What does this mean?

[Cedar Point Rabbitry]

So I have a Holland Lop (I think he is anyway) buck that sways his head, very slowly, from side to side, like he's surveying the area. I had a young one do that too when I put her on a table that was new to her.

Is it just looking around or is it something to worry about?

Thanks!

 

[jeannie]

I have a siamese sable. She has brown eyes with a red cast, and she does the head sway to bring different objects at different distances into focus.

 

[Dood]

One of my Mini Lops does this, she has a malformed pupil (dyscoria) that looks a lot like a goats pupil and cannot focus properly so she wobbles side to side.

She is very cautious when running loose in the house, rarely binkys and startles from sounds very easily and I believe it is because of her vision problem.

I've seen it before, mostly in lop breeds, and it is hereditary.

 

[Zass]

What color is he?
I don't have any sources for this, so take it with a grain of salt, but,

I've read online that the swaying is called "scanning" and has something to do with poor eye sight or difficulty focusing.
It's supposed to be connected to those genotypes that have red cast eyes, but not chocolates.
Just the rews and himis, and I didn't know sables were included but it makes sense.

I have observed it in a REW v-lop before, but not in REW meat rabbits. :shrug:

 

[alforddm]

It's supposed to be connected to those genotypes that have red cast eyes

This makes sense as the red cast eyes are the result of reduced pigmentation in the eye. Reduced pigmentation, especially in the Retinal pigment epithelium and iris pigment epithelium are known to cause light sensitivity and other vision problems. The problems are similar to what human albinos face. I did quite a bit of research on this in horses.

and I didn't know sables were included but it makes sense

Sables should have enough pigment in the eye as to not be affected.

A malformed pupil will let more light into the eye which will affect focus as well as light sensitivity but shouldn't be related to the color of the animal.

 

[akane]

I haven't seen the side to side much even in my himis. Usually they just do a lot of the bobbing up and down to look at things from various angles and safety levels.

 

[Prisma]

Any thing shaded (sables, smokes, etc) tends to have this issue as well as REWS. Other varieties, not so much. Chocolates I've never seen it in.

 

[Cedar Point Rabbitry]

What color is he?
I don't have any sources for this, so take it with a grain of salt, but,

I've read online that the swaying is called "scanning" and has something to do with poor eye sight or difficulty focusing.
It's supposed to be connected to those genotypes that have red cast eyes, but not chocolates.
Just the rews and himis, and I didn't know sables were included but it makes sense.

I have observed it in a REW v-lop before, but not in REW meat rabbits. :shrug:

I'm not sure what color he is, hoping to post pictures of him soon But he does have red eyes.

 

[alforddm]

Any thing shaded (sables, smokes, etc) tends to have this issue as well as REWS

Don't Shaded rabbits have brown eyes? If so I wonder why they would have eye issues? I wonder if they have nonpigmened or low pigmented parts of the eye....

 

[jimmywalt]

We have 2 sable point with red eyes and the NEVER do this........... Ummmm?????

 

[Zass]

It's clearly not a problem with every red eyed rabbit.

If it was, we wouldn't have whole breeds of red eyed rabbits like californians, new zealands, and himalayans.

 

[Prisma]

jimmy, are you sure those are not broken himis? Broken himis can lack tail/feet/nose/eye markings and have red eyes. Sable points have brown eyes even on the cleanest ones.

On the eyes, it may be. Brown, blue gray depending if dilute or not but a ruby cast is permitted, least in my breeds that allow sables etc. The ones with an easier seen ruby cast tend to be the scanners in my experience. Its not all the time or all with a certain eye color, but I don't think its an actual defect in the eye per say that causes the scanning. If it was a defect, like wolf teeth etc, it wouldn't be allowed for sure in shows and looked over by so many breeders (or at least I would think). I've never had any health issues (eye wise) with scanners.

 

[Dood]

We have 2 sable point with red eyes and the NEVER do this........... Ummmm?????

their colour is himilayan not sable point

I mainly breed with the chinchilla and sables genes and have the occasional himi and REW and have never noticed a head wobble in any of them except the one doe :shrug:

 

[Prisma]

Scanning isn't some thing they do all the time, just once in a while when they are trying to focus on some thing usually. I know some can do it more than others though; I had a rew buck that never did it unless he thought I was bringing him a doe from the other end of the barn and he was watching me and then a sp that did it all the time (was always the what's that type of temperament, not aggressive but
always on the move). I've noticed it is usually a bit of a distance off (10-8 feet) and seems to be higher than what they have their heads at, when that object -comes closer they stop. Maybe that helps if some one knows more about their vision? I know nothing besides what I've had in my barn and seen at friends and I've never seen it discussed on another board other than they do it and that shaded/rews are bad about doing it.

 

[LPH_NY]

Rabbits lack depth perception. They have a blind spot directly in front of them. And they are far-sighted. Their visual field has no overlap - each eye sees only half of their world at one time. They also do not see in as fine of detail as we do, nor do they have all the same color detecting cones that we do. That much is known about how a rabbit sees, but it's still hard for us to really imagine what their vision looks and feels like, since we see the world so differently.

Scanning might compensate for the missing part of the picture that is in their blind spot. By weaving side to side, they can put the object they are trying to get a clear view of in and out of each field. As mentioned by other posters, red-eyed rabbits have higher sensitivity to light. It's possible that the scanning action also gives them a better way to detect lower contrast details, by passing the same image in and out of each field of view. I would guess that the need for better contrast is why scanning is much more prevalent in the red-eyed buns. A rabbit with normal vision would simply turn his head to the side and look straight at the object of interest with one eye - and that might be the very best way for him to view it. But if the rabbit has poorer vision, alternating from one field to the other might give him a much better picture than simply viewing straight on with one eye.

All the red eyed rabbits we had last year displayed the behavior. Mostly if they were just staring at me, waiting for me to move. I must have been at just the right distance from them that they had a hard time seeing me as clearly as they wanted to. During their normal course of activities, they didn't need to scan their environment - they already knew their surroundings. It's only when they are looking at something new, something different, something potentially scary - or trying to judge distance in an unfamiliar context.