Karen Yorke with Mischief, a Magpie-coloured Mini Lop. Photo Wayne Martin.

If you want to keep animals but live in the suburbs, rabbits may well fit the bill – although you may not wish to go as far as Karen Yorke, who shares her Papakura section with “about 50.” 

Karen breeds Netherland Dwarf rabbits weighing about a kilo fully grown; mini Rex; and mini Lop, with their floppy ears. “Rabbits make great house pets. They have lovely natures, and can be trained to use a litter tray like cats.”

Rabbits can live with cats, as Karen’s do, but the cat may first need to understand these bunnies are friends, not food. She warns that house bunnies need to be carefully monitored to make sure they don’t chew woodwork or electrical wiring. Providing tree branches for them to gnaw can help.

Karen says her rabbits all have different personalities, and the breeds differ in their approach to life.

“Mini Lops are very relaxed, but the Netherland Dwarf is forever on the move – that’s the Energiser bunny.”

Miniature rabbits’ short fur makes them easy to care for while the mini Rex has a lovely dense, soft coat, which is “velveteen to touch.”

Mini Lops are the most popular as pets, with their appealing faces and interesting palette of colours. In fact, trying to achieve new and different coat colours and patterns is one of Karen’s main breeding objectives since a chance mating produced ‘magpie’ progeny, which she describes as “kind of stripey.”

“It was so unusual I didn’t know what it was. I had to put a picture on Trademe to find someone who could tell me.”

Not a recognised coat colour for showing, Karen is nonetheless undeterred. However,  achieving a repeat breeding of the colouration is proving elusive but the mini rabbits reproduce readily – and, unlike the larger breeds, very young – so Karen has plenty of scope for colour experimentation.

“It’s interesting trying to work out what colour offspring you’ll end up,” she says. “It doesn’t always go according to plan.”

Although she has had rabbits since childhood, it was only last year that Karen took to showing them. Preparing the minis for showing can be an exercise in precision as they must conform to strict parameters – and they can easily become too fat, incurring judging penalties.