Wordless Wednesdays are posts that tell a story where words are not needed to explain. Of course words are included just if you want to know more!

Introducing Gandalf!

Bunny Before Brushing

Angora Rabbits grow beautiful long fiber fur. About 4 times a year they grow out a new coat, the under coat pushes up the top coat that starts to fall out. The top coat needs to come off the undercoat and there a few ways to do this, you can shave it, not the best option as chances are you will get a lot of the undercoar, you could cut it with scissors, again, same issue, or you can pluck or brush it free. I know plucking a bunny sounds like a horrible thing but remember, the top coat is not attached to the bunny skin, but just the under coat, your just pulling or brushing it free!

After 2 Hours of figuring out how to groom Bunny!

Still being new to this I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t hurting or stressing him. I spent 2 hours trying to find the right brush or comb and the right technique. I managed to free him of  just 20% of the top coat. He seemed to get annoyed with the while process and just wanted to jump around a bit so I didn’t press the situation as he had been so sweet the whole time. More grooming another day!

After Grooming the Angora Bunny

Well…. almost. A friend came over and we both worked on brushing out Gandalf. It took over an hour but he is really looking so much better already! Just more one evening of brushing should do it. He looks so much smaller! The fur is soft and beautiful and I can’t wait to see what the yarn looks like at some point. At some point I hope to learn how to do this more quickly! Without the thick top coat I plan to let this bunny play outside and not just inside as grass and leaves will be easier to clean off him. While trying to live more sustainably I thought a fiber rabbit would help me learn to spin and I could help the kids learn and then with the yarn we could make wonderfully soft things as I already have those hand crafting skills that I am passing on to the children. In addition to fiber, bunnies offer fantastic natural fertilizer for the garden! I really though didn’t know how long brushing out a bunny of this size would take!