Bunny's First Hair Cut

Lexi was getting pretty fluffy. She is nine months old and her moulting time would soon be approaching. Her hair was growing quite long and so I watched her food intake and poops carefully to make sure she wasn't developing wool block.

Wool block is caused by too much fur in the tummy. The rabbit can feel full and then stop eating.

They can't throw up like a cat with a fur ball so you feed them well, giving them hay, etc., to help keep the system moving.

But Lexi had stopped pooping and wasn't eating so much. So I started fretting. I flurry of emails later with Shannon a http://www.farfelu.ca/Farfelu_Rabbitry/French_Angoras.html

(God Bless that woman!) and I realized it was time for bunny's first hair cut.

If you visit the Farfelu web site, you'll see Lexi's mom Crystal a white French Angora and her father Cadbury a gray/brown Angora.

I used a pair of safety scissors and trimmed Lexi's fur. It was my first time too and I'm not sure which of us was more nervous--I think it was me! I brushed her when I was done and she gratefully hopped around the room.

I'm sorry to say that she did look groomed by a screaming amateur. She looked more like a fluffy stuffed Gund toy rabbit in need of a wash by the time I was done. Thankfully after she groomed herself her fur smoothed out more.

The day after the grooming, Lexi started acting really hyper. She'd run around the room and do a little hop kick-flip with her back feet, and then she started chewing on her hay and running around the room with hay in her mouth.

She looked like a dog with a bone it didn't want to let go of.

She even grabbed the cuff of my shirt and tugged on it and kept her teeth on it and shook it like a dog.

I thought she was mad at me for trimming off her beautiful hair. At least I thought that until later when I discovered she had pulled some of her hair on her tummy and was building a nest.

All I could think was BABY BUNNIES BABY BUNNIES!!! After another flurry of emails I learned that Lexi was feeling the spring weather and the call of nature.

By the next day she had relaxed and was her normal self.

Tonight I went into the rabbit room and found her ON TOP of the rabbit hutch. She had climbed onto the chair next to the hutch and from there climbed to the roof of the hutch.

This is one mischievous bunny! She's back safely in her cage now, eating carrots, and the chair has been moved away from the hutch.

The pile of hair is soooo soft, soooo fluffy.

It feels like what I think a cloud should feel like. Lexi must have gotten excited to have it removed because now she won't be so hot.

I'm looking forward to spinning this fibre into yarn. I've read that the first coat from a baby is better for felting, so I'll have to experiment with it.