Mum was a devoted angora-ite, determined to keep them true Brits with no foreign bits added. Her love affair with these bunnies started at the age of 13 and continued right up until her death.
I have been told that I attended my first show at the age of three weeks and slept in a rabbit box throughout. I didn’t get Best In Show though! My teddy bear was given BIS a couple of years later by Mr Powell. He received both rosettes and cards!
Fly strike is a horrible condition in which flies lay their eggs on soiled areas around the rabbit’s anus and tail. Maggots quickly hatch out and burrow their way into the skin, and if not spotted quickly, into the rabbit’s internal organs. In early stages there may be no external signs, but later the rabbit may become hunched and listless. Overweight and elderly rabbits, who cannot clean themselves easily and rabbits who have episodes of diarrhoea are most at risk. The thick fur of the Angora poses an additional risk. Prevention is the best option. Keep your rabbit hutch clean, clip around the tail and hind legs of your wool rabbit to keep the wool short in that area, and inspect bottoms regularly, particularly in hot weather. Be vigilant. If the worst should happen, bathe the affected area and pick off the maggots with tweezers. Clip down the fur surrounding the area and in all but the most minor cases, get the rabbit straight to the vet’s. Sadly euthanasia may be necessary in severe cases. To help avoid fly strike use fly papers or fly traps in your rabbit shed or rabbit enclosure.
Mrs Chris Hamilton General Secretary for the National Angora Club and to introduce her, here is a short profile about how it all began with angoras. I started keeping rabbits while in junior school but met my first angora at a garden centre pet shop and became his owner in 1986. That was not a safe start for any angora to be sold at a pet shop to a person with no experience, who was not given any advice on how to care for his coat. Thank goodness I knew about rabbit care and so just needed the grooming and clipping lessons.
As I am not interested in breeding, I have all my rabbits neutered. The groups consist of one group of three Angora rabbits, a pair of rescue rabbits and a single rescue rabbit who is partially sighted. Most of my rabbits were neutered while young, except for two who were four at the time, and I have had no problems at all with the process. Rabbit anaesthesia is now much improved and the younger rabbits have been active (often too active) within a day of the operation. My vet does not suture but the wounds heal with no problems because they close up naturally. It is my belief that because there are no stitches reminding the rabbit it has a wound, the bunny forgets it is there and ignores it. So no neck collars or “the cone of shame” have ever been needed to stop the inquisitive teeth.
If you start showing it can be a very rewarding experience and Yvonne Hobbs-Fothergill has breed and exhibited many champions in her angora journey under the Stud name Willowcot Stud. This is White Enigma who was a Champion in 2013.
Angora rabbit wool is very versatile and can be used to make many interesting woollen products. This is rather an unusual example of the use of Angora wool- a superb tea cosy. It keeps the teapot warm for ages!
For other Angora wool products visit the wool products category.
I was contacted by a representative of Tatler magazine back in early February. She had been given my name by Yvonne Hobbs-Fothergill as someone, who might be able to help as I lived closer to London. They wanted to do a video shoot of Angora rabbits, and could they have four of varying colours including a white, as fluffy as possible. Sounds easy, but even when you have a few, picking the most fluffy, friendly, good colours, without any problems is not.
If you are lucky enough to have a litter of two or more then you will need to decide which ones will be good to show. Not all of them will have “Show Quality”. When they are about six weeks, you can start to take them out and handle them, grooming them gently behind the neck, turning them upside down and checking for knots, missing tails, white toenails if the are coloured. This is a major fault and that baby cannot be considered for show. Continue to groom them about once a week.
Some imported Angoras carry the blue-eyed white incompletely dominant gene v, otherwise known as the Vienna gene. If White Angoras are bred to White Angoras, this usually goes undetected and doesn’t cause a problem. However, if a White carrying the Vienna gene is crossed with a coloured rabbit, for example a Smoke, the coloured offspring may have white markings. A heterozygote, Vv, may have white stripes to the face, white paws and partially blue eyes.
As the gene is incompletely dominant it may remain hidden, and surface later unexpectedly in the breeding programme. Breeding Vienna carriers into show lines can, unfortunately, cause problems for generations to come. Rabbits known to be Vienna carriers should not be used for breeding into show lines, but can make excellent wool Angoras and attractive pets.
It is important to be aware that if a Vienna marked mother has non Vienna marked offspring, these little rabbits may still be carrying the hidden Vienna gene.
Most births go well. However it is important to be prepared for one or more of the following: