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Bunnies with floppy ears might look cuter than normal rabbits but they suffer more health problems, a study has found.

鈥淧eople now need to weigh up whether those cute floppy ears are worth the risk of pain, deafness, and difficulty eating for the rabbit, not to mention the extra vet bills,鈥� says Charlotte Burn at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK, who led the study.

The mutations that make听 don鈥檛 just affect the ears, say Burn. They alter the shape of the skull, making the animals more prone to a variety of problems.

At least, that what vets would tell you, says Burn. But no one had actually done a proper study to establish this. So her team went to a rabbit rescue centre and compared 15 lop-eared rabbits with 15 normal ones. They looked for signs of pain or irritation such as ear scratching, examined the rabbits鈥� ears and mouths, and looked at their medical records.

Bad teeth

They found the lop-eared rabbits were much more likely to have ear or dental problems that cause pain or difficulty eating, such as narrowed ear canals and misaligned incisors. 鈥淭he effect size is enormous,鈥� says Burn.

In fact, they often had such narrow ear canals that it was difficult to insert an otoscope, says team member Jade Johnson, and some examinations had to be cut short because the animals were clearly in pain.

So although the number of animals in the study was small, Burn thinks it very likely that the findings apply to all pet rabbits.

She hopes the findings will make people think twice before buying lop-eared rabbits, which now account for over half the rabbits sold in the UK.

Yet, despite recent publicity about short-muzzled dogs like pugs and bulldogs being more prone to many disorders and often suffering greatly as a result of their abnormal skulls, these breeds are still becoming more popular. In fact, , with pugs in third place, according to one pet company.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not translating into actual behaviour,鈥� Burn says. 鈥淭hese are still very fashionable dogs.鈥�

Reference: bioRxiv听