Yeh... I wasnt pleased with Henna... i loved her to bits but...
My housemate and I did loads of research, we both wanted a rabbit, wanted to breed and to join the rabbit club and show if any good babies came out of it. We went to the London Championships show 3 years for me and 2 years for my housemate and spoke to breeders and looked at all the breeds...
We found a breeder local to us breeding Black Otter Rex rabbits, she had good credentials and won prizes! Gave us information and care pack etc when we got the rabbits we had been awaiting.
We should have noticed something was wrong but whilst we knew rabbits, genetics for rabbits were less strong, a bit of research made us really annoyed. The whole point was that the babies were from a pairing we had seen both parents, two black otter rexes, both having won prizes. When picking up the babies, half the litter were chocolates and not blacks (chocolate is a diluted form of the black gene... bred from what was essentially a poor quality black originally..) a bit of research told us she had used her Chocolate male and Black Otter female...
Both our females browned out and were no good for showing, we also didnt realise we wouldnt be able to keep them together, they tried to kill each other! Neither had particularly nice temperments, if anything, Fennel was incredibly shy and Henna was just nasty!
We had them as house rabbits (Both had Nero 3 or Nero 4? cage each, i forget which) and an hour or two out each day. One day we got home from work and Fennel was just laying in her cage, all stiff and her back arched... we were really upset (the rabbits once out of cage and kept alone were great fun and lovely!) but i went to pick up her body and we realised she was still alive. We didnt know what was wrong but it was neurological, her spine arched backwards most of the time, seizures and all sorts, we rushed her to the vets who euthanised her on the spot, she was sent off for autopsy and i forget the results exactly but the vet said that it was generally a hereditary disease
We didn't stop to consider that being siblings... Henna was at risk too... a 14 months later I had to send her to a friend who could look after her and giver her more time out when i moved in with my now ex. I got a phone call to say she had had to be put to sleep with exactly the same disease
We told the breeder and she denied all knowledge of ever selling us rabbits (£50 each as well) let alone that she was breding rabbits with diseases/carriers for diseases, we even tried to give her a copy of the autopsy results...
Looking back, we should have gone to the national rabbit council this woman belonged to but neither of us will keep rabbits again thats for sure
It wouldnt be so bad but this is exactly the same problem we had with our first show line guinea pigs, they were beautiful, lovely satins as well... but when bred the babies all died (the ones in the photo
) and then all the adults did too and again, the vets checked them and it was a long time back, i cant remember results but it wasnt down to our care as we hadnt had them more than a few weeks!
Same with the national hamster council, i showed as a member for a bit but they let anyone join and cause havoc with poor quality stock and the lies and complaints and all sorts meant i went to one show, all 5 hamsters won or placed in every class and then told them i was leaving and wanted nothing to do with them.
EDIT: The rex bunnies dont make great pets, or they do... but not if you want a bunny to cuddle or play with, compared to other species... they are seriously independant and not interested in cuddles... you are blessed if they grace you buy sitting on you for a minute... kinda like the standoffish sort of cats.
) and he can jump from the floor to the sink, no problem! He only jumps up there to eat the soap, mind you 
(it's ok, we don't let him! We just don't always remember to put it away first!)
