Welcome to our Nursery We specialise in the breading of mini lionhead, mini rex, mini lop and dutch rabbits from our home in Manchester. Please take a look around our website and in our nests to see what babies we have available or will have available in the near future. We are always happy to hear from you so please contact us with any questions relating to our babies.

Sunflower Nursery aims to breed friendly, tame and good natured, quality rabbits for good pet homes. We are proud of our status as a Family Orientated Breeder. Our customer service has received an abundance of positive feedback. As we only breed a small number of rabbits, our approach is more personal. Once you reserve one of ourbabies you will receive a weekly update via e-mail, which may also include a letter from the rabbit itself and pictures of its progress (perfect for young children) if requested. We also provide a waiting list for future litters if required and people on this list will also receive updates of mating, pregnancy and birth of the babies and will be given priority in order of enlistment.

Bobtail Pets - Sunflower Nursery now has its own pets supplies business, Bobtail Pets. This means that we are able to provide you with all your rabbits needs including a new hutch, toys, treats, accessories, bedding and food. We can put together a starter pack ready for when you pick up your new bunny and can also arrange a regular delivery of food direct to your door if you find it easier so that you never have to worry about your rabbits food, bedding and other needs.

Holiday Boarding

A HOME FROM HOME FOR YOUR PET

We are based in Clayton Bridge, Manchester (Lancashire, UK).  All our babies are sold with a free care kit, comprising of care sheets, birth certificate and a starter food sample for the food change over period. We will have lots of information available about each rabbit and all our rabbits are handled daily so are extremely tame. See the Contact page for our contact details.

Our nursery was first based in Lancaster and we are still able to provide to this area, our customers come from all over the Northwest and sometimes further a field.

Please enjoy your visit to our website and don't forget to take a look around where you are able to see pictures of rabbits we have for sale, have sold and even post pictures of your own rabbits. Whilst you're here why not take a look at Benny's page - Benny is our lovely Dutch buck who is also starring as 'Leanne' the rabbit on Coronation Street.

Please Note: The breeding of our rabbits is for hobby purposes, any money made helps to feed and treat our rabbits who, although quality breeding rabbits, are kept solely as pets and not for show or as a breeding machine. We enjoy breeding and looking after our rabbits and are glad to be able to offer extremely tame family friendly pet rabbits of a high quality with ongoing support and guidance.

Why Sunflower Nursery?

We believe it is very important for perspective owners of rabbits to buy from a breeder. This said not all breeders are the same and some can be more trusted than others. Sunflower Nursery uses techniques from the most recent and trusted research to provide rabbits which are good natured, friendly and tame. Please consider the following, it will tell you more about why our rabbits are equipped with skills and kindness to benefit both yourself and the rabbit in future life. It is worth checking with any other breeder you contact if they have a Socialisation and Habituation programme before considering any rabbit for obvious reasons.

Socialisation & Habituation: You may be aware that puppies and kittens have well defined "socialisation periods" when young animals learn to recognise and interact with the species with which they live - which needs to include humans, as well as their own species, and any other they are likely to come into contact with.

There is now evidence to suggest that rabbits have a socialisation period, although the exact timing and duration of it are not yet certain. This conclusion is based upon experimental work showing that handling baby rabbits between days 10 and 21 resulted in them being more willing to approach humans at 48 days of age; and early exposure to cats and other animals reduces their fear of them later.

Hence, breeders must start to handle baby rabbits before 21 days of age to begin the socialisation process. Many novice rabbit breeders are afraid of handling baby rabbits until they leave the nest, in case doing so triggers maternal rejection of the litter. Although this is a theoretical risk, with a few simple precautions there should be no problems, especially once the litter have opened their eyes at 10 days. Such early handling is vital, and in fact, if breeding does are relaxed and well socialised themselves as ours are, it does not usually cause any problems to briefly pick up babies even in the first week of life.

Our does are relaxed and are happy for us to help them with their litter, they allow us to touch and handle the babies whenever needed. Sunflower Nursery employs the Socialisation and Habituation method and in doing so are able to provide rabbits which are not afraid of human contact and life as a pet.

Along with socialisation comes "habituation", which has been defined as "the process whereby an animal becomes accustomed to non-threatening environmental stimuli and learns to ignore them." Baby rabbits should become accustomed to as many people and experiences as possible before they are sold. We bring litters into the house to hear household noises; our rabbits are handled by children of various ages (our family and friends) who stroke and carefully handle the young stock under close supervision; we even take them for a short ride in the car as this will take away much of the stresses involved in travelling to their new home and through out their life.

The brutal reality is that baby rabbits whose breeders don't bother with a programme of socialisation and habituation are at higher risk of joining the thousands of other fearful, aggressive, unwanted and neglected pet rabbits that lead a miserable existence in back gardens across the UK. We are here to provide this much needed extra care, giving the best possible start in life to all our rabbits.

We are committed to our Socialisation and Habituation programme.

  News

24.4.2009 - Daisy followed in Bailey's footsteps today and had 2 chubby little babies. She too is doing a great job looking after them.

28.4.2009 - Eclipse had a gorgeous litter of 3 babies today, a lovely broken chocolate, a black and a white.

20.5.2009 - Ella had a tiny litter of babies today. Not sure how many there are just yet but they are very small and she has her paws full looking after them.

24.5.2009 - Lou had another litter today and we are keeping our fingers crossed that they are all gorgeous little blue lionheads just like her last litter.

26.5.2009 - Dolly followed in Lou's footsteps by having a gorgeous, but tiny, litter of 3 blue lionheads today. She is a first time Mum but seems to be doing well so far.

29.5.2009 - There must be something in the water as we appear to be having a baby boom as Sooty also gave birth today so 4 stunning little babies that all appear to be sooty fawn just like her.

14.6.2009 - Bluebell gave birth during the night to a huge litter of 8 babies! She is going to need every bit of help she can get to rear all those successfully but so far she appears to be taking it all in her stride.

01.8.2009 - Sorry for the long delay between our last website update. We have already had such a busy summer here at Sunflower Nursery.

02.8.2009 - Meme has had babies today looks like one blue and one black dutch. She has had a small litter but is looking after them well giving them all her love and attention. Hazel also had babies today, six mini rex, these are Georges first.

01.9.2009 - Darla has given birth to three plump blue eyed white babies.

08.09.09 - Marmite one of our new abysinnian guinea pigs has given birth to 4 babies, unfortunatly though she is not looking after them and we have had to hand rear them which is a first here at Sunflower Nursery for guinea pigs.

(Our Website was last edited on the 10/09/2009)

In the Nest:

LOLA - 6 Babies

HAZEL - 6 Babies

MEME - 2 Babies

DARLA - 3 Babies (now only 1 available)

Our waiting lists for babies are ever increasing so if you are interested in any babies please contact us asap to avoid disappointment.

If you are also looking for a hutch, food, bedding, toys, treats etc for your new bunny then please let us know as we sell a wide range of products and are happy to give advice on which are best.

Wanted rabbits:

I am currently looking for some more mini lop proven female does so if you know of any please get in touch. I like broken colours as well as blues, chocolates and blue eyed whites.

I am also looking for some more proven guinea pigs, sows mainly, in any breed and would love some teddy sows if any are available.

Thank you.