Mini Lop

Question
I have a 9 week old Lop.She is kept indoors, this morning we found that her right hand side ear sticks up her other one is fine.She is very lively and is eating and drinking ok. Is this normal please.

Answer
Dear Colin,

At the tender age of nine weeks, her ears are still finding their way.  Many lop babies don't drop their ears until the age of 8 weeks or so, and sometimes they kind of go up and down for a while until the bunny is a little older.

It's also possible that she has mixed genetic heritage, and her genes are not encoding fully lopped ears (a polygenic trait).  She might be a "helicopter" bunny, with ears that point to the sides, or even a "unicorn", with one ear up and one down.  The important thing is that her ears are healthy.

Lops are predisposed to a lot of health problems related to their unusual/abnormal ear anatomy:  fully lopped ears prevent normal air flow, and lops are prone to ear infections that sometimes require marsupialization (slitting the ear canal so it's longer, and able to let air in).

Lops also tend to have short faces, and this predisposes them to dental problems.  Molar spurs can be a chronic problem, so keep an eye out for signs of inappetence, or wanting to eat but then dropping the food.  You can read more here:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

I hope your little bun never has any of these problems, but it's always best to know about them in advance, so you recognize signs and can get things treated early.

Good luck!

Dana