In addition to a good face, an English Angora rabbit's body should be short and cobby; legs and feet should have good wool coverage. Last, but not least, the wool quality should be dense, silky and long. According to The Standards of Perfection of the American Rabbit Breeders Association, 57 percent of the points in judging English Angora rabbits are allocated to wool. Of these 57 points, 25 points are on density, 20 points are on texture and 12 points are on length. Though one does not want to keep an English Angora rabbit in show coat at all times, a good quality rabbit should be capable of putting on a good coat.
An English Angora in top condition is one of the most beautiful animals in the world. A neglected one, however, is the saddest thing one can ever see. Due to the time, knowledge, love and discipline required to care for them, English Angora rabbits are not for everyone. It is necessary to understand that taking on the task of raising English Angoras is a long term commitment of feeding, watering, grooming, and prevention of woolblock. In return, English Angora rabbits will give you back love, affection, companionship and luxurious fiber for spinning.
The above grains are available in feed stores , not grocery stores. Due to the weight limit placed on the English Angora rabbits in the A.R.B.A. Standard, you also should control the diet. In addition, by feeding the same amount in each feeding, the owner will have a good idea whether the rabbit is in a normal state or not. If the dish is empty before the next feeding, generally speaking, the rabbit is doing fine. If there are leftovers in the dish for a couple of feedings, the owner better carefully check on the rabbit to see whether the water bottle is functioning well; whether the rabbit is suffering from diarrhea, woolblock or even maggot infestation.
I feed each rabbit l/3 cup of the above mixture in the morning and l/3 cup in the evening. Nursing does require 2/3 to l cup per feeding. I also feed a large handful of hay at night and a piece of treat in the afternoon. Sometimes I give wild bird seed to help clean up the rabbits' digestive tract. It is available in grocery stores as well as in feed stores. Angoras enjoy alfafa hay, grass hay and oat hay. Alfafa hay is rich in protein but quite messy to use. When buying Alfafa hay, select the bale which looks green and fresh from the outside, preferably with the dried leaves attached to the stems. The yellowish ones are too dry and leaves will fall out in the rabbits cage. The rabbit enjoy alfafa but the grass and oat hay are the ones which provide the roughrage necessary to prevent wool block.
For woolblock, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The following practice may prevent woolblock from ever starting:
What do you do if the rabbit is blocked? First, remove all of the wool. It may also be wise to use a superstrength enzyme instead of the maintenance-oriented enzyme used weekly. One possible enzyme is called "Prozyme". I'd use the mixture of Prozyme with banana or Prozyme with Ensure to help add enzyme and nutrients to the rabbit. Use a syringe to administer the mixture into the rabbits mouth. At this time, since the rabbit probably has stopped eating, Ensure also helps to prevent dehydration. If one follows the above method closely, the rabbit usually comes out of the woolblock in about a week. If the blockage is too large to be pushed out, some veterinarians are able to surgically removed the woolball.
Woolblock, however, is not totally reversible unless the woolball is removed by surgery. Once the rabbit is blocked, he is likely to become blocked again, because some of the woolball in the system cannot be totally forced out. Keep an eye on this rabbit to detect reoccurrences of the problem.
If you choose in-house exercise, you should rabbit-proof the areas your rabbit is allowed to visit. Rabbits can do great damage to electrical cords of all types. If the power happens to be on when the rabbit is chewing, he can die from electrocution.
If you choose an outdoor exercise area, the ideal set up will have a solid fence, large lawn, no predators, no swimming pool, a little sun with lots of shade and some tasty greens available for digging and munching. Not all yards satisfy these requirements. One possible way to come close to this is to construct an exercise pen and move it to areas on the lawn or patio under a tree.
Here is a satisfactory method for constructing a playpen from lx2"
welded cage wire. Panels approximately 30" long can be cut from a roll
of 24 - 36" in width. (Be sure to cut off all the short bits of
protruding wire after cutting.) These panels can be joined with J clips
or hog rings, which are also used in cage construction. (Hog rings tend
to be more durable.) Make sure that the panels are all the same size
so that the finished playpen can be folded up accordian style when not
in use. The playpen will be easier to work with if you make two sets of
six or seven panel sections and clamp them together when in use. This
will make an area approximately ten feet in diameter. The wire should
be as heavy as possible to prevent the rabbit from prying the pen up in
order to escape. Be sure that there will be adequate shade in the pen
area when the rabbit is exercising in it. If the rabbit cannot escape
from the direct sun on a hot day he could die in the pen.
In most cases, does can run together, young bunnies can also run together, but not bucks. Since bucks are aggressive by nature, each buck should run by himself.
When exercise time is over, you should check to see how much stickers, twigs and other debris are attached to the coat of the English Angora rabbit. Make sure they are all removed before putting the rabbit back into the cage. If not done, the rabbit is likely to try to lick them off himself and ingest wool in the process and cause woolblock. In addition, if there are any foxtails and burrs, they could cause injuries to the rabbits' skin and eyes.