Size, Identity and the Name Trap
Begin with source, sex, colour, adult weight once grown, and a photo showing the cobby, muscular build. Write the real weight at the top of the file, because the breed name misleads sitters into expecting a tiny rabbit and underestimating both food quantities and the strength of a kick during handling. Note how this Mini Lop should be lifted and supported, and whether they tolerate being picked up at all.
Record the home setup: enclosure size, exercise pen routine, flooring, litter, and hide spaces. Mini Lops are active rabbits, and a log of genuine daily exercise time — not the plan, but what actually happened — connects honestly to weight trends later. If weight creeps up during a winter of skipped run time, the record shows why without anyone guessing.
Ear Entries for a Lop-Eared Rabbit
Folded ears limit airflow to the canal, so keep an ear column: scratching episodes, head shaking, tilting, resentment of one ear being handled, or swelling felt at the ear base. Date each entry and note whether both ears or just one seemed involved. A head tilt, circling, or loss of balance is a prompt vet visit, and the preceding weeks of ear notes give that vet a running start.
Also log anything noticed during routine handling — redness at the opening, an unusual smell, or discharge — without probing into the canal yourself. Bring the column to check-ups even when nothing seems wrong; patterns of low-grade irritation are exactly the sort of thing that only a written history reveals.
Feeding, Droppings and Weight Trend
Write down hay type and refill frequency, measured pellets, greens rotated, and treats in honest amounts. Then record droppings briefly each day: plentiful, reduced, small and dry, or absent. A Mini Lop that stops eating or passing droppings, hunches quietly, or grinds teeth needs veterinary help urgently, and your note of when output last looked normal is genuinely useful information for that call.
Weigh on a regular schedule and log the number beside a note on exercise and any diet adjustment you made in response. Change one thing at a time and date it; otherwise the record cannot show which change actually moved the weight. Note which greens are favourites and which get left, too, since a sudden refusal of a usually loved green can be an early appetite clue in its own right. Note dental clues — drooling, selective eating, dropping hay — in their own line for the vet to review at each visit.
Grooming, Vet File and Boarding Notes
Log brushing during moults, mats found, nail trims, and fly-strike prevention steps your vet advises in warm weather, plus a daily rear-end check note in summer for any rabbit that is less mobile or carrying extra weight. File vaccinations and every appointment with findings, advice and recheck dates.
For boarding, add feeding amounts, exercise expectations, and the instruction that appetite loss is an emergency, not a settling-in phase to wait out. Stored in KinsLe as a Pet Passport, your Mini Lop's ear history, true weight and daily routine travel with them, so a boarding team is never misled by the 'mini' in the name.