The Thuringer Rabbit is one of the older rabbit breeds in existence. It was first developed way back in the 1900s. On this page, we want to take a little look at this breed in more depth. This way, you will know exactly what to expect from this rather stunning-looking rabbit.
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Where Does the Thuringer Rabbit Come From?
As we said at the start, this rabbit was developed in the 1900s. It was developed in Thuringia, which is now part of Germany.
Because this rabbit was developed at a time where nobody was really making a recording of the development of rabbit breeds, we have no idea what sort of breeds went into the development of the Thuringer Rabbit.
However, most people believe that these three breeds were included in the development, at the very minimum:
- Flemish Giant Rabbit
- Silver Rabbit
- Himalayan Rabbit
It is interesting that this rabbit breed was able to survive the outbreak of World War I. The two countries where it was popular around that time, Germany and the Netherlands, were hit majorly during World War I.
We saw other rabbits driven to the point of extinction, and some came pretty close. However, the Thuringer bunny never really had the same fate.
It is worth noting that you are not really going to be finding this rabbit outside of Europe.
It never spread there, with the bulk of the population of the rabbit now found within the Netherlands and Germany, with a few working their way over to the United Kingdom.
This is not an officially recognized breed of rabbit in the United States, which probably goes a long way to describing why it isn’t really that popular in the country.
Rabbits need to be wanted by major breeders if you really want them to thrive as a breed.
The Appearance of the Thuringer Rabbit
The Thuringer Rabbit is a bulky rabbit that appears to be quite muscular. The breed standard requires them to be ‘stocky’. At the most, they are going to weigh about 10lbs.
The ears of the rabbit are going to be their defining feature.
While the Thuringer Rabbit doesn’t have the longest ears out there, they are still going to be around 5″ long. The bulk of the time, these ears are going to be standing up.
It makes the rabbit seem like they are alert at almost all times. Of course, they are going to relax a bit on occasion too.
The Thuringer Rabbit is only available in one color. It is a combination of yellow and blue, with some black hairs scattered throughout.
The Lifespan of the Thuringer Rabbit
The lifespan of the Thuringer Rabbit is 5-8-years old.
This long lifespan is actually pretty long considering this is a rabbit that has been mostly developed for the meat industry. normally, those rabbits have been built to grow quickly and thus can die early due to organ failure if they are not slaughtered at the right age.
This means that the Thuringer Rabbit is one of those rare rabbit breeds that won’t do this.
As a Show Rabbit
Since this breed is not popular in the United States, you won’t ever find a show for it. We doubt there ever will be. There simply is not enough demand for a rabbit-like this in the United States. There are other rabbits that fit the niche.
If you are living in a country where the Thuringer bunny is popular, then you will find shows. A lot of these are going to be agricultural shows, due to the main purpose of this rabbit breed.
Since the rabbit is so prominent in the meat and fur industry, breeders can make a lot of money developing this breed or raising them for the industry.
Sure, the rabbit industry isn’t as popular as it was in the past, it still makes some money in certain countries.
The Thuringer Rabbit as a Meat Rabbit
The main use of this rabbit is as a meat rabbit breed. It is easy to raise, and it grows fairly quickly. This means that if you can get hold of it, it could make a decent starter rabbit for meat herds.
Of course, the main intention of this breed is for it to be raised commercially.
As a Fur Rabbit
This is more a side-effect to the meat industry. The Thuringer Rabbit has a decent pelt, so if they are going to be used for meat anyway, then this pelt could be put to good use.
If you are homesteading and are planning to raise the rabbits yourself, then you can enjoy the pelts that they produce. In fact, they are better than some of the other meat rabbits out there for their pelts.
The Thuringer Rabbit as a Pet
Since most of the rabbits that are bred seem to be destined for the meat industry, this isn’t really a rabbit breed that is raised that extensively as a pet.
It happens, but it just going to be quite rare. This isn’t because it is a bad rabbit to own as a pet. It is more down to the fact that there just are not enough being bred to cater to two different industries.
Since this rabbit has been built for the commercial industry, there are no real health issues with the rabbit. It does grow fast, but not so fast that it is going to be putting an excessive amount of strain on their bodies.
This means that you do not have to worry about the rabbit suffering from a premature rabbit.
Perhaps the only real concern that you are going to have with this rabbit is that it needs to have a decent amount of space to roam around in.
For this reason, many people are going to have the Thuringer rabbit in the comfort of their own home as opposed to letting them live outdoors.
Although, their fur should be decent enough that they could last outside, even if the weather does get a little bit colder on occasion.
