Oh Joy! Plucked blue angora!

What a terrific day for this english angora bunny Mom! My baby, Phillip, is finally molting off that baby wool ~ YAY!!!!!! He's 6 months old now, and while he may have molted before this, I have always just brushed him and if you've been reading the blog, you know that his baby do has been a source of fits for me...it's very fine and mats easily, it gets weird neps at the tips, it's just a PITA, frankly. It's incredibly soft but ack! Anyway, he was a bit neglected over the holidays so I've been dealing with a few mats behind his ears and around his face and today, brought him in for some more grooming and discovered that baby hair just flying off the critter! Big handfuls of it!

So, in this box is a huge pile of blue chin english angora baby wool, which I'm dying to spin up but I have a few more days of serious plucking to go on this critter. The entire box isn't full of the plucked baby hair...there's a light layer of Phoebe combings at the bottom, that I was originally going to mix with the baby hair, when I didn't realize how much there would be. Phillip's coat is super dense and there's going to be a LOT! I've been brushing him since I got him in the fall, and had about half that box full already, but the other half I added today. So, when I'm done plucking him, I'll start spinning :)

Not sure if I'm going to blend this with anything. It's not going to be the greatest stuff, since it's super fine and will probably pill up fairly easily. I plan to spin it with quite a bit of twist and possibly ply it with something else and make a cute hat. Anybody have a cute pattern for an angora hat to share?

I'm very pleased because he seems like he's acting nicer too...he didn't get handled every day and at the first couple of groomings, wanted to bite. And it's not easy to figure out how to discipline a rabbit. But, I discovered if I hold his ears, I can work very easily around his chin and mouth and he never offered to bite even once today so that makes me happy too :) I do handle my rabbits...I pet them and talk to them and take them out every couple of days to check the bottom end and make sure they're clean but I don't have a lot of time to play with them. We do spend some quality time together once a week for grooming sessions and if not much grooming is required, we cuddle more.

My rabbits live outside and they don't really care one way or another if I cuddle with them...they're in the garage with their heat lamp for the winter and they do love to see me coming with breakfast and dinner :) The heat lamp set up we have is just a 100 watt red floodlight bulb...it does the trick for taking off the worst of the chill and if it gets really bad cold (like it does in Michigan sometimes!) I can add another one. In the worst weather, I'll put in cardboard next boxes with flannel in them...Phoebe has one all the time now but Phillip just tears his up so we're going to have to make a wooden one for him soon. They have blankets over their cages as well at night so they're pretty cozy.

I'm just so relieved that the nasty baby do is on it's way out! It's just amazing, the difference in maintenance between the 2 rabbits right now. Phoebe is a dream to take care of...rarely mats and stays really clean. Phillip is clean, but requires so much more care right now than Phoebe. He may *always* require more care, particularly if his coat stays this dense. I mean, that boy is just a pouf ball! It should get easier, though, once the guard hair starts coming in.

Anyway, just a fly-by posting about my happy discovery!