Mini Lop

  • COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
  • YEAR RECOGNIZED: 1981
  • USES: Pet, show, meat
  • WEIGHT: 6.5 pounds (3 kg) max., senior bucks and does
  • BODY TYPE: Compact
  • FUR TYPE: Rollback; medium in length; dense, glossy, lustrous

colors:

Agouti Group — chinchilla with black, blue, chocolate, lilac, sable, or smoke pearl as a basic color; chestnut agouti, lynx, opal

Broken Group — any recognized breed color in conjunction with white and carrying the breed pattern

Pointed White Group — white body with black, blue, chocolate, or lilac nose, ears, feet, legs, and tail

Self Group — black, blue, chocolate, lilac, white

Shaded Group — frosted pearl, sable, sable point, seal, smoke pearl, tortoiseshell

Ticked Group — silver/silver fox, steel

Tricolored Group — any of the following colors in conjunction withwhite: black and golden orange, lavender blue and golden fawn, dark chocolate and golden orange, lilac and golden fawn

Wide Band Group — cream, fawn, orange, red

THE POPULAR MINI LOP is in no way a big bruiser of a rabbit, but neither is it a tiny rabbit. It can weigh up to 6.5 pounds (3 kg), making it considerably stauncher than the Mini Rex and Mini Satin, as well as several other breeds that don’t wear the “mini” moniker. The Mini Lop can outweigh the Holland, a similar lop as well as the smallest of the lops, by 2 pounds (0.9 kg).

The Mini Lop has a compact body, much like the Holland. It has a dense, shiny coat, and the does may have a dewlap, the fatty “bag” that often develops under the chin. Mini Lops appeal to some lop fanciers because they tend to be calmer and more sedentary than the smaller, more spirited Hollands.

The immediate ancestor of the Mini Lop was developed in Germany in the mid-1950s. During the next two decades, the evolving breed was infused with at least six others: French Lop, English Lop, Dwarf Lop, New Zealand, Polish, and Chinchilla.