A Dog is a Man's Best Friend

Read up on rabbit breeds before you choose the best rabbit for you and your family.

Rabbits are popular pets. Children especially find them adorable. Of course, our culture sees rabbits as both pets and as food. Rabbits are raised for their meat and wild rabbits are hunted for sport. But despite the pet or prey paradox rabbits are always popular pet choices. They are naturally seen as cute, and are aloof, almost cat-like in their character. As pets rabbits are usually kept in a cage but some owners do allow the go free in their enclosed residence.

There are several different types of rabbit breeds. The breed of domestic rabbit we tend to have as a pet is the European breed of rabbit. There are breeds of large rabbits, breeds of dwarf rabbits and middle-sized breeds. particularly popular breeds are the Angora rabbit breed and the Rex rabbit breed.

There are two easy ways to think about breeds of pet rabbits.

1. According to rabbit breed size.

Rabbits come in these breed sizes: giant, large, medium, small and dwarf. Some breeds are available in one or more sizes. Typical giant breeds include the Flemish Giant, the Giant Angora and the Giant Chinchilla. The Giant Angora, for example, weighs around 10 pounds and over, while the Dwarf Hotot weighs up to two-and-a-half pounds. The Angora breed, an ancient breed originating in Turkey and known for its exquisite coat, also comes in a large and medium-sized breed, called the French Angora and the English Angora, respectively.

2. According to rabbit breed grooming requirements.

Rabbits have different grooming demands depending on their coats. The longer the coat the more time you'll have to commit to grooming your pet. Obviously the Angora rabbit breed is the most difficult to take care of. Giant Angoras, for example, have very long fur and really should be brushed every day. The Rex rabbit breed has also been bred for its velvety coat, but is not as high demand as the Angora. The Mini Rex breed has a plush coat, but it is short so it is relatively easy to care for. American Chinchillas are also easy to care for. Their coat is short and really only needs a weekly grooming.

To learn more about rabbit breeds use an Internet search engine to bring up websites dedicated to information about rabbit breeds. There you'll also find pictures of rabbit breeds and lots of information on all the different breeds of rabbit. Websites such as Petpeoplesplace.com offer detailed descriptions of each breed, such as size, physical attributes and personality, as well as tips on grooming.

About the author: Dean Erickson. Journalist, and web site builder Dean Erickson lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of rabbit-breeds.info on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.