How to shear an Angora

*from the archives*
From:  "GERMAINE P."
Date:  Mon Aug 30, 2004  6:05 am

Subject:  Re: How to shear a French Angora

Hi Franco,

The first time you clip a bunny it is like breaking a horse. I wear a
jacket or sweatshirt to protect my person from scratches. Never reward the
bunny for struggling. Wait until he is cooperating to set him down again.

I put the rabbit on its back in my lap, with it's head tucked under my
elbow. If you cover their eyes and hold them secure they settle down. The
first task I perform is a blunt cut to the toe nails, be sure not to cut the
quick but do take away the weapons.


I start to clip at the hind legs. Tilt the rabbits hind end to the side
and begin to cut where the wool is naturally parting over the knee. Pick up
the wool in thin layers, that allows you to know where the blade is . Turn
the scissors blade away from the skin and make your cut. This should give you a
quarter inch of fur left on the rabbit and will help to prevent you from
cutting the skin.

Once you have your opening started work in thin rows
towards the tail. I hold the tail between my fingers and use them as a
cutting guide to prevent injuring the tail. I then rotate the rabbit onto
its back and gently snip away the wool between its legs and around the
genitals. Put your fingers between the blade and the tender parts to
prevent injuries to the rabbit. That completed, rotate the rabbit's back end
to the opposite side and repeat the process. When the legs are free, lift
the hind quarters toward you, hold the tail toward you and cut in rows as
far down the back as you can get. Then let the rabbit lay flat in your lap
and clip as far up the belly and sides as you can get.

I then flip the rabbit right side up and pull the fleece over its head while
I continue to cut in rows progressing to the neck area. Pull on the skin
slightly, enough to take the wrinkles out while you cut.

To get the front and bib areas I put the rabbit on its back and lay it with
its ears between my knees. If it struggles I drop it lower until it quits
struggling. When it quits struggling I let it back up. The rabbit catches
 on quickly if I lay still I get a comfortable position. Still, is necessary
when you get near the throat and eyes. I hold the front legs between my
fingers and snip away the knots.

From there just move the front legs as
needed to get access to the areas you need to cut. I will sometimes need to
shift the rabbits lower body between my knees and while I hold its head in
my left hand I can get the cheeks and under the chin.

 The first time rabbit takes a while to clip. When I am working with a
cooperative animal it takes 15 minutes to clip.

 I maintain a dual purpose French Angora herd for meat and showing and have
to keep the population within the 175 holes I have. If I count the litters
with mothers, I have an average herd of 200 to 250. Less than perfect
juniors leave with the meat man at 8 to 10 weeks and are housed in large
weanling pens until I sort out the keepers. I have to shear all the rabbits
I ship to the meat man just before they go. I ship on average 50 rabbits a
month. I can shear 25 a day using the described method. The rabbits I
sell are from my show stock and perform well because I cull aggressively.
The day I decide I wouldn't breed it, it leaves the herd. My culls pay for
the feed bill.
[end] *article used by permission for educational purposes.

Tray Cleaning 2.0

*from the rabbitgeek notes - update added to the bottom*
The best tip for keeping rabbits in the garage came from Barbi Brown. Usually keeping rabbits in the garage means trays under the floor wire to catch the droppings.

For years we carried trays to the waste can and dumped them there. Barbi suggested we get a bucket and use a dust pan to scoop the poop out of the tray and into the bucket. Then take the bucket to the waste can.

This is so much easier than carrying trays around. Even if you plan to power wash the trays it is easier to move them when they are empty.

We put one or two handfuls of pine shavings in the tray to collect moisture and hold down odor.

If you sell manure you can put plastic bags in the bucket first (8 or 13 gallon trash bags) and tie them off before removing from the bucket. Tied off plastic bags are also good for fly control.

If you use five gallon buckets to move manure for sales, put a plastic bag in it first then tie it off. Will keep the buckets cleaner and reduce the smell. You can put the lids on the buckets and stack them for transport to sale. You sell the bag of manure to the customer, not the pail.

Then when customer takes the bags of manure, you can stack buckets one inside the other for transport home to be filled again.

*New!* Misha Brown from FB says: I use a wheelbarrow, I push it up to the cage, pull out the tray & if it's too heavy I scoop out the front half of the tray before pulling it out all the way or I just let the whole tray drop into the wheelbarrow. When the wheelbarrow is full, if it's too heavy to push I get my hubby out there.

Thanks Misha! One could also stop halfway if the manure is heavy from being moisture soaked due to urine or a leaky water bottle/nipple. So a hand trowel or dust pan dumped into a wheelbarrow or cart with wheels is now added to the list!

Have a good day!

Not All Rare Breed Rabbits Should Be Saved

In promoting rare breed rabbits, selling all the rabbits in the litters is not always the best thing. I know this is reverse of what we would think intuitively.

Just because they are rare doesn't mean all of the rabbits have to be sold. Only the best rabbits should be kept or sold for breeding. Very rarely are all the kits suitable for breeding. Litters usually contain differing percentages of strong body, weak body, good color, poor color and so on. Occasionally there is one outstanding kit in the litter. Usually there are kits in a litter that are not as good in type and color as the parents. Those should be culled, preferably by going to the processor for food. Should not be used for breeding.

Breeding selections should be done to improve the breed and bring the overall condition of the breed up to the Standard Of Perfection. This SOP is a goal. Rarely will there be a rabbit with all the traits as outlined. There will be better rabbits and worse rabbits.

Buyers will discover when they put the rabbits on the show table which breeder is selling rabbits that are worse. I know because when I bought my first American Blues they were very narrow, boney, and underweight. They were descended from a trio sold at ARBA Convention in San Diego 2001. When I put then on the show tables most judges were sympathetic saying "That's the state of the Americans right now."

Undeterred, I kept at it. Over the next couple of years I bred them and culled them and saved the best for breeding and selling. I improved what we had and was able to develop a home grown Grand Champion on the show table.

I bought a few more from the breeder as they were getting out of the breed. I was getting the last of their rabbits. When I compared pedigrees I realized this person was not culling anything. They had saved all of them hoping to sell them and promote the breed. Out of about 8 rabbits I bought, I was able to get one to Grand Champion on the show table.

While I was fortunate this breeder had some for sale, it could have gone either way for me. I could have been discouraged and given up on the breed right there. But I decided to work with what I had. When I chose rabbits for sale, my first goal was "NO DQs" or no disqualifications in show. No color errors, no mismatched toenails, no underweight rabbits. NO DQs was the motto for MFO Rabbitry. It was a goal, not a brag.

Whether it is meat rabbits, angora rabbits, lop rabbits, or any other kind, not all of the rabbits in the litters should be kept. Not all of them should be sold. Only the best should be kept or sold.
Just my opinion based on observations.

Your mileage may vary. Void where taxed or prohibited.

Have a good day!

Poorboy Vacuum Pack

Poorboy vacuum pack: I used ziplock freezer bags. I tried to exclude as much air as possible. I would put meat into bag, cut pieces or whole, then holding the opening up, I would submerge the bag in water and let water pressure push sides of bag against the meat.  When water was almost to the bag opening, I would zip it closed. It seems to work well enough. I would chill it in a single layer in the fridge overnight before freezing. If warm carcass is piled into freezer the core might start to spoil before it gets frozen.

Have a good day!

Rare Breed ARBA Club

Rare Breed ARBA Club

A member contacted American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) and spoke to them about a rare breeds rabbits class & also an actual rare breeds rabbit club. They were told only clubs that are all-breed or for 1 specific breed can be affiliated. On the rare breed class, it would have to be for fun, no points or legs, since the different breeds would be showing against each other.

What ARBA told you is correct. We've talked about this in the Rare Breed Rabbit yahoogroup. So what we did at a few shows Calif was to include a Best Rare Breed In Show Award in addition to Best In Show and Reserve In Show. Just for bragging rights, not points or legs. Judges were asked to look at the Rare Breeds List and to pick out the best of that group as they were looking. All the judges we asked loved the idea and were very happy to help us with the award. There is a club on West Coast called Northwest Rare and Heritage Rabbit Club that hosts all breed shows with specials for the Rare Breeds. Using an all breed show to promote rare breeds is counter intuitive but it makes sense fiscally. A lot of clubs cut costs by not giving ribbons or trophies for rare breeds which often have few entries. By re-allocating some funds from the popular breed entries to buy ribbons for all the breeds helps promote the smaller breed entries. The shows are to promote Rare Breeds but are open to all breeds. Any All Breed Rabbit Club can support rare breeds by including ribbons for all breeds and an extra award for Best Rare Breed In Show.

Nest boxes on cold nights

On cold nights we started bringing nest boxes into the house at night and putting them back out in the morning where the doe was usually waiting to jump in and relieve some milk pressure. Sometimes we did this for over a week until they grew some little coats. The kitchen table would be covered with 5 or 6 boxes. We sometimes wrap a towel over it to keep the popples from popping out.  We noticed the litters that spent the night in the house seemed friendlier. Our theory is the kits imprinted on human scent and sounds. So we made it part of our routine with Angora litters to bring the nest boxes into the house for the night. We had friendlier rabbits that would sit still for grooming.

Have a good day!

1 2 3 breeding priority

From the rabbitgeek notes on facebook: (written about American breed rabbits but applies to all breeds)
In order of priority:
#1 pick for body type. It's the hardest to breed for. I like to set them on a table and let them pose naturally. I like seeing if they display the mandolin type on their own. One rabbit I saved because I looked at the cage and saw the rabbit sort of lounging and the mandolin type popped right out at you. She became a Grand Champion.
#2 pick for fur. The fur is kind of tricky. The Standard calls for normal, fly-back fur but you want the fur to be dense and plush, meaning it needs to be a little longer than normal. If you have mediocre fur but good type, try breeding it to a good fur type.
#3 pick for color. Color is considered the easiest to fix. Because you can cull all the unwanted colors and you will have in good color in 2-3 generations. Not perfect, but should be good color. If you have body and fur you can take a chance on the off color. What you want is that off color rabbit to throw 1 or 2 kits with correct color. Keep the corrects, get rid of the rest.
That's it in 1-2-3. This rule was told to me by long time breeders and it has held up through my own experience. Best of luck.
The 1-2-3 rule works for other breeds too. Focus on what the Standard calls for. Then select for it based on the Priorities and the Standard.

Have a good day!