Like daffodils, lambs and buds on the trees, the Easter bunny is a much-awaited symbol of spring.
According to folklore, he’s said to be up to 6ft tall — far larger than your average pet rabbit. Or so you might think.
Hop forward the Continental Giant, one of the oldest and largest breeds, which is around five times bigger than a standard bunny.
On average, Continental Giants weigh around 25lb and are 3ft tall.
One such bunny, Darius, who lives in Worcestershire with his owner Annette Edwards, is the largest rabbit ever recorded at 4ft 4in long and tipping the scales at three-and-a-half stone. But he’s got competition.
Here, Sadie Nicholas meets four women with bumper bunnies.
Rebecca Freeman-Harris, 36, owns a dog-walking business and lives in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, with her husband Richard, 41, and their children William and Eleanor. Their bumper bunny is Jenson
Jenson taps on the door
Rebecca Freeman-Harris, 36, owns a dog-walking business and lives in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, with her husband Richard, 41, a builder, and their children William, six, and Eleanor, three. Their bumper bunny is Jenson, four. He weighs 1st 5oz (6.5kg) and is 2ft 8in tall.
Rebecca says: Whenever I hear a tap on the back door, I know it’s Jenson telling us he wants to come in. He loves to climb on the sofa for cuddles, although it can be a challenge as his paws skid all over our wooden floors.
He’s my second Continental Giant rabbit. He’s enormous — about the size of a toddler. He lives in a spacious hutch in our garden with his girlfriend Florence, an English lop-spot cross, who is much smaller than him.
He has been neutered, so they live very happily together. If the children have their crayons out, he’ll pick them up and take them off to make a pile. He loves to push balls around with his nose and he’ll do anything for potato peelings when I make a Sunday roast.
Beki Sharman, 27, works in communications and lives in Yeovil, Somerset, with husband Carey, 36, and their daughter Emilia. They have an albino Continental Giant called Lola
Lola loves playing with the dog
Beki Sharman, 27, works in communications and lives in Yeovil, Somerset, with husband Carey, 36, who works in retail, and their daughter Emilia, one. They have an albino Continental Giant called Lola, who is 2ft 8in tall and weighs just under 1st (6kg).
Beki says: Lola and I used to be housemates until Carey moved in with me in October 2014 and told me: ‘There’s no such thing as a house rabbit.’
He hated her fluff being everywhere. So my dad, a carpenter, made her a beautiful oak house in the garden. During winter nights she keeps warm with some microwave heat pads and blankets. I bought Lola in April 2012 — an Easter gift to myself — for £75 from a local pet shop.
I was advised that her life expectancy was five years — but she celebrated her seventh birthday last December.
Despite only being 16 weeks old when I got her, she already weighed 6.6lb (3kg). She now weighs double that thanks to a daily diet of two bowls of pellets, a couple of carrots, an apple and some greens, plus all of our veg peelings and endless hay and grass. Standing on her back legs, she’s as tall as our daughter Emilia.
When she was younger, she’d sit on my hip and rest her head on my shoulder, just like my daughter does now, and snuggle up to me all evening on the sofa.
She’s very nosy and would sit on the lowlevel sills by the French windows and watch the world go by, often chewing the curtains. I once caught her sitting on the mantelpiece when I got home from work and she quickly learned to jump over the stair gate between the living room and kitchen to get to her food bin.
Numerous times I arrived home to find food absolutely everywhere. These days, she loves to let Luna, our cockapoo, chase her around the garden, although she is wary of Emilia who cannot yet resist the temptation to try to pull her big ears.
Em Gallagher, 39, works for the mobile NHS blood and transplant team and lives in Newquay, Cornwall, with giant French lop Ted
Ted gets mobbed by children
Em Gallagher, 39, works for the mobile NHS blood and transplant team and lives in Newquay, Cornwall, with giant French lop Ted. She is single. Ted is 3ft 3in tall and weighs just over 1st (6.7kg).
Em says: Ted is a local celebrity. I take him for a walk once a day with a harness and lead, and everywhere we go, he gets mobbed by children wanting to stroke him and adults desperate for photos to share on social media.
He’s not your average bunny and even has his own Instagram page, @mr.teddy.bun, with more than 9,000 followers.
I got him in June 2018 when he was nine weeks old. Ted cost just £40 from a breeder, although I spend £40 a week on his food including hay, blueberries, fresh herbs and cavolo nero kale.
He lives in the five-bedroom house I share with a friend. He sleeps under my bed and wakes me up at 6am for a snuggle and breakfast. When I’m at work he plays in the garden as he couldn’t be trusted not to eat all the plants and cables in the house.
On my days off, I volunteer Ted as a therapy bunny at day-care centres, nurseries and schools. He loves to share cuddles with kids who have sensory difficulties or anxiety. I also work with bereaved children and take them on trips to Ted’s favourite beach where he roams.
Sian Nightingale, 33, works in the NHS, and lives near Nottingham with husband Craig, 33, and their daughter Sophia and Oswald, their Continental Giant rabbit
Even as a baby, Oswald was a resourceful escape artist
Sian Nightingale, 33, works in the NHS, and lives near Nottingham with husband Craig, 33, a brewer, and their daughter Sophia, six, plus Oswald, their Continental Giant rabbit, who’s eight months old. Oswald is 2ft 8in tall and weighs 1st 1lb (6.8kg).
Sian says: Although Ozzy won’t be fully grown for another year, he will soon dwarf our dog, a shih tzu-terrier cross.
When he stretches out on the floor next to my daughter, Sophia, he’s up to her hip, and he’s certainly stolen her heart. They adore snuggling on the sofa when she gets home from school.
Craig and I bought Ozzy from a breeder for £75 last August. We did a lot of research beforehand but had not anticipated that he would be able to leap over the 4ft-high garden fence within days.
In a panic, Sophia and I spent hours trying to track him down in the village and knocking on doors to ask if anyone had seen him. When we described him as being two-and-ahalf feet tall, they looked at us as though we were bonkers!
Eventually, we found him just the other side of the fence. Immediately, we doubled the height of the fence and my husband built Ozzy a 6ft by 3½ft hutch, which serves as his bedroom at night.
The rest of the time he hangs out in the house with us, or plays in the garden when we’re not here. We haven’t had to mow the lawn for months because he eats it all! He comes when we call him and follows me around the house, nudging the back of my legs until I give his ears a good stroke.
If he’s hungry, he sits beside the fridge where his carrots are kept, although mostly he dines on rabbit pellets and hay. He has a love-hate relationship with our two pet ducks, who take exception to him pinching their food.