Angora Rabbits

[sean518]

Since Taylor requested, I thought I’d post some pics of our newly acquired French Angoras.

So when my nine year old daughter asked for a pet bunny, I said sure, why not? We can have one or two little normal bunnies. They don’t eat much and I really enjoyed having them when I was a kid. My wife decided to get French Angoras and took that and ran with it. She had a doe and a buck delivered from Ohio (expensive bunnies!). About a week later, there was an unfortunate incident and our pit bull ate the buck. Well, half of it. We got a replacement buck and another doe more locally and we’ve started breeding.

They really are very interesting rabbits. You have to groom them pretty often to keep the wool from matting, ideally at least once a week. They shed out about three times a year, so you brush them at that time and the wool comes out. When you’re doing all this, they sit VERY patiently on a table. I’ve never seen such patient rabbits, it’s amazing!

The plan is to mix this fiber with the fiber from our Jacob Sheep, which would benefit greatly from some softening.

Pictures attached!

[sean518]

More pics attached. Some people keep them inside, but I definitely didn’t want to do that. They seem very happy in a relatively small cage, 24″ x 30″. I built a small lean-to structure for them where we can stack 6 cages. The cages are from Bass. I made one cage, but the wire gauge I found was definitely not as good as what Bass uses. Between the door attachments/frames and all the extra’s, it’s almost more cost effective to buy the cages from Bass, I highly recommend them.

[Taylor Margison]

Wow! What nice looking rabbits! Thanks for posting!
Those babies are adorable, and that first bunny pictured looks enormous. But maybe it’s just the fluff….

We also decided on angoras for their pet/fiber duality and we’re also keeping them outside. I’ll post some pics of the cages I’m making. I’ll look into the Bass company as well. When we were looking to buy cages I priced materials and actually managed to make them for significantly less, and with my own customizations, than what I could find at the store.

How many babies did you end up with? I love that black bun!

-Taylor

[sean518]

@Taylor Margison 39707 wrote:

Wow! What nice looking rabbits! Thanks for posting!
Those babies are adorable, and that first bunny pictured looks enormous. But maybe it’s just the fluff….

We also decided on angoras for their pet/fiber duality and we’re also keeping them outside. I’ll post some pics of the cages I’m making. I’ll look into the Bass company as well. When we were looking to buy cages I priced materials and actually managed to make them for significantly less, and with my own customizations, than what I could find at the store.

How many babies did you end up with? I love that black bun!

-Taylor

The heavier gauge wire that Bass uses is really important. I made one cage with wire I purchases at our local Agway, and it is not standing up well. Bass uses 14 gauge for the tops and sides and 16 gauge for the bottoms. I think the wire I purchases at Agway was 12 gauge. Another important improvement in the Bass cage over what I made is the reinforced door frame. It just takes one hook closure to hold closed, whereas I need several closures on the door I made because it doesn’t have a frame and the wire is flimsier. And it’s a pain to have to open and close that door with all those clips. Bunnies will squeeze their way out of a door that’s not tight if they can, that’s how half of our first buck ended up in our dog’s stomach. I’m sure it’s possible to save some money building your own cages, but I’m not sure that the extra time it takes is worth it. I’d love to see the cages you built. I did enjoy building the hutch structure, though! Hopefully this summer I’ll have the time to build a larger version on the back of our garage.

We had nine kits in the litter, which is above average for Angoras, especially since it was her first birth. We lost one right away, and another the following day, but the remaining seven are going strong. And they really truly will only nurse those babies once a day. You can stick her in with them more than that and she’ll just squirm her way out and possibly hurt the kits. But once a day, she’ll hop in and just stand there until their bellies are full. Somehow it was decided that this should happen at 6am, which is the time that only I’m awake…

[Author]

Posts