Lev (лев)is a large male harlequin lionhead born in 2014 with an extremely dense fluffy coat. He came to us in September 2016 via a social worker who was trying to help his owner. He lived with Koshka. He can’t quite decide if he is a lop or not. He has the thickest coat of any rabbit currently here. He has become a bit sedentary and become a bit rotund lately so is getting fewer pellets. We will also try to move them into a proper run where he might be inclined to move more as he is a bit too fond of sitting in his tower and watching the birds.
Sadly Koshka died suddenly in May 2021 and left Lev on his own. We bonded him with Kiki and Clyde, our giants and he lived with them in their shed and had free run of the paths too. Not that he used it much. He has always been a sedentary rabbit. At first Kiki hated him and would move him on and take his place. But she had a very bad heart and no energy so she never followed up or hurt him and after Clyde died she had a change of heart and they became very loved up for a while before she too died. Sadly giants are much shorter lived than smaller rabbits as their hearts don’t have enough room in the chest cavity to sustain such a large body.
Lev was alone for a while after Kiki passed but I managed to bond him with Thyme and another doe we took in believing she was another giant, Lily. Sadly she wasn’t and didn’t have the generally placid nature of a giant and took to bullying Lev so he is alone again. Which I am determined to remedy although he is so timid other rabbits seem to find it impossible to resist the temptation to bully him as it seems to give them immense satisfaction to intimidate a rabbit, in many cases, much bigger than they are. I think his ridiculous coat must make it difficult for them to read his facial expressions and body language too. He is the proverbial ball of fluff with absolutely the thickest coat I have ever come across on a rabbit. It is an absolute nightmare and doesn’t like being groomed and isn’t afraid enough of humans to resist the urge to demonstrate his dislike of the process by biting and kicking as much as he can. Sorting him out is a painful process but absolutely necessary as he also has very sensitive skin that can get scalded very easily if his coat holds wet against his skin. Plus overheating in the summer is a real threat.
He still tends to just sit about doing nothing which seems even worse when he is doing it alone:( We will of course rebond him as soon as possible.
