'He Is Our Kind Monster': How a Unique Hairless Rabbit Appeared in Samara

«Meet our hairless rabbit Dobby. His name was given by my daughter — she»s been a Harry Potter fan since childhood,« Galina Bazhaikina introduces her pet. She, along with her husband and children, has been raising rabbits for 15 years. But in all this time, the family has never seen a hairless rabbit. This leathery and floppy-eared one is the only such in the entire country and the second in the world. How does this exclusive pet live? Why was he nursed by a Soviet chinchilla? And why has the offspring of the hairless rabbit already been dubbed labubu?

Now Dobby has grown to 5 kilograms (11 pounds), acquired a family, a funny wardrobe, a separate room in the house, and even his own Telegram channel, but in the autumn of 2024, the baby was an orphan: his mother rabbit died after giving birth.

«Dobby was born on 1 November 2024. His parents are ordinary White Pannon breed rabbits. The little one was nursed by a foster mother: at the same time, a female of the Soviet chinchilla breed gave birth, and we placed the orphan with her,» recalls Galina Bazhaikina. «All rabbit kits are born without fur, grow fuzz by 10 days, and become fluffy by one month. Dobby also initially got his coat on time, but then he molted. It turned out that all the two-week-old kits are sitting fluffy, and he alone is a poor bald fellow. To keep him from freezing, we took him into the house.»

The naked baby only «ventured» out of the house in Galina«s bosom and only to go to the farm — to drink milk from the nursing rabbit.

«Rabbit kits undergo several molts as they grow. After the first molt, Dobby was bald until three months. Then from three to seven months, he had fur, but it didn»t cover his whole body, only his back, like a furry vest, so to speak. The last molt in rabbits occurs before adulthood — from seven to ten months. It was during this period that Dobby«s fur fell out and never grew back at all,» explains the owner.

At first, the Bazhaikins tried to find any mention of Sphynx or hairless rabbits on the internet. Who knows — perhaps some «naked» gene from distant foreign ancestors had sneaked into Dobby«s lineage? But a thorough search showed: there are no such breeds. Such a hairless rabbit exists only here and in Australia. But the long-eared one on the distant continent has a bit of fur on its face, tail, and paws. Our unique one is completely naked.

«No one has registered a hairless rabbit breed, no one has even tried to breed it. So, you could say we just had a miracle happen. When the vet saw him, he said: »Maybe you«ll become famous,»« smiles the owner of the unique animal.

Galina pampers and cherishes her pet: spoils him with treats and bathes him with baby soap. In the Bazhaikins« house, the rabbit has a separate room with a litter box, water bottle, and food bowl. The floor is covered with straw, and a special lamp maintains the required temperature.

«Dobby is comfortable at a temperature of +26°C (79°F), at +20°C (68°F) he freezes. His pink skin turns white, he curls up into a ball and sits motionless. His ears feel icy to the touch. So, when I let the rabbit out of the warm room to run around the house, I dress him in little suits. In his wardrobe, there is custom-knitted clothing, outfits bought in pet stores for cats and dogs. But the rabbit is most comfortable in bodysuits that were left from my grandson,» says Galina.

The Bazhaikins« grandson and all the acquaintances» children scatter screaming at the sight of the floppy-eared monster. Even teenagers reach out to pet him and then pull their hands back in fear. But this doesn«t upset Dobby at all. The only one from whom he wants hugs and who can hold him is Galina.

«He is a monster to us, but a kind one. His skin is warm, velvety. He never scratches or bites. I sit on the sofa, call: »Bunny, come here.« He understands and jumps onto my lap, he would sit like that and not get down, just to be petted. Generally, Dobby»s intelligence is higher than that of other rabbits of his breed. He distinguishes my voice and responds specifically to it. If my husband, son, or daughter call, he doesn«t react,» Bazhaikina marvels at the exclusive animal«s abilities. »In summer heat, we go out for a walk with him. Our house is at the end of the street and next to a meadow. He is without a leash. He follows me. He doesn«t lag behind more than two meters.»

Six months ago, Dobby became the father of three daughters at once. They were born to a White Pannon breed rabbit. From the union of a mom in a fur coat and a naked dad, semi-hairless kits were born. Their faces, ears, paws, and tails are without fur, but their bodies are fluffy.

«Friends» children, when they saw them, said: «Oh, these are labubu!» So it stuck, we call them labubusi. They really do resemble those toys. But they have their own names: Winky, Linky, and Tinky. In the Harry Potter books, the elf Dobby«s friend was named Winky. Well, and Linky and Tinky — we just named them for the rhyme,» explains Bazhaikina.

The last molt before sexual maturity hasn«t happened to the labubusi yet. So whether they will remain half-dressed like this, go completely bald, or, on the contrary, grow full fur, is unclear. But the intelligence of the triplets, according to the owner»s observations, is definitely higher than that of other rabbits.

«They have developed such an interesting ability that I had never observed in rabbits before. They learned to carry food in their teeth. Usually, you put a piece of carrot for a rabbit, and it will gnaw it right where you placed it. But here, first one learned to take a piece of carrot in its teeth, drag it to a corner, and eat it there. Then the second did the same. Now the third, the smallest labubusya, carries treats in its teeth to avoid sharing with others. That is, they even learn from each other. I had never seen such a thing in rabbits. Imagine, they steal crackers, carrots, or even something unpalatable from each other, hide, and eat. For now, they live together with Dobby, and he doesn»t have this behavior. But their brains work like that.«

Recently, the rabbit that strolls around the village in his birthday suit became known at the Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Fur Animal Breeding. They offered to buy him along with his family.

«I refused immediately, the conversation didn»t even get to the price. I«m terribly curious myself to see what will happen next,» admits Galina.