Interested in Angoras

[Coolup Rabbitry]

I own dwarf Lops, but I am very interested in owning an Angora. I am wanting to find out about the breed first however.
How big do they get?
What is their personality & characteristics like?
Does anyone shave their Angora?
I live in Australia, so how do you manage with keeping them cool in the summer time?
What issues are Angoras prone to?
What do I need to look for when purchasing an Angora?
Any advice & information will be greatly appreciated. TIA

 

[DutchBunny03]

Are you still looking for information?

 

[Coolup Rabbitry]

Yes

Are you still looking for information?

. I am surprised I have had no response yet from anyone.

 

[DutchBunny03]

I feel ya. Ok, so Angora information. There are a few varieties of angora- the giant angora(no max weight), English angora(7 1/2 pounds), French angora(10 1/2 pounds), and Satin angora(9 1/2 pounds). All but the Satin angora have fur covering their entire bodies. The Satin angora does not have long fur covering its head and front paws, making it easier to manage. It's fur also has a Satin sheen to it. If you want lots of wool, the giant angora would be a good choice. Angoras are pretty docile, due to their relatively large size. To get the fur, angoras can be shaved, clipped, or pulled. Pulling tears at the rabbits skin, so is probably not the best way to get the wool. For keeping cool, ventilation is key. House the rabbits in all-wire hutches in a ventilated area(preferably with fans) and give them frozen water bottles to lay up against. Angoras can easily get heat stroke because of their thick fur. They can also get hairballs in their digestive systems, so make sure they get plenty of water. Growing all that fur requires a lot of protein, so feed them a high protein pellet. When buying an angora, look at the rabbits parents and siblings for any deformities. The deformities could be in the rabbits genes, which would be a problem if you plan to breed them. Get pedigreed purebreds if you can. Make sure the rabbitry you buy from is clean, and none of the rabbits are sick. Check out the ARBA website and RaisingRabbits.com if you can. They have great rabbit info! Also invest in a good book about rabbits. Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett and the New Rabbit Handbook are both great! Hope this was helpful. Enjoy your bunnies!!

 

[Coolup Rabbitry]

That was some brilliant information. Thanks so much!

 

[DutchBunny03]

Your welcome!!

 

[Bunnylady]

Coolup, since you live in Oz, a lot of the breeds mentioned are either unavailable to you, or have a different name. The English Angora you have. The German Angora and the Giant Angora are pretty much the same thing. I'm not sure about this one, but it kinda looks like your Swiss Fox is very similar to our French Angora, though perhaps a bit smaller and maybe with a shorter coat. If you just want a longhair as a pet, the Jersey Wooly is pretty much a Netherland Dwarf with a French Angora coat. The French Angora has a higher percentage of the longer, coarser guard hairs in the wool than the English Angora does, so the French-type coats are less prone to matting (a good Wooly doesn't mat up unless it is shedding). The English coat is softer, and more prone to matting; the best way to maintain an English coat is by using a blower on it once a week or so.

The German Angora has a unique coat. There are 3 different types of hairs in the coat; the usual underwool and guard hairs, plus a hair that is wool-like for part of its length and hair-like at the tip.

You have one breed that we don't have here - the Cashmere Lop. Its smaller counterpart is the Mini Cashmere Lop. As near as I can tell, the Mini Cashmere Lop is the same as our American Fuzzy Lop - a roughly 3 pound rabbit with a French Angora coat.

In the U.S, the Jersey Wooly and the Fuzzy Lop are strictly decorative; they don't produce wool of sufficient quantity or quality to really qualify as woolers. I'd bet the same is true of the Cashmere Lops. If you are looking for wool production, it looks like your best bet would be the English or German Angoras. A good, dense coat of correct texture is probably the most important thing to look for when buying a wool breed, though of course you want the rabbit to have been maintained in good health and clean conditions.

Pulling wool does not hurt the rabbit, if it is done correctly. While you can shear a rabbit, the wool is fine, and it looks like the devil after clipping. Clipping leaves a blunt tip on the fibers, which tend to stick out when spun into yarn. It also ruins the coat for show purposes. The best quality wool is plucked, which leaves the natural, tapered end on the fibers. A well-bred Angora "blows" its whole coat at the same time, and the wool can be pulled off with no discomfort to the rabbit at that time. A lot of spinners love to do demonstrations where they sit with a rabbit in their lap, and they pull the wool from the rabbit and spin it right there.

 

[Hens and Roos]

We raise French Angora rabbits, we comb out when they are blowing coat. We are learning to spin the fiber. One thing we have learned is the ones with a finer bone structure might not make the correct senior weight( at least 7.5 lbs at 6 months of age and older- per the rabbit standard of perfection). The buck in my avatar never made senior weight but we can breed him to a doe whose weight is closer to the top end and get some nice kits. Senior bucks and does- 6 months and older should weigh 7.5 to 10.5 lbs with ideal weight being 8.5 lbs.

Personality wise, we find that the bucks are friendlier than the does. We have a couple of does who have more of an attitude but raise very nice litters. We have one doe who is very friendly and she also does a good job with her litters.

Our French Angoras seem to have better success in raising litters then our Californian rabbits do, even if they are first time moms.

Good luck in your search and welcome to BYH , glad you joined us!