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Ringing Rabbits

anon101

Banned
Seen as the subject of ringing Rabbit's has been brought up can somebody tell me why they are rung?

I believe its something to do with showing?

Louise
 
hi,
u cant show a rabbit unless it is rung, only in a pet section
the ring also tells u who the rabbit belongs to and the year it is born so u cant enter a adult rabbit in a under 5 month class
becky
 
How do you get the Ring's off once the Rabbit has finished it's showing carrer?

I know some rescue's have had problem's gettng ring's off Rabbit's. I think a lot of them have had them burnt off at the Vet's while the Rabbit was being neutered.

Louise
 
Hiya there

The rings identify the rabbit to the owner and as Becky says they need to be rung to be able to be shown in the main show.

Clare
 
It's purely an identification number for shows, nothing more. In other countries - USA, Belgium, Holland Germany etc. they tattoo numbers into a rabbit's ear, which I would find highly disfiguring!

These days most rabbit breeders only ring the ones they want to show - pet and breeding rabbits don't need to be rung, so they aren't. I guess some breeders still might - maybe novices, or some who want to "impress" a new owner by selling them a "special" rabbit! Or some who merely want to have the identification number attached to the bunny for their records - in which case they could just as easily use a name.

Some people will cut off the ring if the rabbit was ever sold as a pet, which I would. Baby buns need to have their rings put on at about 6-8 weeks of age, before the time that some breeds can be evaluated for show quality. I guess some people don't remove them, or aren't bothered. However, if you ever get a rabbit with a ring, you can always contact the BRC to find out who bred it... sometimes, the original owner or breeder doesn't know it's gone into rescue and would take it back to give it a good home. Sometimes rabbits can be sold in good faith, only for the new owners to lose interest or have a crisis and rehome it without the breeder's knowledge... Things happen, as we all know.

The rings are a light aluminium alloy and can be easily removed... unless the rabbit has been overfed or was wrongly rung in the first place (i.e. given too small a ring for its breed) it shouldn't dig into the leg at any time of its life. Occasionally beding can become stuck between the ring and the leg - although I have never encountered this myself in years of experience with different sized breeds, and I would think anyone giving their rabbit a reasonable amount of attention would notice before it got too tight!!

There are many different sizes of rings for the different breeds, carefully measured according to the leg size of each breed... also, breed standards for show have strict weight limits which keeps a breed close to its proper size and also safeguards against rings becoming too small.
 
Ring cutters can be purchased by breeders that will cut the ring off, the ring should not cause any problems unless they get very overweight or were not correctly rung. With some breeds the ring has to be put on a little earlier than 6wks, if the rabbit has big joints then it would go on at a younger age so that it goes over the joint. val
 
RE RINGING RABBITS

I know it is a bit late for me to join in this discussion but we have had a few ringed bunnies come into our rescue. So far we have only had problems with two of them when we had the rings removed at the vets whilst they were being neutered, their poor little legs were quite sore under the ring and the one (a dear little netherland called Lady Bell) had quite a nasty infection. So if any breeder has to pass bunnies on please remove the rings - it costs alot for us to have them removed at the vets and I hate to think some may never have them removed and they could be in discomfort. Alice (AJ's Rabbit and Guinea Pig Rescue)
 
talking of ringing pets i rehomed a rabbit to a school some 4 years ago now he was a nice buck but they picked him as pet only and off he went!
only a few weeks after they took him on he was stolen along with school pig :(
as luck would have it he was away for 1 night as being he was wearing a ring and the people who stole him didnt think to look why would they?
he was returned and thefts found :lol:
but then again not much gets past me ring or not lol :lol:
never had any trouble with mine to be honest and sometimes its good when they come in rescue and if they are ill treated you can in fact track last owner!
and even if it wasnt them who mistreated the bun its good to s**g them off for selling it to people like that!
 
I wouldn't sell a rabbit as a pet with a ring on... I'd definitely cut it off first. There is no reason to sell a pet rabbit with a ring - it isn't worth more, and there are other ways to indicate that it is pure-bred, using pedigree certificates or even a simple "birth certificate" with parents' details.

Both Floyd and Mrs Floyd don't wear rings, as they are not show quality, but their wonderful daughter Ember is rung, as she's had quite a successful show career (and is well on the way to becoming a Champion!!).

However some rabbits with rings do end up in rescue. I would like to ask all rescues who recieve such rabbits to please make a note of the ring number and contact me, especially where a rescue receives a large number of rabbits with rings from the same source.

The British Rabbit Council is keen to take action against breeders who dump rabbits into rescue. I have organised this new initiative with a member of the BRC Management Committee, who will check the ring numbers against the registered owner and take action if necessary.

In fact if anyone who appears to be a breeder, brings several rabbits of the same breed into rescue, the BRC will still check their name against the their records if rescues are willing to divulge this. This was done recently with the French Lops in Plymouth, although it turned out not to be a member (or the person gave a false name).

The main reason they wish to take action is to ensure that breeders do not regard rescues as a convenient dumping ground, or dump rabbits when "giving up" only to start breeding again at a later date with more. If they are denied future membership of the BRC for dumping at rescue, it will certainly dissuade them from doing so, and take more responsibility for the animals they own.

In some cases rabbits may change hands several times, and the original breeder would be horrified to know his/her rabbit has ended up in rescue. In these cases, many breeders would willingly take the rabbit back, and either give it a forever home or find it one - taking full responsibility or doing whatever they can to help.

The 72 Dutch which came into rescue, many pregnant, were mostly rung, and the ring numbers (which were recorded before being removed) are hopefully going to be forwarded to the BRC, and if the breeder was a member, action will be taken. This does not of course prevent them breeding again just to sell (i.e. "backyard" breeding), but it's all the BRC can do, and although a small one, it's definitely a step in the right direction.
 
Thank you Sue, well done for organising this. I'll try and pass on the information to the rescues I know :D

Tam
 
Thanks for that Sue.
We have only ever had one come in to rescue here witha ring, which my vet cut of at his neutering.
Just as well really as his skin under it was starting to get infected.
If we ever have any others I will let you know their details.
 
ringing rabbits.

Hi...I took in a cashmere buck who had been shown, I wasn,t told that he was rung and I didn,t (to my shame) notice this at first. I had him a few weeks before I saw to my horror that he had a ring completely embedded in his leg, I managed to cut this off with wire cutters but the poor little chaps leg was raw underneath, he had to have it cleaned up under anesthetic & a course of anti-biotics, after that I made sure every one that came to me was checked for rings & got them cut off (the vets were quite happy to do this) I think if rabbits are rung & then passed on they should be removed if they are not to be shown from shan & the furry people. P.S> should explain that the bucks owner had given him up because she had arthities & therefore couldn,t groom him properly so he was matted up.
 
Can I just add to this, in my opinion, it's not a good idea for anyone without 'experience' to try to remove a ring from a rabbit's leg as the leg can easily be broken during the process. It's always better done by a rabbit savvy vet and usually carried out under sedation using special cutters or a dremil. I certainly wouldn't attempt it myself.

I feel this is worth a mention as some of the people who read these posts are unfamiliar with rabbit care :D
 
I would totally agree with what Lynda has said about removing rings.

Aggie had to get hers taken off a few weeks ago and although she didn't have to be sedated it is a pretty tricky job and one wrong move and you could have a bunny witha broken leg, a very deep wound etc etc.

My vet actually had to bring in bolt cutters from home and the only reason Aggie wasn't sedated was because her ring was still a wee bit loose and I was able to cuddle the rest of her in.

The ring she had on took about four cuts to get off and I have to say I was a bag of nerves throughout the whole process.

Personally I think bunny rings are a bloody stupid idea.

lol Pam, kim and "not so posh" Aggie
 
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