Identity Details for a Small Rabbit With a Distinctive Coat
Begin the file with date of birth, sex, color, and the seller's or rescue's full contact details. A Mini Rex's plush coat changes character as the rabbit matures, and knowing the exact age helps you judge whether the coat, weight, and behavior you see are right for its stage. If a lineage record exists, take a copy; if the rabbit comes from a rescue, ask for its intake record and any foster notes instead. Note the rabbit's name if it already answers to one, plus any identifying quirks, because a velvet-coated rabbit of a common color can be surprisingly hard to describe precisely if it is ever lost or mixed up at a boarding facility.
Ask About Feet Before Anything Else
The Rex coat is shortest where protection matters most: on the hind feet. So the Mini Rex health conversation starts with hocks. Ask whether the rabbit has ever had sore, bald, or broken skin on its heels, what flooring it has lived on, and whether it has been kept at a healthy weight, since heavier Rex rabbits load their thinly furred feet harder. A seller who keeps rabbits on solid, padded flooring and can answer directly is reassuring. Write the answers down and photograph the feet at home in the first week, not from suspicion but to establish the baseline your vet will compare against at future checks.
The Rest of the Health History, in Writing
After feet, cover the standard ground: vet visits and their reasons, any treatments given, vaccination status where it applies locally, and neutering status with the record if surgery has been done. Ask about appetite and droppings history in plain terms, since a rabbit that has had gut slowdowns before deserves closer watching during the stress of a move. If the seller is a breeder, parent information is worth requesting too: the size and health of the sire and dam help predict your rabbit's adult weight, which loops straight back to foot care and to correct pellet portions as it grows.
Diet Records Sized for a Compact Rabbit
Get the current diet written out: hay type, the exact pellet and its daily amount, and the greens the rabbit already eats. Mini Rex rabbits are compact but enthusiastic eaters, and portion drift is easy when the written record just says 'pellets daily.' Ask for a week's supply of the current pellets so any change you make can be blended gradually, protecting the gut through the move. Keep the seller's diet sheet permanently, because the first question in any future conversation about weight, teeth, or soft droppings will be what the rabbit eats, and your memory of a verbal handover will not survive the year.
Housing and Handling Notes From Its First Home
Ask how the rabbit has been kept: cage or pen, flooring and bedding, litter material, indoor or outdoor, and how much handling it is used to. A Mini Rex raised with daily gentle handling usually settles quickly; one lifted rarely may need a slower introduction, and knowing that in advance prevents a difficult first week from being misread as a difficult rabbit. Flooring history ties into the foot file as well: months on wire or bare boards explain hock condition in a way that matters for how you set up its new home, with mats and deep bedding where it rests.
Turning a Handover Into a Kept Record
Once home, keep building the packet: first vet check, weight notes, diet changes, and the foot photographs repeated whenever you check the hocks. A Mini Rex may see several vets, sitters, and boarding stays in its life, and each one starts better with the record in hand. Holding it all in KinsLe's Pet Passport means the identity details, foot history, and diet sheet stay together in one portable packet, ready for the vet, a trip, or a sitter, instead of scattered across the seller's messages and your memory.