Miss Maggie Moo is almost 4 months old today and I noticed that she’s been grooming an awful lot more than usual. So, I decided to harvest her wool.
She is an English Angora so you’re supposed to be able to just pluck out their loose wool as they “blow coat” every 3-4 months. I tried that, and it didn’t really do much. I tried combing her but only little wisps came out and she was still grooming out large chunks herself. This bothers me because rabbits are so prone to wool block. So, I got out my little blunt tipped kid scissors and decided to shear her.
She was not stressed or harmed in any way. She had a snuggly seat on my lap the whole time. I will say that I was horribly nervous throughout the shearing. Rabbits have paper thin skin and I was so worried I would cut her somehow! But I held the scissors in such a way that cutting her would have been virtually impossible.
First I combed out all the bits of hay and trimmed out mats (few and far between because of daily grooming)
Then I made sure she had some greens to munch as I set about the task of trimming her up. I decided to split the harvest into two days, today and tomorrow, so that she doesn’t get too stressed out. I trimmed along her back and near her head today and tomorrow I will do her sides/belly. I may actually end up splitting it across 3 days and save belly for when my husband can help hold her and keep her calm.
In any case, it went pretty well. I did get pottied on, but I suppose I can’t ask that much of a rabbit, it’s a difficult thing to sit still and hold your bladder for that long. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought.
Wholly Holy Living 
Unfortunately not all English angoras will molt, as you found out. We’ve had good luck using ’embroidery snips’ to shear the English angora bunnies here. Those type of little embroidery snips that look like old fashioned sheep shears? There’s a picture of them next to Sydney on the bunnies’ website: http://hillsidefarmhawaii.com/index.php/portfolio/spin-the-bunny/ (you may have to copy and paste that link). The little snips get used even more often than the horse clippers we bought to shear bunnies, probably because they’re easier to haul around and don’t need a cord.
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That’s brilliant! I hadn’t thought of those before, thank you!
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What a gorgeous bunny 🙂
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Thank you! We love her so much!
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