There are many rabbit breed in the world today. Both U.S. and U.K. recognised different types of rabbit breeds. Since the domestication of rabbits to be made as pets, one of the more popular rabbit breed is the Angora rabbit. The American Rabbit Breeder Association (ARBA) recognised four types of Angora rabbit breed – the English, the French, the Giant and the Satin Angora.

The Angora rabbit is one of the oldest rabbit breed that was domesticated. It originated in Ankara, Turkey. It was popular with the French royalty in the mid 1700s and by end of the century, the Angora rabbit breed had equal popularity throughout Europe. It was only introduced into the U.S. in the early 1900s. Many rabbit breeder breed the Angora rabbit breed for its wool. The wool may be removed by shearing, combing or plucking.

The Angora rabbit breed was bred mainly for its wool that is silky and soft. It is not very difficult to tell as they resemble a fur ball. They are usually calm and docile. Grooming is necessary everyday or every other day to prevent their fur from matting. Otherwise, they may develop a condition called “wool block” that will require medical attention.

The English Angora is the smallest Angora rabbit breed recognised by the ARBA. It usually weights between 2.0 to 3.5 kg. This breed of the Angora rabbit is more common as a house pet due to its facial features that resemble a puppy or a teddy bear. Depending on the texture of its wool, some may require plenty of maintenance. The English Angora can be bred in broken colours even though this is not recognised by ARBA.

The French Angora rabbit has a preponderance of guard hair on the surface with undercoat wool. It is one of the larger Angora breed and weights between 7 ½ to 10 lbs. It has a clean face and front feet with minor tufting on the rear legs.

The Giant Angora is larger than the other varieties, and was bred as an efficient wool rabbit on economical feed and housing. It also produces more wool compared to other varieties.

A Satin Angora is actually a cross breed between a Satin and a French Angora. This breed weights between 3 to 4.5 kg. It has no furnishings on its face, ears, or feet. They can be relatively easier to groom compared to the other varieties of Angora rabbit. They also have stronger and softer texture wool. However, they do not produce as much wool as the other varieties.

There are also other types of Angora that is not accepted by the ARBA such as the German Angora, which is common in the U.S. and Canada. They looked like the Giant Angora, except that it usually comes in only ruby-eyed white or in albino.

Grooming Angora Rabbits

To those who love to groom their Angora rabbits, grooming is a fun, relaxing and enjoyable activity. It is certainly a time to bond with their rabbits. To those owners who love showing their rabbits, the care of its coat is the most vital point to score. If you are grooming your angora rabbit for show, you may need a good high speed groomer’s blower that at very high speed is able to separate fibres of the coat and at the same time clean the skin and the coat. Professional grooming of your pet angora rabbit is beyond this article, but the followings briefly describe the method to groom an Angora rabbit.

You should use the blower daily, if possible. Using it regularly is able to prevent webbing and mats. You should also slicker brush the paws, ears and face but use it sparingly on the back. As you use a blower, watch for areas that appear to be webbing and concentrate on them by using the blower to force out any clumping of fibres. You may start with the rabbit’s belly and breast, then on the back and the sides.

The more frequent you blow out on your rabbit’s coat, the cleaner they will be. Be careful with brushing. You may not need to do the brushing everyday. Try to clip your pet rabbit’s toenails twice a month, or as needed. If the nails are not trimmed, there is a possibility that the rabbit may injure you when you are handling him, or injured themselves by accidentally yanked out the nail. Rabbits that stay together may also injure each other.

How do you know if your Angora rabbit breed has the best quality coats? Those with the nicest texture and easiest to keep in prime condition are those with the best quality coats. The coats will web or mat very little.

You will also find that some Angora rabbits love chewing on their own wools. Most of them chew only near to the shoulder area. There are many theories about wool chewing of rabbit but most of them associate it with the weather and the seasons. Offer plenty of roughage and hays for your Angora rabbit. Inspect if your Angora rabbit has wool mite. If not, provide him with other chewing alternatives such as hay or the center cardboard portion of a toilet roll.

Are Angora Rabbits Suitable for Children?

The general answer is No. Angora rabbits require a lot of grooming and unless your children are working to become a professional groomer, chances are that they are not able to take care of the rabbit’s thick wool.

Angora rabbits do not necessary make good house pets due to its high coat maintenance and constant shedding of its wool. If you would like to keep an Angora rabbit as pet, then you would have to be prepared to do more vacuuming in the house and allocate time to groom him everyday. There are owners who love grooming their pet rabbits as grooming sessions are not only bonding time with the rabbit, but it can be therapeutic and distressing for the owner as well. For these types of owners, then keeping an Angora rabbit as pet is not a problem.

Other than that, Angora rabbits tend to be very gentle, mellow and sweet rabbit. You can easily house-train a rabbit, any breed of rabbit. As in dealing with all other breed of rabbit, training a rabbit require plenty of patience and your should be prepared for that. The patience in training your house rabbit will definitely pay off, considering that your rabbit will be living with you for the next decade.