THE HOLLAND LOP RABBIT
The Holland Lop is the smallest of the lop breeds. They do carry the "dwarfing Gene"which keeps their size small. They are known as the "Dwarf Lop" or "Little Lop". Hollands are recognized in many colors as shown below. They are one of the most popular breeds for pets and for showing.
Holland Lop rabbits were developed by Mr. Adrian DeCock who lived in the Netherlands. He called his rabbits "Netherland Dwarf Lops". In 1949 he started by breeding French Lops to Netherland Dwarfs. He did not have much success with this cross, so in 1952 he tried introducing English Lops to his French/Dwarf lines. He started with an English Lop buck and a French/Dwarf doe. He then used a buck from this mating and line bred to does for the second mating. He then started adding more Dwarfs inot the line and finally reached his goal of a lop rabbit under 4 1/2 pounds. His "Netherland Dwarf Lop" was accepted by the Netherland Governing Rabbit Council in January 1964. It wasn't until 1976 when they started appearing in the US. In 1979 they made their first presentation to the Standards Commitee at the National Convention in Tucson, Arizona. In 1980 they were accepted into the ARBA Standards.
Hollands have a compact body type. Their bodies are very stocky and muscular giving the appearance of a large rabbit in a small body. Their fur is rollback type which is very thick and of medium length. The Holland's head is very large compared to their body. It is short, thick and very round with a crown on the top of the head. Their ears are short and lopped. They have a very "cute" look to them. They have small eyes that are very expressive. Ideal weight for Hollands is 3-4 pounds, but many can get to 5 or more. They have very large, thick hind legs.
Holland lops are shown in two groups, solid and broken. Their colors are divided into different groups.
The same color over the entire body including the feet, tail and ears.
BLACK BLUE CHOCOLATE LILAC
BLUE-EYED WHITE RUBY-EYED WHITE
The broken group is any accepted color and white. The color must be evenly distributed in a patched, spotted, or balanced pattern. They must have color on the nose, around the eyes, on the ears and the color must be at least 10% but not more that 70%. The feet must be white. There are too many to picture here.
Shaded colors have darker color on the feet, ears, tail, and head. These areas shade back to a lighter shade on the rest of the body.
BLACK TORT BLUE TORT CHOCOLATE TORT LILAC TORT
SABLE POINT SIAMESE SABLE SMOKE PEARL SEAL
In this group the top side of the body is banded and ticked. Banded means they have a ring pattern of different colors on each hair shaft. Ths is seen when you blow into the coat. Ticked means that the color of the tip of each hair is different than the overall body color. Their ears are laced with the same color as the ticking. The eye circles, inside of the ears, and the nape of the neck is either white or tan. Also the underside of the tail, belly, nostrils and underside of the jowls are tan or white.
CHESTNUT CHOCOLATE OPAL(BLUE) LYNX(LILAC)
CHINCHILLA SABLE CHIN SQUIRREL(BLUE CHIN) CHOCOLATE CHIN SMOKE PEARL CHIN
WIDE BAND GROUP
These look a lot like the agouti group, but have white belly, eye circles, bottom of the tail, ear lacing and jowls. There are only two colors on each hair shaft, the under color and the top color.
RED ORANGE FAWN FROSTY CREAM
In this group the surface color of the body is black, blue, chocolate or lilac. They should have even ticking of gold or silver on the feet, legs, sides, back, chest, head and ears. The neck, nostrils and upper tail should be the base color.
Blue Steel Black Gold Steel Blue Gold Steel
The pointed group are also called himalayans. They come in black, blue, chocolate and lilac. The body color is pure white. The colored points are the nose, ears, feet and tail. The points have to be distinct and clean cut with rich deep color. Toenails have to be dark and eyes are ruby-red with a pink iris.
Blue Black Lilac Chocolate