Hippity to the Hoppity (AKA our angora rabbit podcast episode)

In this week's episode, we talk about something we actually have some experience with!  Angora bunny-heads!  You can listen directly here at Soundcloud, or through iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts!  (Don't forget to totally help us out by rating, reviewing, etc, as that helps more people find us!

(We go hard.)

Some of the things we reference this week...

Our Patreon Page!

Our Email List!

Keeping Up with the Clampetts New Podcast (and previous intro and outro music musician)!

And All the Apparatus, our new intro and outro music!

And this awesome cookbook...see Ric, you can totally find it online...

(My new favorite...it is going to make us fat. Don't care.)

Jet's big debut...

TThe rabbits are starting to molt, which makes life rather hairy. (Get it? Hehe!)

I decided I'd better give Mr. Jet a trim, as he is having a little trouble with fur block like his mom. (Who, by the way, is doing much better! Her treatment worked and she is eating and drinking again like nothing happened.) 

But that little man would not sit still! See?

That's ok, at least he's cute!

Ash

Adventures in Raising Angora Rabbits Part 3 - Breeding

What is cuter than a baby bunny?  Not much is the answer.  When we got our breeding pair, we knew we would be breeding them later in the year.  But as I mentioned in the first post, they sped that timeline up quite a bit (or we did with having a not-so-secure barrier between the two rabbits.)  We were thrown into getting ready for babies, and let's just say, both Penny and I were not ready.  We didn't know our stuff.

I hadn't been sure that she was pregnant until I was doing our 3 month full trim.  She did seem a bit heavier, but not that much.  But there were the nipples, quite prominent and it seemed that there were small lumps in the belly.  "Oh, crap."  I said to Ric.  I ran to the calendar and checked dates of when they first escaped to be together.  "Oh, crap...." I said again.  I hurriedly read up more on what to do when you are expecting, and threw together a nesting box.  The resources I found said that the mom would likely start pulling out her hair for the nesting box to help keep the babies warm, since they are born with no fur.  I thought, "Ok, maybe I have a bit more time..."

Penny just after being trimmed and moving out from the babies.

That night I could not sleep.  At about 4am I went out to check on her and she had pulled out a bunch of hair.  Another "oh, crap" left my lips, and I tried to calm myself back to bed.  In the morning I ran out, and lo and behold, there were 8 babies.  But none of which were in the nesting box.  They all looked cold and dead.  I rushed them inside with mom, placing them all in the bathtub with a hot water bottle and heating pad.  Two started breathing. But what now?  I watched and tried to be calm, but a few hours later they were all gone.  It was a rough morning. 

I read a lot more, and found that the first litter can often be still born and/or the mother, also being inexperienced, may leave them to die. While it made me feel a little better, it made me realize that this was not nearly as easy as everyone makes breeding rabbits sound.

We let Penny recoup for a couple months, all the while I did more research.  In the meantime, Rory seemed to be such a sad guy.  I felt like he really missed Penny.  They were finally reunited and we were so much more prepared for this go round.  We had a special hutch for Penny to have the babies in, and she started nesting much earlier.  Gestation for a larger rabbit is anywhere from 28-32 days, and right at 30 days she gave birth to 10 babies.

The 10 little pinkies.

I also learned in the meantime that because of how rich rabbits' milk is, they will only feed the babies once or maybe twice a day, usually at night, and that their instincts are to leave the babies alone most of the time so as not to draw attention to them from predators.  Because of this, it is hard to know if they are taking care of the babies.  Everyday I would go out and give them a quick and gentle inspection, to make sure they seems like they were gaining weight and to remove any dead.  Unfortunately, we slowly lost babies until we ended up with 4.  It is hard to know for sure why we lost so many, other than the fact that Penny was still a new mom and 10 babies does seem like an awful lot to feed.

Look at all that fluff at just 6 weeks!

Getting so big!  About 8 weeks here...

Bunny pile!  Hey...so we might want a bigger home soon...

At about 5 weeks it was time to ween them already.  They had started eating hay at about 3 weeks and then started nibbling at the pellets at 4.  But 5 they were eating no problem and Penny with the babies were certainly outgrowing their space.  Penny seemed quite ready to take a break.  

Penny and Rory often lay 'together' in their cages.

As I mentioned in our first post on the rabbits, it was during this time that we had set up the new lodging for the rabbits.  We gave Penny and Rory their own spaces, but adjoining cages so they could see each other and hang out.  They both seem much happier now.

The male babies we plan on getting neutered, as we will not be planning on breeding them.  We will keep the females in tact, though.  We are working this week on the new living quarters for the babies, now a little over 2 months old, where they can have more space to move around.  As you can see, these are larger rabbits, in the 8-10 pound range, so they need more space than most other domestics.

Whew!  That was a long post, and I feel like I could say even more, but it is the general gist of the fun of breeding.  Hope our little mini series on raising Angoras has been helpful or interesting!  We would love to hear your thoughts!  Leave us a comment!

Ash

Adventures in raising Angora rabbits Part 2 - Grooming

As I mentioned in my last post, we have been learning by doing with our Angora rabbits.  We have had them now for just about 7 months.  You can ask my hubby, the first couple months I was convinced they were dying any time one of them did anything abnormal in my eyes.  "Is Penny breathing too fast?" I'd ask.  "I think something is wrong with Rory, he seems funny." I'd state to Ric, who would assure me that he was just fine.  

Penny showing off her moves...

So needless to say, this has ALL been a learning experience for me.  Thankfully, I have been able to go online and find resources (however, this can also be bad, as many resources provide scarier answers than needed...) and ask questions of the folks we got the rabbits from.  But there are very differing views on grooming.  For Angora rabbits, this is a very important part of keeping the rabbits.  They are more work than other domestic rabbits.  This is something I let folks know of every time I am asked if I will breed to sell.  The only way I will sell is if the person fully understands that these rabbits will be much more work to care for than they think.

 For us, we have fallen into a grooming schedule that consists of a once weekly full body brushing, trimming the underside of the rabbit, around it's face, the bottoms of the paws, and nail trimming. 

Penny a week or so after her first trimming with us.
And Rory needing a trim.

This is where getting them used to being belly up is pretty important.  They need to be inspected...down there....fairly frequently to make sure all seems to be ok and keep fur trimmed to keep clean.  Penny was well trained on her back when we got her, so she is my piece of cake.  Rory however...well, let's just say he is always a handful, and a handful of scratches seems to just be par for the course.

Thanks a lot Rory.  You little booger.

I am working with the babies often to be held and turned on their backs.  They are still squirmy about it, but getting better.  

D'aaawwww!  So cuuuttee!

I have my set of clothes that I wear on the big grooming day of the week....and this is usually the aftermath...

Then throughout the week I try to make sure I check them for any other grooming issues.  Rabbits are pretty clean animals, and will clean themselves often, kind of like cats.  But that comes with another set of issues for Angoras.  They can't just work up a hairball like a cat does, so it gets caught in their intestinal system.  It is fairly easy to spot with them in the cage...let's just say that the bottom of the cage has 'ornaments' dangling down (aka poos connected by hairs.)  I have learned that if it is serious, you can use cat hairball goo you would buy at the pet store to help work stuff out.  But I prefer to keep a good stock of timothy hay (fiber!) for them, and every couple weeks or so supplement their water with 100% pineapple juice.  Apparently it has enzymes that help breakdown the hair in their system.

"Feed me more grass!"

In addition to the once weekly grooming, every 3 months (and more frequently in the summer) we give them a full trim.  After just 3 months their hair is to about 3 or more inches long, which is what we need to spin it.  We just use sharp scissors to trim them, which works well but gives them a funny hairdo for a couple weeks.  They don't seem to mind, since they are nice and cool without all that hair.

3 inches long already Rory?

Kinda hard to see, but the right side is trimmed and the left is next!

Next time I will share with you the ups and downs we have learned so far about breeding....and it is a lot of both for sure!

Ash

Adventures in keeping Angora rabbits - Part 1 - Living Quarters

I thought rather than another update on baby bunnies, I would share a little more with you about Angora rabbits and some of the little tidbits I have learned thus far.  Believe you me, I am still learning so much all the time, but we definitely took a crash course with these little ones, and doing is always the best way to learn, or at least that's what I like to think.

And as I started typing, I realized that it would be a very long post if I just shared everything I want to share with you.  So...this will be part one of a small series on our adventures keeping Angora rabbits.

1) Living Quarters:

We got Penny and Rory back in February.  Penny was about 2 years old, and Rory was just 7 months at that point.  First thing we thought we ought to do was build them an outdoor mansion.  Space to run outside and in, and a divider so they could see each other but not get *ahem* too intimate.

Penny looking a little camera shy...

But not Mr Rory...silly boy!

They loved it, but as we soon found out, there were some flaws.  First and foremost, our attempts to keep the lovebirds apart were futile.  The way we had built the enclosure had more vulnerable spots than initially thought.  So, our breeding plans had been sped up dramatically.  (More on that in the next post.)

Rory is always mugging for the camera.

Yup...I figured out how to get to Penny, why do you ask?

Second, we found that something that we had hoped would give them relief from the Central Cali heat was also not working for us.  Digging.  Man, are rabbits good diggers.  The tunnels that we had hoped they would create in the dirt to keep them cool were deeper and more extensive than we thought, and there were several occasions in which we found ourselves chasing rabbits around the yard.

This is one of the more extensive tunnels they dug right out of their caged area.

And third was grooming.  Most of the time it was fine.  But if it got muddy, or they escaped into the weeds and brush, they would be covered in mud or burs or foxtails.  Think long fur on any animals and then you know why that is a problem, so even more so when you plan on using that fiber later to make yarn.

After removing Penny from the enclosure, we would
walk her around on her silly bunny leash and she always
wanted to go see Rory.

And of course the heat was a constant issue.  So we packed them back up into their initial cages with some modifications.  Well....kind of.  At this point, Penny was caring for her second litter (the first was unsuccessful, but again, this is for another post) and she and the babies were tucked away in their special hutch.  So we set up the old cages inside this lovely little lattice work structure already on the property right by our house, equipped with a box fan and misters.  We moved everyone inside of it, which came with the security both they and I needed (you can ask the hubby, I was a constant wreck while they were outside that they would be eaten) and we were able to keep them cool without them digging, kept clean and separated from each other.

We are outgrowing our little hutch! Also, feed us.

Now that the babies are getting bigger, we are about to add a new cage structure inside this area for them.  I know it is probably just my human feelings and not an actual rabbit need, but I like that they will be set up where they can see each other and with the new cages, will be able to play together some (except for poor Rory who will be our only unaltered male, so he has to be separate, but does live right next to Penny so they snuggle up against the cage to each other.)

So we have eventually figured out a living situation that seems to work well for the rabbits as well as us humans. As for the mansion we built, it will make quite a lovely chicken coop with a few minor alterations.

Ash

Silly Rabbits!

These two are too funny!  Rory just loved it when he first got to play outside....as you can see toward the middle of this video!  (And I totally pulled a 'newbie' videographer and shot it up and down....sorry!  But still enjoy!)

Ash