rabbit, how it's treated or been treated in the past or genetic default.
 
Rexes are more prone to heart problems. My mini rex has never grown from the size she was when she was a baby and when I had her spayed recently she had the ovaries etc of an 8-week-old bunny - they were so tiny the vet couldn't see them at first and had to double check she wasn't a boy!

I think as with many pure breeds there is the problem of breeding for looks while sacrificing health, and a lot of inbreeding as well. My vet is now fascinated with rexes and I think he's done loads of research on them :lol:
 
1 thing I notice w/ my mini rex is that his nails has to be trimmed once every 2.5 weeks or so. I've never seen a bun in the past 12 yr. that grows his/her nails so fast. Usually it's 1 trim every 1.5 to 2 mth.
 
1 thing I notice w/ my mini rex is that his nails has to be trimmed once every 2.5 weeks or so. I've never seen a bun in the past 12 yr. that grows his/her nails so fast. Usually it's 1 trim every 1.5 to 2 mth.

My rex is the same, her nails grow very quickly, I've never seen buns nails go so fast. And I hate clipping them as they're black :roll::lol:
 
my 1 is black too, except for 1 finger nail, which is white, but I stopped using nail clipper, because I always afraid of over cutting into the quick and causes blood. But the consequence that I face is that my bun snap her nail and her finger due to the excessive length of the nail. View the video from the link
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=165483

In the end, I bought the above.

If the nail got too long and you don't cut it, 2 bad things can happen, as they had BOTH happened to my buns:

1) the nail will snap, blood will arise at the snap point, and bacteria can get in from the opening

2) The nail can trap by some sort of hole, and snap the finger joint, then the finger is loose and look like it's broken

w/ clipper, it's impossible to clip a micro thickness, say a hair thin. With the dremel, which is what my vet hospital uses daily, you can use it to gently "tab" on the nail, I just tab it 10 times whenever I trim my buns' nails.

The beauty behind gently tabbing it, is that if you reach the blood level, it's just a very tiny dot of blood (not even a drop), and you can stop right away. By comparison, nail clipper cannot possibly do that.
 
I have a mini rex with nails that grow really fast too! Weird. Is it a rex thing?

I also don't like clipping them as they're black and the quick is, I think, longer than my nethies nails so its hard to tell where to stop. With my black nethie nails I can always tell just by looking but rexes have longer nails it seems.
 
That's interesting about their nails. I have 2 black rexes and their nails looked like they were getting quite long so as they were due for a vet check I asked the vet to do them. As it happened she could hardly take any off because although the nails looked long, actually there wasn't that much after the end of the 'quick' so she took only about 1-2 mm off some of them.
 
That's interesting about their nails. I have 2 black rexes and their nails looked like they were getting quite long so as they were due for a vet check I asked the vet to do them. As it happened she could hardly take any off because although the nails looked long, actually there wasn't that much after the end of the 'quick' so she took only about 1-2 mm off some of them.

Yeah, thats how it is with Jack's nails. It bugs me seeing them so long but if I cut them anymore I'd be cutting the quick.
 
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