Big white bunnies have it tough. Adopters often prefer small bunnies to large ones—and white rabbits, including albinos, just aren’t as popular. (Albino rabbits are unable to produce a pigment called melanin, also lacking in albino humans.)

© Diane Calkins/Click the Photo Connection White and albino rabbits aren’t usually the first choice of adopters, but shelters can have some fun promoting these bunnies to find them new homes.

At the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria in Virginia, the albino’s trademark pink eyes are a turnoff to some adopters, says kennel manager Suzanne D’Alonzo. “I’ve had the nicest albinos, and they stay here like they’ve got the plague,” she says.

Working at her desk near the rabbit area, D’Alonzo used to over hear many shelter visitors’ startled reactions. “It is a huge make-or-break for so many people,” she says. “One day I caught five people, all within the course of four hours, absolutely exclaim that that was the most bizarre thing they’ve ever seen.”

At the Dane County Humane Society in Wisconsin, adopters prefer small rabbits—just like they often prefer small dogs, says humane officer/field services supervisor Renee Stodola. She says that people also look for animals they perceive as different, like lop-ears. Bunnies who aren’t considered so “special,” like big white New Zealands or Californians, may wait at the shelter for up to a year and a half. “People just overlook them,” Stodola says. Pairs of large rabbits don’t move quickly either.

With a little time and creativity, shelters can highlight the distinctive qualities of large white or albino rabbits and help them find loving homes just like their multi-colored, smaller friends. Shelters could take a page from the department store “white sale” concept and tweak it to showcase white bunnies’ charms while offering a special adoption fee. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Jefferson Airplane song, the Matrix movies … the white rabbit’s ascension to the status of cultural icon makes it easy to have a little fun promoting his kind.

In winter, staff can celebrate the season while also promoting white rabbits, using cut-out snowflakes and signs to decorate their housing. Seasonal names add to the appeal—endless possibilities like Snow, Snowflake, Snowball, Snowplow (for heftier rabbits!), Icicle, Igloo, Flurry, and Snow White.

Shelters can also take advantage of adopters’ fondness for “unique” bunnies like lops by using signage to market albino bunnies as unique and explain their rare status. Some cultures treat albino animals as sacred or sources of good luck. Giving albinos names that suggest their special status can invite adopters’ interest, too—like Lucky Charm or Lucky.

After all, what people say they’re looking for and what they eventually bring home can be different, as D’Alonzo has found. Potential adopters often call her looking for a specific rabbit type—a dwarf, for example. But something happens when they come to the shelter, she says. “They’ll come in and they’ll go, ‘Oh yeah, you’ve got a dwarf. [pause] LOOK HERE, what a pretty—’ and it’s totally not what they asked me about, and that’s fine.”

D’Alonzo takes advantage of the “chemistry” that might happen when an adopter arrives at the shelter and human and bunny personalities begin to click. Adopters who have told her what they’re specifically seeking may get calls from her saying, “ ‘I have some new faces—not quite what you want, [but] why don’t you drive by and see what they look like?’ ” she says. “Because so many people are surprised at what catches their eye.”