Angora Rabbit Online Technical Manual

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Copyright 2000, Lil Peck, English Angora Rabbit, French Angora Rabbit, Satin Angora Rabbit, Giant Angora Rabbit

Breeding, kindling, feeding, grooming, and showing are technical challenges with Angora Rabbits, due to their unique and beautiful wool coats. This web site is dedicated to your success and happiness with Angora Rabbit ownership. We will present tips and techniques which work for us, which might be helpful to you.
Copyright 2008, Lil Peck

LEGAL NOTICE
:
All information on this web page is strictly my own opinion, based on our own personal experiences. We are always learning, and we are always happy to hear of better ways to accomplish something. We are not veterinarians, nor have we ever had any kind of medical training. CONSULT YOUR LICENSED VETERINARIAN.

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NOTE TO JUDGES:
A few judges are mistakenly DQing some French Angoras for, “wool below the joint on the front feet.” Our standard specifies only “fur” on the front feet. Fur can be long, medium or short. French Angora fur is not like fur on a New Zealand or other normal-furred breed. Some judges see a crimped undercoat under the fur, and say that's wool. No, all rabbits have a crimped undercoat. Some judges also overemphasize the importance of guard hair and coarseness in the French coat.  You can't spin a coat that is only guard hair--there should be plenty of good, dense wool!  

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Table of Contents
Breeding
Palpation
Kindling
Feeding
Wool Block
Wool Mites
Grooming Angora Rabbits
Wool Chewing
Can I make money with Angora Rabbits?
Are Angora Rabbits good pets for kids?
Are Angoras good house pets?
Are Angoras killed for their wool?
How many Angoras does it take to make a sweater?
What about mass production of Angora wool?
Predators - dogs and cats and raccoons and snakes OH MY!
Where can I get more information about Angora Rabbits?
 
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Note to New Angora Rabbit Owners

 


BREEDING
I should mention that I do not approve of breeding rabbits which are not quality purebreds. I do not approve of breeding rabbits when it is not done for a clearly defined purpose, as part of a planned breeding program. To breed any kind of animal on a casual whim is immature and irresponsible.

The doe should be plucked or clipped before breeding. Check the buck to make sure that his genitalia are not wool-bound. The doe's vent should be bright pink and fairly swollen. If it is not, she may not be receptive, and you will have to wait, checking her daily, before you can take her to the buck. Always take the doe to the buck's cage. Always stay and watch the pair while they are together. The mating may occur in the blink of an eye, so WATCH!

The doe may go racing around the cage with the buck in dizzy pursuit. I think this needlessly tires the buck, so I use the restrained breeding technique, to spare the buck's energies and to save time for me. I will put my right hand on the doe's shoulders, holding her ears against her shoulders under my hand. I put my left hand under the doe, palm up, and use my fingers to gently push her vent upwards toward the buck. This will cause her tail to lift up, so it is out of the way.

One must be careful to hold the doe firmly so that she does not struggle and injure herself. If you decide to use this method, you do so at your own risk. You should be aware that some breeders have accidentally caused their doe to break her back or a leg, when they improperly attempted a restrained breeding.

The buck will mount and breed the doe, usually within just a few seconds, then he will fall over backwards. This is how you know that your doe was bred. However, always mark each attempt on the calendar. It is possible for the doe to be bred without a novice realizing what has happened.

After the breeding, return the doe to her own cage.
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PALPATION
How do you tell if the doe is pregnant? The most reliable way is to palpate her abdomen. This techique is difficult to learn for someone who does not frequently breed a lot of rabbits, because it takes practice. When it was been 10 days to two weeks past the breeding date, I will place the doe on a non-slip surface, facing me, and I will put my right hand over her ears and shoulders. Then I will place my left hand palm up under the abdomen just in front of the pelvic bones. I will gently press upward with my fingers, while pressing in from the side with my thumb. This will bring the embryos, if any, into position between my thumb and fingers. They feel something like grapes, and are about that size or larger. Having detected the developing kits, I will discontinue and return the doe to her cage. I will not palpate the rabbit's left side with my right hand, because it is too easy to mistake a kidney for a kit on that side.

You can also check the doe's vent. If she is in the early stages of pregnancy, her vent is usually small and pale, though she may pink up again towards the end of her 30-35 day pregnancy.

Always check again on the 28th day after breeding. If there is only 1 fetus, you may have missed it at 2 weeks. Or, the doe may have resorbed her litter.
It is a good idea to leave a nestbox with the doe just in case she IS pregnant, but keeping it a secret.
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KINDLING
The Angora mother should have been clipped (scissored) or plucked before breeding. A week before she is due to kindle (usually 30-32 days after breeding), clip the wool on her belly short, to about one half to one inch long. Take care not to injure her with the scissors, by slanting the lower blade upward. Make sure that the wool is short around her vent and tail. Make sure the wool on her face is short, so she has a clear field to see what she is doing when she delivers. After she delivers, check her belly to see if she has plucked enough of her own wool off her belly that the kits can easily nurse. You may need to pluck the teats bare of wool to facilitate nursing for the kits.
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NESTBOX: We use nestboxes made of 1/2 X 1 inch floor wire. When the weather is warm, all we do is fill the box with prairie hay and chop up some Angora wool into fine pieces, and put that into the box over the hay. For cold weather, the procedure is more complicated:

1. Cut a cardboard liner for the nestbox. Make the sides high, to break any drafts.

2. Put a layer of newpaper about 3/8 inch thick in the bottom.

3. Fill the box with prairie hay or other grass hay. Do not use alfalfa.

4. Shape a depression in the hay. Fill it with lots and lots and lots of Angora wool which is chopped into short pieces, no longer than 3/4 inch long. The wool need not be the dam’s own wool. It may be better to use wool from does, although we have used buck wool with no problems. The colder it is, the more wool you should put into the nestbox. Why take a chance? Add more wool!

5. If temperatures are dropping below 35 degrees, I would put a nestbox warmer, “Bunny Saver” under the box. The way I do this is put the warmer under the box, then put a couple pieces of corrugated cardboard under the warmer, to keep the heat from dissipating into the atmosphere. Then I duct tape the cardboard and warmer to the nestbox.

6. Put the nestbox into the doe’s cage. I set it with one end against the front corner of the cage, so that the cable from the electric warmer comes through the cage wire where the doe cannot chew on it.

7. Wire the nestbox to the front of the cage so that it will not tip or slip around.

After the doe kindles, I will prepare a small cardboard box with hay and wool. I put the newborn kits into this box, and I keep the kits in my chest of drawers in the house. This way, the mother cannot stomp or smother the babies. They are safe from predators (unless you have a cat in your house!!!) and safe from chilling or overheating.

I take the kits to the dam for nursing once a day. I drop the kits into the nestbox, and the dam usually jumps into the box and nurses them within 5 minutes or so. If one or two kits is smaller than the others, I will give them a head start of one minute, but not more. Mother rabbits finish nursing very quickly! After nursing is finished, I put the kits back into the box and take them back to the house.

Rabbits do not lie with their kits the way cats and dogs do! Mother rabbits usually nurse their kits only once each 24 hours, and the nursing takes only a couple of minutes to be completed. Then she leaves the nest and may behave as if she is totally unaware that she has a family, until time to nurse again. However, please be cautious, as some does may be protective and may bite when you stick your hand into the cage. It is unlikely that an English Angora doe will be this aggressive, but it can happen.

If one or two kits is very much underfed, I will go back several hours later, and sit down to hold the dam on my lap unside down with her ears between my knees. I will take the weak kits and allow them to nurse again. After two or three days, they have caught up with the others and don’t need the extra nursing anymore. Be careful so the mother does not kick while in your lap, and send babies flying!

Something else we do that works well for us is to take a piece of 1/2 by 1 inch welded cage floor wire, and cut it to fit inside the nestbox. Next, we bend this piece into an arc that we can place over the little kits in the nestbox. This serves to keep the mother from stomping her kits to death during the night, should she decide to jump into and out of the nestbox. Every morning, we remove this little sheet of welded wire so the mother can get into the nestbox and nurse the kits. We stay and watch, so that if she carries a kit out of the nextbox still attached to a nipple, we can promptly retrieve the kit, put it back into the nestbox, and replace the welded wire guard. After the kits are old enough not to freeze to death, should they pop out of the nest and not be able to climb back in, (about 10-14 days of age, depending on the weather) we will leave the welded wire guard off.

Some of our cages have dropped nestboxes, where the nextbox is built into the floor of the cage. The advantage of such a nestbox is that if the doe has a tendency to kindle on the floor instead of in the nestbox, she will probably have them in the dropped nestbox like she is supposed to. The disadvantage is that, in our experience, the doe is more likely to stomp or smother her kits with a dropped nestbox. So, we will use the welded wire kit protector until the kits are at least 10 days old and nice and sturdy.

Sometimes, we will put the kits into a nest which is made for them in a rabbit carrier. Then, instead of taking the kits to the doe for nursing, we bring the doe to the kits and place her into the carrier to nurse them.
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Feeding the Pregnant Doe
We continue to feed the regular daily amount of Manna Pro Rabbit Family Ration which is 3/4 cup once daily for the English Angoras and 1 cup daily for the French Angoras. We do not increase the feed, so that the mother will not have complications from obesity. Many does will back off their feed for a day or two before kindling. After they kindle, we will not greatly increase the doe’s food until the kits are about three days old. After that, we will feed her as much as she will eat.
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FEEDING ANGORA RABBITS
We feed each rabbit, whether buck or doe, Manna Pro Rabbit Family Ration. There are many good feeds, and this quality brand is affordable and easy for us to get. If we could afford it, we would be feeding Manna Pro Classic to the entire herd, because it contains yucca schigidera for ammonia control. We feed each adult English Angora 3/4 cup of food once daily, and each French Angora 1 cup once daily.

We don’t believe in feeding a lot of extra treats, etc. The commercial rabbit feeds are scientifically formulated, and if you add a lot of other junk, it will just mess up the nutrient balance. If you do feed treats for fun, it isn’t likely to do any harm if done in small amounts of half a tablespoon or so.

We would suggest caution in feeding fruit and vegetables to bunnies under the age of 6 months, especially to bunnies under 3 months of age. During the period in which the bunnies transition from mama's milk to rabbit food, the natural flora/fauna balance in their guts may be rather delicate. Diarrhea during this phase is not uncommon. We just prefer not to take chances.

We do offer each rabbit, including young bunnies, one T. of Heinold “Doc’s Rabbit Enhancer” daily. This product has probiotics, and ingredients which cut down on ammonia odors and help prevent wool block.

We will offer each rabbit a large handful of plain grass prairie hay twice a week or so.
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WOOL BLOCK / FINICKY EATERS
Does the rabbit have wool block? Angora rabbits ingest wool fibers from grooming themselves. The wool may ball up in the stomach, mixing with undigested food, and the rabbit will feel full and not eat. Eventually, the rabbit may die.

Individuals vary in their susceptibility to wool block. For some, it simply never becomes a problem. Others may require treatment frequently. It is better to select for breeding those individuals who are always ready for dinner with healthy appetites. The formation of the stomach and associated organs probably has a lot to do with how easily trapped wool fibers slide on through the rabbit's gut, and therefore, a tendency to block up is genetic.

To prevent wool block, I feed high-fiber rabbit feed, and offer plain grass hay or clean straw to the rabbits. You may offer the rabbits papaya tablets once a week. You may also offer them fresh pineapple or Dole brand frozen pineapple juice. These things all have enzymes that seem to be helpful in preventing wool block. It is also good NOT to overfeed the rabbits, as overfeeding may aggravate a tendency to wool block.

Here are some things which I have found helpful in treating wool block:
Give the blocked-up rabbit 1/3 of a whole banana, with the skin on it, daily. I don’t know why this is helpful, but it often is.

Give the rabbit 1/2 tsp. or so of Colase Syrup (also available as Diocto Syrup), which is a stool softener. It is a surfactant, and is very effective. You get this at pharmacies, and may have to special order it.

Mix 1 tsp. of meat tenderizer with a little bit of mashed banana and offer that to the rabbit.

If wool block is not the problem, just giving the rabbit 1/3 banana daily for a few days in a row will often help them get their appetites back. I will also offer finicky eaters alfalfa (you should know that some breeders have had the experience of their rabbits dying from “overdosing” on alfalfa), elm leaves, elm twigs, dandelions, and chemical-free grass. Be cautious--you don’t want to offer your rabbit something which might be toxic.

In desperation, some breeders have given Ensure Plus to pregnant does which quit eating halfway through their pregnancies.

I would be cautious about offering a rabbit any feed which is meant for other livestock, such as horse sweet feeds, as some of these may have ingredients which are toxic to rabbits.
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WOOL/FUR MITES (Consult your licensed veterinarian.)
If you have Angoras, chances are that you will have a wool mite problem sooner or later. If the rabbit’s skin becomes red, irritated and flaky, or if the rabbit simply appears to have a bad case of dandruff, wool mites may be the cause. With professional veterinary advice, we administer Ivomec. We get the 1% strength Ivomec for swine. We will draw it into a syringe and then remove the needle and just dribble the injectible fluid onto the rabbit’s tongue, and the rabbit will lap it up. This is easier than giving injections under the skin, which sting. There is anecdotal evidence that this may also be effective against rabbit pinworms. We will measure the 1% out at the rate of 0.02 ml per pound of body weight. This will work out to 1/10 ml for a 5 pound rabbit. That is ONLY 2 hundredths of a ml per pound! These dosages are very tiny. You have to have an insulin, one-cc syringe to correctly measure these minute amounts. Often, one dose is all that is needed. However, we may dose the rabbit again after two weeks, and if the mites were severe, again after another two weeks. You should know that Ivomec has not been officially approved for use in rabbits, so consult your veterinarian about its use.

NOTE: These days, I tend just to use cat flea powder, because it is cheap and easy! Cat Flea Powder is an effective treatment for wool mites. The active ingredient is carbaryl. Just sprinkle it liberally onto the affected areas. It is great for spot treatments. DO NOT use any other kind of flea powder, that may be toxic to rabbits and that might not be effective against fur mites.
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GROOMING ANGORA RABBITS
To the Angora-holic, grooming the rabbits is fun, relaxing, and enjoyable. It is a form of creative expression. With most other breeds, there isn't very much beyond basic care that one can do to optimize a rabbit's winning potential. With Angoras having so many points on the coat, the care of the coat is vital for the rabbit to look its best. This gives the owner something which he or she can have actual control over, above and beyond doing the best one can with whatever Nature has bestowed upon the rabbit.

Grooming for Shows:
At the national level, such as at the ARBA annual convention each fall, and the NARBC convention each spring, the quality of the rabbits is highly competitive. The grooming skills of the exhibitors are very sophisticated as well. While part of the fun of owning Angoras is grooming them, the more experienced one becomes at grooming, the more competitive will be one's rabbits. Here are the essentials:

A hairdryer on the cool setting may be used if one doesn't have a blower. It doesn't have the force of a blower, but is still useful in helping one to locate webbed areas, and will fluff up the coat nicely. You may also use a shop vac set on reverse, or a canister vac. However, don't use the shop vac indoors at a show, because it is so noisy.

Use the blower to work the coat. As you blow out the coat, watch for areas which appear to be webbing, and concentrate on them, using the blower to force out any clumping of fibers. I will begin a session with the blower by sitting with the rabbit belly side up in my lap. I will steady the rabbit by holding its ears between my knees. Then I use the blower on the rabbit's belly and breast. Then I will put the rabbit on the grooming table and blow out the coat on the back and sides.

When you use the blower, be prepared for an accumulation of "white stuff" on the walls and everywhere else. The blower forces very fine dander out of the coats, and over time, this will begin to look like chalky powder on the surfaces of the room in which you use the blower. If I have used the blower on several rabbits in a day, I may appear to have been working in a flour mill, as I will have this fine white powder on my face, hair, and eyebrows! The more frequently you blow out a rabbit's coat, the cleaner the rabbit will remain, and the less white stuff they produce.

Only after the rabbit has been blown out will I use the slicker brush. I tend to use the slicker only on the tips of the wool, and I try to pull out as little fur as possible while brushing. I won't brush every day, but only as needed.

I will clip toenails twice a month as needed. To me, a rabbit with long sabers for toenails looks uncared for, no matter how pretty the coat. There is also greater danger of such a rabbit yanking out a nail or toe if the nails are untrimmed. A mother rabbit with long, sharp nails may accidentally injure her kits when she jumps into the nestbox.

You will find that the best quality coats with the nicest texture are the easiest to keep in prime condition. These coats seem to mat or web very, very little. The best show coats are genetically endowed with very impressive density, and you do need a blower to do these coats justice, as it may be very tiring to brush them.

When I do brush a rabbit, I do it something like this: grasp a handful of wool with my left hand. With the slicker brush in my right hand, I brush free just a few fibers at a time, advancing very slowly through the handful of fur in my left hand.

Some English Angoras may rub their facial furnishings off on their feeders, when they stick their faces into the feeders while eating. I have one or two such rabbits which I feed in crocks instead of the hopper-feeders that I usually use. If your English Angora has sparse facial furnishings, perhaps that is the cause.
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WOOL CHEWING
It is most frustrating to the exhibitor to find that a rabbit with a beautiful show coat has decided to chew on the coat. Usually, the rabbit limits its chewing to the area around the shoulders, but in some cases, the rabbit carefully clips off the outer tips of the entire coat. Everyone seems to have their own theory as to what causes wool or fur chewing.

I have noticed that episodes of wool chewing occur most often right after a cold snap. If the temperature in the rabbitry in the wintertime is about 20 degrees for a week, then drops suddenly to below zero, I will find some rabbits with chewed coats the next morning. In the summertime, if we are having temperatures in the 80's, then suddenly the temperatures drop to the 50's at night, some of the rabbits may begin wool chewing. Overall, I find instances of wool chewing in the summertime to be very rare.

Some people theorize that wool chewing is caused by a lack of protein. I doubt this, based on the diet my own rabbits receive. Some folks say the rabbits need more fiber in their diets. Well, it does no harm to offer the rabbits a little hay. Just stick the hay in between the cage door and the cage, or put it into a hay rack. Don't leave it in the cage with the Angora, or it will make a mess of the coat.

Some folks say the rabbits need toys to chew on or play with. Fine, you can give them toys or something safe and nontoxic to chew.

I do think they are more inclined to chew their wool when they feel itchy, as when wool mite infestation is there, but too microscopic for us to detect. I usually give my own Angoras Ivomec once every 4-6 weeks, to prevent this. I am not recommending this practice to other Angora fanciers--I am simply telling you what I do.

In some severe cases, I think wool chewing becomes an obsessive-compulsive disorder. I have no idea whether anyone has successfully treated wool chewing with Prozac! (That's a joke!)

If the wool-chewer is a doe, is she housed next to a buck? Sometimes, if the buck next door is spraying at his lady friend, she will chew off the parts of the coat that have urine on them. The answer is simple--put a solid barrier between or move them further apart.

My advice would be, if your Angora chews its wool--see if it has wool mites. If not, offer it plenty of clean, quality hay or straw to chew, and maybe offer it a toilet paper roll center to play with. Otherwise, just keep right on blowing out and grooming that coat. Sometimes, the rabbit will suddenly stop chewing and if you have kept the coat in good condition, he is ready to win for you.
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CAN I MAKE MONEY WITH ANGORA RABBITS?
No. Keep your day job.
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ARE ANGORA RABBITS GOOD PETS FOR KIDS?
Look, I am going to be brutally honest here. If I hear any more about how the fancy depends upon kids to become "the breeders of tomorrow," I'm gonna upchuck. The fact is that the parents of the kids become the breeders of tomorrow. There are almost invariably TWO scenarios of kids with Angora Rabbits:

  1. The rabbits are much more work than a child can handle. The rabbits end up horribly neglected.
  2. Mom is the one who does the care and grooming, and Mom shows in Junior's name at the youth rabbit shows. Yep, a grown woman competing against little children. Anyone recognize herself, or are you still in denial?
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ARE ANGORAS GOOD HOUSE PETS?
Can you stand major, bigtime, constant shedding unlike anything you've seen before? Other than that, Angoras tend to be very gentle, mellow, and sweet, with a few notable exceptions here and there. Don't ask us about housetraining, because the house rabbit society people can advise you better about that. It can be done, but you must be very patient and allow months for the bunny to form the habits you want.
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SHOWING ANGORA RABBITS
"How to Win." Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. Use the grooming blower daily. 

NOOOOOO excuses!!!!! Don't tell me how your weather/humidity/horoscope, etc., makes daily blowing out bad for your rabbits' coats. You're just too lazy to make the commitment, or just too genuinely busy with the other demands of your life to devote yourself to the art and discipline of rabbit grooming. As Yoda said, "Do or do not; there is no try."

If you're not winning, rather than running out and spending the really big bucks on rabbits from whomever won BIS at the last shindig, try taking better care of the rabbits you have, first. I have had my hands on rabbits from most of the top rabbitries in the country, have bought rabbits from most of these ladies, and believe me, they aren't THAT special. Granted, these creatures DO have the genetics to grow the wool density--without that, there wouldn't be anything to groom. Beyond that, anyone can accomplish what the winners do, IF they are willing to make the commitment. Most of us think we can't, make excuses, or just plain won't do it.

I am not criticizing the gals who make the commitment to win consistently; my point is, if you want to win, then you must be prepared to work as hard as they do.
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ARE ANGORAS KILLED FOR THEIR WOOL?
I got asked this really stupid question so often by email that I decided I'd better answer it right here on the page. Well duh!!!! A dead rabbit can't very well grow MORE wool, can it?
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HOW MANY ANGORAS DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE A SWEATER?
One. 

Now, that one bunny may be a poor wool producer and maybe you'll have to collect wool from the bunny for a year before you have enough for a sweater. Or maybe that bunny is a super-producer (I have an English Angora doe that produced a pound from a single plucking.) and you have all you need after only 4 months of wool growth. Remember, a 100 percent Angora sweater isn't really all that desirable, because it would be way, way too warm for comfort. 10-20% Angora may be all you need, mixed with other fibers such as silk. Angora is knitted very loosely and a little goes a long, long way.
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WHAT ABOUT MASS PRODUCTION OF ANGORA WOOL?
The foreign markets -- mostly Asian, have that covered. They can do it much more cheaply than we can here in the US. In some countries, such as Nepal, there are communities that are developing mass production of Angora wool and Angora wool products as a way to improve the status of women there. By the way -- those folks are just as enchanted by the cuteness of the bunnies as we are.
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WARNING: This section may disturb sensitive readers.
PREDATORS - DOGS AND CATS AND RACCOONS AND SNAKES OH MY!
This is the saddest and most tragic aspect of raising rabbits. Unless one is extremely proactive and vigilant, predators WILL be a problem at least once. I'm going to tell you the horrible, graphic truth here, so you'll be prepared, and because you need to understand how very real the possibility of predator attacks are. Hopefully you will be able to prevent these terrible attacks in your rabbitry.

No matter where you live, town or country, predators will be a potential problem. Dogs are the most common and obvious problem. Any dog is a potential rabbit killer. Your own family dog may learn to associate your rabbits with his "pack" and protect them, but I wouldn't leave a dog alone with rabbits. Your rabbitry must be fenced away from dogs. Dogs can be surprisingly determined to get access to rabbits. Likely damage: Cages ripped apart, skin ripped off rabbits, rabbit still alive with paws missing, faces eaten off, and so on. Very, very sad. Don't be naive about the possibility of dog attacks on your rabbitry.

Raccoons and cats, in my experience, usually will not bother with adult rabbits. But they really go for succulent, tender little bunnies. Raccoons and cats will reach right through the cage wire and eat bunnies. You may find a disembodied head rolling around the cage; that seems to be a trademark of cats and raccoons.

Snakes can be very quick and very clever about stealing kits from the nestbox. Your "harmless" little garter snakes are particularly slick at this. Even if you keep your kits in a box in the house and take them to the mama for nursing once a day, as I do, be vigilant. I lost a few kits by setting the box they were in down on the ground for just a few minutes while I watered the herd. When I returned to the box, I saw a snake slither away, and I found that kits were missing.

Rats enjoy a diet of kits, and can be clever about killing older bunnies, too. A friend of mine observed that rats may bite a bunny's face and hang on until the bunny is suffocated, then begin to feast.
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WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ANGORA RABBITS?
Margaret's Angora Rabbit Guidebook.
 Candy's English Angora Rabbits

Custom Search

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Please don't email me unless you have carefully read this page and don't find the answer to your question here. I receive a large volume of email about Angora Rabbits, and most of it is of the "send me everything you know about Angora Rabbits," type. -- LilPeck@gmail.com


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