Upcoming Show

I'm very excited to say that we're going to the PaSRBA state show tomorrow. We should be taking Silver Foxes and Satin Angora for judging. Some Satin Angora will be available for purchase as either show rabbits or brood stock (at least one Red Sr. Doe). If we're lucky, we'll be coming home with some all new foundation stock for some American Blues. Pictures and updates on Sunday (hopefully).

Back from Rochestor, Baby Update

We took a trip up to New York this weekend to attend another Silver Fox sanctioned show and this time.....we had actual competition! There had to be at least 16 other fox entered and I think we even picked up a leg or two. All our SF won their categories and Homer took BOB.

Of course our angora didn't perform as well, but I wasn't really expecting them too- time to harvest that fiber anyway. Hrm, maybe this is why I can never keep a rabbit in coat? At least I got to talk to some really great breeders while I was there and I think I even have an idea about what to do all our mis-marked Satins. muahaha...

In other news, when we got back all of the babies had opened their eyes. Behold the cuteness of 20 baby bunnies...

How to pluck an Angora

This has been brought up a good bit lately and I thought it would be a good idea to finally address this process through the blog.

Why pluck?

1. Most practically, plucked angora is easier to spin that sheared fiber. This is because the hair shaft is collected intact and will (generally) be longer and more uniform than cut fiber. With plucking, you don't have to worry about second cuts and the fiber collected does not need to be carded before spinning. If desired, this fiber can be spun directly from the rabbit.
2. When plucking, the aim is to harvest the outer (or older) coat while leaving behind the fresh (newer) coat. This leaves the rabbit looking less silly, but more importantly, with enough fur to maintain a comfortable body temperature.
   
3. Plucking encourages new hair growth. I once sheared a rabbit only to have part of her coat grow back. She had no furnishings! I had to pluck the area I had cut short months ago in order to encourage new fur growth.
   
4. When done correctly plucking process should be painless and not harm the rabbit in any way. Harvesting fiber in this method utilizes a natural process and must be done periodically for the health of the rabbit. Angora rabbits are plucked during or just after a molt cycle. It is just as humane as shearing!

Pros and Cons to Plucking

1. Because you will only be harvesting the top coat you will be leaving a good chunk of fiber behind on the rabbit. Your plucked harvests will, in general, yield less bulk as opposed to when you shear. However a plucked rabbit can be harvested again sooner than a sheared one--considering that the new coat is still of a good length.
2. Plucking a rabbit will increase the guard hair count in the new coat. This can be a pain if you plan on showing the rabbit as some breeds are faulted on coarse wool. If you are a pet owner or fiber person a higher guard hair percentage can be a boon because your pet's coat will be less prone to matting. Additionally, guard hairs, while coarser than awn fluff, carry more pigment. A plucked rabbit's new coat will ussually have more color to it overall. Of course if a coarse coat is a deal breaker for you, there are still things you can do. Alternating between plucking and shearing can balance a coat's consistency. You can also pluck guard hairs periodically as these fibers tend to be greater in length than the regular awn fiber.
3. It's important to keep in mind that a rabbit's coat does not release all at once. Most shed in patches and plucking too soon can be difficult on both you and your bunny. Some people like to wait til the last minute to harvest. Some harvest a little bit at a time over a period of days. It is up to you to figure out which works best for your situation.
4. Repetitive plucking can be hard on the hands and wrists of the harvester. Take breaks.
   

How to Pluck an Angora Rabbit (finally)
First off, I'm not going to claim this is the definitive, most/best, perfect way of plucking a rabbit. This is just how I do it and it has worked out well so far.

1. Wait until the rabbit has enough fur to harvest. I know, waiting is hard. 3-4 inches is all you should really need though.
2. To prep a rabbit for plucking I begin blending a mixture of whole or rolled oats, black oil sunflower seeds, barley and flax seeds in with their feed (or whatever combination of those items I have available to me at the time). I warn people to exercise caution when supplementing these foods because they are very fatty and should not be fed for the long term. However they are very effective in triggering a molt in rabbits. I add about 1 Tbsp to the rabbits feed once a day until I see signs the rabbit is beginning to shed. I test by grabbing a tuft of fur at the tip (ussually somewhere on the animal's back) and pull gently. If the fur comes out with little resistance or complaint from the rabbit I know that a molt has been triggered. I now wait until the new coat has come in. Most angora grow fur at a rate of an inch a month. My English grow at least that quickly, but my Satins take a good bit longer. Give it at least 2 weeks. During this time you may want to keep them on the sunflower mix to get a complete molt. Also an increase in hay and papaya/pineapple supplements during this period is advised.
   
3. When you are ready to pluck, groom your rabbit first. If you have a blower, use it. If not a quick brushing will do. You want the fiber to be clean and mat free.
4. Part the bun's fur and look for where the hair shaft darkens closest to the skin. This is the new fur coming in. This line will be most prominent in Agouti coats, fainter in Selfs and practically nonexistence on Whites (tough break). Leave the new coat and pluck the old by grasping the tips of the hair and pulling. The fur should come out easily and painlessly. To avoid stressing the rabbit, sometimes I'll grasp the new the fiber at the base and pull the shedding fiber with my free hand so there is less stress on the hair follicle.
   
5. Occasionally I'll have a rabbit who is sensitive on their sides; rib cage, dewlap and/or upper shoulder area and won't tolerate plucking in those sections. This is where I switch to scissors, trance the rabbit or quit for the day and try again later when the bunny is less stressed and had a chance to shed more.
   
6. Collect the fiber by laying the shafts end to end in an organized fashion. (we spinners like that) The fiber stores just fine in a Tupperware container or zip-lock bag, but be careful about felting!

Q & A

Is it OK to pluck to the skin?
There's a bit of debate on whether or not this practice can damage the hair follicles or not. The theory is that a damaged hair follicle will only produce guard hairs in future coats. Personally, I haven't had any problems when I did this myself. However I have never plucked fur that wasn't already being released.

Currently, I try to avoid plucking to the skin if I can. I care about my rabbit's health and I like to leave a little fur behind so they are at least comfortable.

How often do you pluck?
I pluck whenever the rabbit has enough fiber to make it worth my while. I try to wait longer in between harvests in the winter and shorter in the summer.

What's the going rate on Angora Fiber?
For prime, hand-plucked angora the going rate on Ebay seems to be 6-12 bucks an oz. Satin wool is much harder to come by and I'd imagine it would be much more expensive than that--but I haven't tried selling it myself.

Christmas Babies

I did a dumb thing and bred a rabbit a month before Christmas. So this year we stayed home for the Holidays and tended to our ever growing hobby. Looking back, I am happy we chose to do the breeding. Banya is a nice girl with good lines but she ended up being a bit of a shrimp. So at our last show another well known Silver Fox breeder offered one of her overweight bucks as a stud.

Of course we took her up on it!


We bred Lola and Marmalade as well so we'd have some fosters. But thankfully everyone has been doing really well despite the weather. We only lost one kit to the cold, the rest are kicking with life.



That makes 20 babies this time around....we better get moving on that rabbitry expansion. :-p

News and baby pictures

So we've received our test results back from Penn State: Cause of Death Inconclusive. They did a few additional tests that required a bit of time and I haven't heard anything else. If it was grossly infectious Rabbit GonasiphaherpalAIDs I'm sure they would have gotten right back to us. So I'm assuming no news is good news. To date, none of our other rabbits have displayed any similar symptoms.

In lighter news, the angora litters are about 7 weeks old now. Most of them are weaned and off to a great start. I still can't believe we made it through everything anf managed to keep all 16!

So far it looks like the English litter consists of 2 lilacs and 6 blues. All are boys save for a little blue whom is featured in the pictures below. The satin litter on the other hand seems to be all girls. From that we've got all reds, 2 broken torts and a broken red.

I took some pictures yesterday for the sale page.

life and death in the rabbitry

We had our first fatality the other day. During my morning feeding rounds I found Van Gogh collapsed with his eyes rolled up and blood coming out of his mouth. We've taken him in for necropsy by Penn State's Animal Diagnostics Lab and should be hearing back within the next day or two.

Van Gogh was of Evan Lea stock and the son of a grand champion, but he had a very pronounced lop ear and very sparce silvering so I don't think we planning to breed him. I still feel bad we've lost an animal, but I feel we were fortunate that we didn't loose a more valuable one. I've been checking the rabbitry more often and so far none of the other rabbits have shown sign of illness. Van Gogh had not shown symptoms either, but I figure paying more attention to our herd is never a bad thing. I'll update when we've heard back from ADL.

On a lighter note the two litters we had earlier in the month have opened their eyes. so far we still have all 16 and the even the runt looks to be in good health. We've got pictures...

Day 2

Put the English back with their mom this morning. She jumped in and fed a few of them, I think once I get a real schedule going things should calm down for both moms. To date we still have all 16. The runt who lost his tail is still holding on. I put him in first every time I put them in with momma.

I also took another look at all the babies and I've come to the conclusion that Hrothgar is probably blue. I'm 75% sure our newest litter contains 2 lilacs and 5 blues and we could only get that result if Hrothgar provided the "B" (black gene) and additional "d" (dilute gene). Bacon's litter seems to be mostly solid reds. We have 3 brokens which look too colored to show, but they have cute little blazes on their foreheads. There is one kit who looks like he could be a tort too. Bacon may not be red after all, but I reserve judgment on that until I see more fur grow in.