Spinning Angora Rabbit Fur

One of the hardest claims made by a breed fancy to reconcile with actual experience is the claim that German angora breeders make that Germans are one of the easiest rabbits to maintain. I only have experience with Germans, German/French crosses, English and German/English crosses, but I have to tell you that is NOT the experience I had. The high-yield German angoras require continual checking of their undersides, to be sure an accumulation of feces is not building there. It cannot be seen from the top, so one must remove them from their cage and flip them in order to check. During a 90 day growing period most of them require a clipping around their genitals of at least one hours work, most require this 3 or 4 times. That is at least 3 hours of work. By contrast, my *well bred* English do not molt, so matting is not a problem. My doe that gave 9.3 ounces of fiber was checked every week, but now that I've discovered it isn't necessary, I won't be checking her that often (nor the buck). She had a few small "balls" of tangles out on the very tips of her coat. It only took a few seconds to remove. It was CLEAN (unlike the tasks on the German), fast, and easy. Plus, those little balls are excellent slubs to add to yarn. (Picture of Chu's Clover, tort buck from Betty Chu, a sweetheart and a joy to handle and groom)

Then you have to trim the rabbits. The little English doe (who had more length on her than the German did) only required about 25 minutes to trim well, down to ½ inch. (Buck the same). The German doe was so large, and had so much heavy fiber on her it took 2½ hours to trim her down to the same length. Plus she had more waste fiber on her. I do use that "junk" fiber in novelty yarns, but even so, it is lost production to most breeders. (Almost no waste on the English, Just a small matt behind her ears.)


Overall, conservatively, I had 6 hours hands on grooming time on the German, not to mention the constant checking every 3-4 days for a dirty bottom. I had only about 1 hour in the English doe. Furthermore, Germans MUST be clipped on time. After their coat reaches 4 inches, it begins to slip and will matt badly if not promptly dealt with. The English rabbits are far more forgiving. I've personally allowed their coats to get to 7 inches with no matting at all. So I have more time to fit in their trimming.

All of this, and 1. English fiber is more luxurious, softer with no excess guard hair. 2. English rabbits eat about half what a German angora does. 3. Grooming them does not usually require disgusting tasks, like the German angoras do. Now all of these statements are absolutely true of NON MOLTING English angoras. IF you have an "old line" English that still molts, none of these statements about English are likely to be true.