Proper care is needed for the health and happiness of your rabbits. Proper sized cages and proper food and grooming are essential.
Feeding
- Angora rabbits need lots of fibre in their diet to help prevent wool block. A weekly hay only day will greatly help with this.
- If the rabbits poops start shrinking, that may be the start of wool block. Pineapple juice and extra hay days will help resolve this.
- Like all rabbits, you need to limit the amount of Alfalfa in their diet. Timothy hay is best if you can get it. Any horse quality hay will work.
Grooming
- Angora rabbits need to have regular grooming done to remove loose hair and prevent matting. Mats which are close to the skin can cause skin sores, so need to be brushed out, or cut out if really bad.
- Mats more frequently occur on the chest, armpits, around the tail.
- Harvesting the fibre can be done by lightly grasping the tips of the hairs and gently pulling backwards, taking only the loose hair with you and letting the others slip through your fingers. When harvesting the back and sides of the rabbit, they should show no discomfort from this. Reduce your speed if they show any discomfort. The hairs are very loose and don’t need any force to pull.
- A comb with larger gaps and strong tines work well for normal grooming.
- You can use a “furminator” for the grooming, but this will ruin the fibre for spinning. It can still be used for felting.
Ailments
- Wool block as mentioned above is something which needs to be watched for. You may be able to feel the hard pellets in their stomach if they have it. Watch for lack of appetite as well as shrinking poops.
- Fleas as with any rabbit need to be dealt with. These obviously can be transmitted by other animals near the animal/cages.
- Mites. There are mites which also can be spread by nearby animals.
- Excess calcium. If the urine leaves a white residue, your rabbit is likely getting too much calcium in their diet. This can cause issues if not address. Alfalfa hay is a common source of this issue.
- NOT AN ISSUE: Red urine is normal for rabbits and is not normally a concern.