Angora care

[Icarus]

I have to say, I'm loving these Angoras and all their utterly adorable fluffiness xD

I've been reading this: http://bettychuenglishangora.com/cares/index.html site for more information on properly caring for Angoras.

Anyone have any more info? I will not be showing, just the occasionally litter and wool gathering. I am particularly concerned about preventing wool blockage. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. High protein - high fiber diet is apparently essential.

 

[pamnock]

Unless you are going to keep the wool sheared, I highly recommend investing in the proper type of blower to groom the coat.

Wool block and additional protein are less of a concern if keeping the coat sheared.

 

[luvthempigs]

What is a blower?

First thing I think of with long hair breeds of any type of animal is a good pair of electric clippers

 

[Icarus]

pamnock wrote:

Unless you are going to keep the wool sheared, I highly recommend investing in the proper type of blower to groom the coat.

Wool block and additional protein are less of a concern if keeping the coat sheared.

I have a pretty powerful hair dryer with a 'cold' setting on it. I intend to harvest the wool for felting and what not, maybe for yarn if I get enough.


Papaya is usually recommended for preventing wool block, as is pineapple. I'd rather take the preventive measures now and keep wool block from occurring all together, rather than having it occur and fighting to keep the bunbun going.

 

[pamnock]

Icarus wrote:

I have a pretty powerful hair dryer with a 'cold' setting on it. I intend to harvest the wool for felting and what not, maybe for yarn if I get enough.

The blower has to be powerful enough to actually ripple your skin when blowing on the back of your hand or it won't be powerful enough to work webbing out of the coats. Most hair dryers are not strong enough.

The most commonly used blower for rabbits is like the one pictured here for dogs:

http://www.petedge.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=43034

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

As for diet, they need lots of hay. It will help for when they ingest the wool. The pellets you feed should be at least 16%. If you are breeding, you might want to go a bit higher. Not all pellets will work for all rabbits, so you might need to try a few before you find the right one. They can have veggies if you want to give them. They don't need more food that other rabbits of a similar size. My 10 pound giant angora gets 1/2 cup of pellets along with hay and veggies a day and she maintains a good weight.

Papaya a a treatment of wood block is false. The enzymes need a ridiculously high temperature to work, and that is if they survive the stomach acid. I am not sure about pineapple, but I don't think it is that effective either. Hay is the best thing along with grooming. My angora doesn't get papaya tabs, and she doesn't have issues with lots of wool in her poop. There does seem to be a ton in the carpet though. A well groomed coat will mean there is less loose wool, so less for them to ingest. Exercise also helps keep the gut moving and move any ingested wool out.

A small shop vac will work as a blower. There are ones that have a blower port. I would not use the vac for anything else unless you clean it after. In the full coat, about 6-8 weeks after you sheer, you should be blowing the coat every day. Depending on your rabbit, they will need to be sheered every 3-4 months if you are using the wool. A hair dryer can be used to fluff up the coat, but isn't effective for day to day grooming.
You will also need a good set of electric clippers. Oster is a good brand. The most important thing is a blade that can do the job. I use and Oster size 10 blade. Some people might use a size 30, but it does cut quite close so you need to be careful. A decent set of clippers will cost about $150-200. You might be able to find a dog groomer who can help you. If the breeder you get your buns form lives near you, they might do it for you too. You can cut the wood with scissors, but it will be uneven and you can't cut the wool as close as with clippers.

 

[Icarus]

Korr_and_Sophie wrote:

As for diet, they need lots of hay. It will help for when they ingest the wool. The pellets you feed should be at least 16%. If you are breeding, you might want to go a bit higher. Not all pellets will work for all rabbits, so you might need to try a few before you find the right one. They can have veggies if you want to give them. They don't need more food that other rabbits of a similar size. My 10 pound giant angora gets 1/2 cup of pellets along with hay and veggies a day and she maintains a good weight.

Papaya a a treatment of wood block is false. The enzymes need a ridiculously high temperature to work, and that is if they survive the stomach acid. I am not sure about pineapple, but I don't think it is that effective either. Hay is the best thing along with grooming. My angora doesn't get papaya tabs, and she doesn't have issues with lots of wool in her poop. There does seem to be a ton in the carpet though. A well groomed coat will mean there is less loose wool, so less for them to ingest. Exercise also helps keep the gut moving and move any ingested wool out.

A small shop vac will work as a blower. There are ones that have a blower port. I would not use the vac for anything else unless you clean it after. In the full coat, about 6-8 weeks after you sheer, you should be blowing the coat every day. Depending on your rabbit, they will need to be sheered every 3-4 months if you are using the wool. A hair dryer can be used to fluff up the coat, but isn't effective for day to day grooming.
You will also need a good set of electric clippers. Oster is a good brand. The most important thing is a blade that can do the job. I use and Oster size 10 blade. Some people might use a size 30, but it does cut quite close so you need to be careful. A decent set of clippers will cost about $150-200. You might be able to find a dog groomer who can help you. If the breeder you get your buns form lives near you, they might do it for you too. You can cut the wood with scissors, but it will be uneven and you can't cut the wool as close as with clippers.

Plenty of hay it is then. I found my doe with a massive mouthful of pulled wool today. I had wondered why the hair around her shoulder area was shorter >->
I got all the wool out of her mouth and did clip her to prevent any more wool eating or pulling. She has fur mites at the moment, I'm treating the sore areas with Lanolin until I can get the proper stuff to rid her of them, so the clipping at least makes application easier.

Do you clip the hair around the face? Or leave it? I trimmed the longer ends up around the cheeks little, but otherwise left all of that alone. I also left the fur on her stomach alone, just trimmed the longer ends down.

Unfortunately, I don't have a decent pair of clippers just yet so the clipping is rather irregular looking, but I left her a good bit of fluff. I did clip it close where she has sores on her back.

No hock sores on this girl like on the buck, thankfully

 

[devilishblueyes]

Icarus wrote:

I have to say, I'm loving these Angoras and all their utterly adorable fluffiness xD

I've been reading this: http://bettychuenglishangora.com/cares/index.html site for more information on properly caring for Angoras.

Anyone have any more info? I will not be showing, just the occasionally litter and wool gathering. I am particularly concerned about preventing wool blockage. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. High protein - high fiber diet is apparently essential.

Betty Chue is a well known English Angora breeder and she has won numerous best in shows. The information you get from her should be pretty good.

Angoras should get about the same percentage of protein as regular rabbits or just slightly more. Regular rabbits should get about 16% crude protein. Hair follicles are made from protein. So it is generally considered that wool breeds need slightly more protein than regular fured breeds because their hair is longer. Although the research I have read states that wool breeds actually tend to do fine on the same amount of crude protein as most other breeds (16%). Although it wouldn't hurt to add an extra percent or two to 17% or 18% crude protein.

Feed a high protein hay such as alfalfa hay or red clover hay. The roughage should help prevent wool blockage.

Papaya and pineapple are both known to work to help prevent wool blockage in the digestive system. Many rabbit feed brands make a wool formula. And if you look at the tag on the bottom you may see that it has slightly more protein and that it contains papaya. You can also get papaya tablets at most any health nutrition store. Rabbits tend to like papaya tablets. I would tend to avoid pineapple unless your rabbit tend to show signs of GI Stasis. Pineapple is full of sugar and that could potentially give your rabbit diarrhea if given too much.

As the rabbit judge mentioned it is a good idea to regularly blow your rabbits out or brush them out. The blower looks like an old container vaccuum. They are often used on dogs or sheep. It's also a good idea to keep them brushed once or twice a week. An Angora breeder would know best. Brushes can damage the hair follicles so the top breeders may use blowers instead. If the rabbit is not regularly groomed the wool will become knotted. Also make sure to keep the cage walls and floor cleaned up of any loose wool. That can become a mess.

Another thing to keep in mind is that as fiber percentage tends to go up, protein percentage tends to go down in rabbit feed and vice versa. Heinold Feeds Wool Formula would be good to feed.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Icarus wrote:

Do you clip the hair around the face? Or leave it? I trimmed the longer ends up around the cheeks little, but otherwise left all of that alone. I also left the fur on her stomach alone, just trimmed the longer ends down.

Unfortunately, I don't have a decent pair of clippers just yet so the clipping is rather irregular looking, but I left her a good bit of fluff. I did clip it close where she has sores on her back.

No hock sores on this girl like on the buck, thankfully

I have a giant angora doe, and she doesn't grow much on her face. I do trim it a bit, but she doesn't really need it. She does have 'bangs' on her forehead which I like, so I keep it, but I do trim it s bit so it doesn't get too long.
When I had Sean (Giant buck), he had more growth on his face, so that was kept a bit shorter.
The only angora breed that really has lots of wool around the face is the English Angora. Since you aren't showing, you can trim it if you want to. It isn't used for spinning either.

I would try to keep the belly shorter when they start to get the wool coming in. It keeps them cleaner and does help them manage their body temperature. Most people don't use the belly wool anyway. Be careful with the does as you can nick the nipples.

If she is chewing her wool, you might need to increase the protein in the food or change it. Lillian was chewing her wool a bit, but since I changed her food she hasn't had an issue. She didn't have the condition I wanted on the old food either. It is a 16% protein, but she is spayed and a pet.