Please help me with my maintenance nightmare

[PamsWarren]

I hope I am posting this in the right place!

In November, I adopted a beautiful siamese sable 2.5-3 yo Jersey Wooly. At first her coat was quite easy to maintain - I simply brushed her 1-2 times a week to remove the tangles and minor webbing. Her coat has since become quite thick and very long. I've been using a hairdryer on low, cool setting to find the webbing in the undercoat (she doesn't mind the hairdryer) and a mat rake and metal tooth comb to groom and remove the webbing. It really doesn't seem to matter how well I groom, though, the next day she has a lot of webbing in her undercoat and I feel like I am back to square 1. I wonder if I am now removing her wintercoat and after I remove the undercoat (it does seem to be slowly coming out), will she be easier to groom? The other JW that came into the rescue were a bit younger (1-2 yo); last time I saw them, they did not seem to have the same long (VERY long) thick fur as my girl.

Did I just end up with an exceptionally furry girl? She is one of the nicest, most cuddly little lap rabbits I've ever met. Every night we have a nice cuddle and watch tv together. I really do not want to ruin our relationship because she associates me with grooming and things she does not like.

Thanks!

 

[tonyshuman]

You could clip the problem fur, especially because it's summer.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Cutting the fur would be your best bet. Unless she is really matted, you shouldn't need to get her shaved. While using scissors to cut does leave the fur uneven (unless you are really good), it does grow out in a few weeks.

 

[PamsWarren]

Thanks. Yeah, I've resorted to cutting out the tangled, matted bits of fur. She looks pretty scruffy at the moment and she certainly wouldn't win any awards (she was a show bunny in her former life). Unless her undercoat grows back quickly and during the summer heat, we should be ok with regular quick grooming sessions until her winter coat comes in. When her undercoat does start to grow back, I think I will cut her fur short. You are quite right that it will grow back. It's astounding to me how fast he fur grows. Muffy and Fuzz are also long-haired rabbits, but their fur is very different and much easier to manage than Chia's (AKA the hopping mop).

 

[pamnock]

PamsWarren wrote:

Did I just end up with an exceptionally furry girl?

Thanks!

Unfortunately - Yes.

Jersey woolies are "supposed" to have a coat with a predominance of thick guard hairs which give the JW its "easy care" coat that is resistant to matting.

Hopefully, she's going through a major molt and will be easier to care for through the summer. I would still shear the coat and save yourself (and her) some grief.

Also, hair dryers on cool are not powerful enough to properly groom the coat. The blow power you need should be enough to move the skin on your hands (like the super powerful blow dryers that many public restrooms now have). The blow power should be enough to almost hurt your hands when blown up close.

 

[mistyjr]

I have a REW wooly. When i first got her coat was long but had some longer pieces that were shedding. There were tangles by her back end and belly and neck area. I had to cutt out what i couldnt get with a brush... But now i noticed this early summer that her coat is really really short... Hopefully shes molting and not falling out and wont come back... But they need to be groomed quite often couple times a week.. I have noticed to that the cages that we built her coat gets more tingled and messy then the hutch.

 

[PamsWarren]

The rescue actually had a few JW for me to choose from, but I was 'chosen' by Chia. Figures that I would end up with the exceptionally furry one. She is a former show bunny with two-legs to her name; interesting that she is exceptionally furry for her breed. I would not have expected that.

Are you suggesting that I have her shaved completely or by 'shear'; do you simply mean have her fur cut shorter? When I think of shear, I think of shaved completely. She's not that matted, though, any more. Just a haircut should do it.

Muffy and Fuzz typically shed down to short-coated rabbits in the summer. I used to think that Fuzz was part JW, but after adopting Chia, he clearly is not. I wasn't sure what to expect with Chia. Hopefully, she's just having an exceptionally heavy molt. This is her first summer with me, plus, she is now eating veggies and hay in addition to her pellets, so perhaps changes in living conditions/environment have affected her coat. I guess time will tell!

I realize that a hairdryer is not equivalent to a professional blower, but it does separate her fur nicely allowing me to see the webbing.