Blanc de Termonde

The breed took shape in the countryside around Dendermonde in Belgium. In the late nineteenth century slaughter rabbits were shipped to England in quantity and the fur trade paid well for single-colour white and blue pelts — well enough that working-class keepers across the region bred single-colour animals from the local land rabbits on a large scale.

What went into it is unsettled: the sources below give four different accounts, and the Flemish register says outright that many versions circulate. No creation date survives in anything this page will cite — the familiar 'around 1920' appears only on sites we exclude. The one datable milestone is later: the first rabbits reached Poland in 1977, at the Institute of Animal Production's station in Chorzelów.

• Flemish heritage register: an extinct Witte van Tervuren, a white Van Beveren, or the Flemish Giant.
• Italian agricultural atlas: descended from the Flemish Giant.
• Polish research literature: bred from Belgian White rabbits, a breed the Polish herdbook keeps separate from the Belgian White Giant.

Every Blanc de Termonde is an albino: an immaculate white coat and ruby-red eyes with a pale iris. Claw colour is the one point where the descriptions part — white in the Italian atlas, white or flesh-coloured in the Polish one. The coat is medium in length and reasonably dense, silky, rich in undercoat, with guard hairs of about 3 cm.

The head is long and fine in the doe and rounder in the buck; a round, full head on a doe is a light fault. Ears run 13.5–15 cm, large and strong, rounded at the tips and carried in a V; Polish sources citing Frindt give 13–15 cm. The body is long and stretched with an ascending topline, a broad chest, well-fleshed hindquarters and a rounded rump. Bucks carry no dewlap at all, does at most a slight one after their first year — this one circulates the other way round.

• Serious faults: eyes other than ruby; hair of any colour but white; ears over 15 cm; lop or folded ears; a body too short; excessive weight; a coarse or woolly coat; dental deformity.
• Light faults: hair too long; heavy bone; a short head; a round, full head on a doe.

The European standard files the breed among the medium rabbits at 4.0–5.5 kg (8.8–12.1 lb), ideally 4.5–5.0 kg for a buck and 4.0–5.5 kg for a doe. The Flemish register gives an average adult near 4.5 kg (9.9 lb); the Polish standard is wider at 3.5–5.7 kg (7.7–12.6 lb) from eight months.

English-language material usually calls the breed large, and the arithmetic explains it. On the MSD Veterinary Manual's bands — small 0.9–2.7 kg, medium 2.7–4.1 kg, large 4.1–5.0 kg, giant above 5.0 kg — this range spans the top of medium, all of large and the bottom of giant. We group it as large for consistency; the standard's own category is medium. Excess weight is itself a serious fault.

Poland publishes the only current audited numbers. In 2024 the national herdbook recorded 383 litters — 2,900 kits born and 2,229 reared, or 7.6 born and 5.8 reared per litter at a 76.9% rearing rate; 2023 gave 7.6 born and 5.2 reared, 69.1%. All recorded Polish rabbits averaged 6.7 born and 5.6 reared at 83.3% in 2024, so the breed is above average for kits born and below it for kits kept alive.

Per doe per year the 2016 herdbook gave 2.9 litters with 21.2 born and 18.2 reared, against 1.8 litters and 11.0 born for all rabbits. Bucks are credited with about 80% effective matings across the year, and doe milk-yield coefficients run from 3.51 on the first litter to 3.72 by the fifth. The standard's 8–10 kits sits above everything actually counted.

Growth is the strongest measured trait: 612 g at 28 days, 909 g at 35 days and 2,587 g at 90 days, with a second trial reaching 2,600 g at 93 days on 32.48 g average daily gain — faster than Alaska, Giant Chinchilla, Californian and New Zealand White in the same comparison.

The carcass is more mixed, and the authors flag it themselves. Dressing came out at 59.7% on a 1,155 g carcass of 76.3% meat, 15.9% bone and 7.2% fat — yet these were the lightest carcasses in the trial, and only New Zealand White and the synthetic line dressed out lower. Meat protein was the highest tested at 22.6%, with 4.9% fat, and the meat was the darkest and firmest of the medium breeds.

• 612 g at 28 days, 909 g at 35 days, 2,587 g at 90 days.
• 59.7% dressing; 1,155 g carcass at 76.3% meat, 15.9% bone, 7.2% fat.
• 22.6% meat protein and 4.9% fat — the highest protein in that trial.

Only one acceptable source describes the breed's character: the Flemish living-heritage register calls it reliable, with a calm nature. That sentence is the entire evidential basis, so treat it as a weak prior — handling history, pain and fear shape a rabbit far more than its breed name.

The same register says an ordinary hutch suffices and records no special housing requirement. That still means space scaled to a 4–5 kg rabbit that can stand up, stretch, hide and move, a dry resting surface, and ventilation that clears moisture and ammonia without a draught. Judge condition by feel rather than by the scale.

The British Rabbit Council lists Blanc de Termonde among the Rare Varieties in its Fur section. That list is framed as examples rather than a complete index, and no BRC standards document with weights or points is published, so it supports rare-variety status and nothing more. ARBA does not recognise it: neither Termonde nor Dendermonde appears on its recognised-breeds page.

The Flemish register calls the breed rare today and the Italian atlas says it is now very hard to find. Poland keeps the clearest count: 6 herds and 153 does under official recording in 2024, up from 5 herds and 148 does in 2023 but still below the 4 farms and 207 does of 2016.

With a population this small, individual records carry more weight than usual. Weigh at fixed ages so your figures line up with the published ones, record born and reared separately rather than as one average, and log eye colour, ear length and coloured hair at selection — those three are serious faults and spread fast in a small herd.

• Weigh at 28, 35 and 90 days against 612 g, 909 g and 2,587 g.
• Record born and reared separately; rearing rate is the weak point.
• Log ear length, eye colour and coloured hair at every selection.
• Track litters per doe per year against the herdbook figure of 2.9.