English Angora babies are one of the absolute cutest rabbit babies out there. A mature English angora in show coat is stunning to behold. As a result I receive many requests from people wanting to buy an English Angora baby. Some even telling me tales of how they have contacted other breeders who were 'rude' to them and refused to sell them a rabbit. 

I have experienced and heard so many sad stories of seriously neglected English angoras, that I can sympathize with 'cranky' breeders who won't sell rabbits to people they don't know.  It took me 9 months to develop a relationship with quality breeders before purchasing my first English Angora. It was definitely worth the wait, as good quality stock are actually easier to care for and have the 'look' that we all love. 

I decided to write this post to honestly explain the challenges of the breed so people can seriously evaluate if they are up to the challenge. Please do not be offended by my frank descriptions. My goal is to increase the number of happy outcomes for people who fall in love with the breed.  This is NOT a beginner breed and NOT a pet breed. There are many rabbit breeds that are great beginner bunnies. So for anyone seriously doing their research:

Here are the reasons you DO NOT want an English Angora:

• You must be committed to regular, weekly grooming of up to an hour. More if you plan to show. The longer you wait between grooming sessions, the longer it will take to groom them. Daily grooming with a blower - 5-10 mins. Weekly grooming with a blower - 30-60 min. Its been 2-3 weeks and you just 'couldn't find the time? - several 1 hour sessions and the coat will likely be ruined. They are UNFORGIVING about the grooming. French Angoras you can fail to groom for a month and still get them back up to speed. You might not beat a more regularly groomed animal, but you can still put them on the table without shame.

This is the big one. So take a moment here. 
Everyone who wants a baby tells me they will have no trouble grooming once a week. EVERYONE. 75% of them are LYING. I have learned this the hard way. I am naturally a trusting person, but on this issue I am starting to lose my faith in humanity. Think about your personal habits. Do you tend to neglect regular duties? Do you put things off until they are an emergency? Be honest with yourself, the life of a helpless animal is at stake. If you have ever had a cat, did you clean the cat box regularly? Think of any other animal care experience you have had. How would you rate your ability to perform REGULAR care?  I am not a terribly organized and timely person, but when things really matter I find time. If you are not 110% committed to regular grooming, you should not own an English Angora. 
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• You must be able to brush and/or clip every square inch of their bodies except the nose. This includes the belly, 'arm-pits', groin, neck, ears. The rabbit may 'not like' to be brushed everywhere. So you must be competent to firmly, but gently, hold the rabbit against its will while you brush them or use scissors to cut out the matted fur. If you could not clip the nails on a cat (it doesn't have to be an angry cat, just a squirmy one, lol), you should not own a English angora. 

 

• You need some method of blowing out the coat to keep it from matting. Even if you are keeping the rabbit as a 'fiber-pet', the wool is much cleaner and nicer to spin if you blow the coat. Also it will save you time. If you never let the wool get longer than 5 inches, a shop vac with the intake hose screwed onto the exit, or a quality air-mattress air-pump can work ok. A $150+ grooming blower is best. If you are not willing to invest in some extra equipment, you should not own an English angora. 

 

• You must regularly brush and/or trim poop and wet urine soaked wool out of their coats around their butts. This may include squishy, smelly, nasty poop not just the usual dry bunny berries. (Normal poops usually fall out of the wool without too much trouble, but every rabbit has that day they overindulge on carrots and get the squishies). It is just not possible for an animal to grow inches and inches of draping wool all around it's private parts and not get poop and urine stuck there. Even with good trimming of the groin area, there will be days. Cornstarch is your friend. If you can't touch wet, squishy poop, you should not own a English angora. 

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• Bedding, poop, grass, weeds, hay, dirt on your floor, small childrens toys... etc.. will all get stuck in the rabbits coat - which you have to meticulously groom out of the coat to keep it from matting.  An English angora is like a very curious Swiffer mop - the ones with the extra static cling. It is very challenging to keep them in solid bottom hutches, and if you like to let them roam about the house, you must be a good house keeper. They LOVE going under the beds! Have you looked under your bed lately?? ( I have a roomba, which helps with this issue). If you don't like the idea of wire-bottom cages and/or you don't sweep and tidy your house regularly you should not own an English Angora. 

 

• Modern, non-molting English angoras are like poodles.. the coat just grows and grows. You will have to clip it off eventually. This can be done carefully with sharp scissors or with professional dog clippers (walmart clippers do not work). It takes me about 15-20 mins to clip a well groomed angora with scissors. It takes around  2 hours to clips a heavily matted rabbit AND you are likely to cut the rabbits skin on accident as it is really hard to tell where the mat ends and the skin begins. The rabbit will scream. You will feel bad. You will feel extra bad if the rabbit is matted because YOU neglected regular grooming. Also the wool with be worthless. Depending on where you live, you may be able to pay a groomer or a vet to shave the rabbit for you. But this will cost money. It will also be embarrassing if you take a rabbit to be groomed who can barely move or has broken toes (I have seen this, they broke their own toes to escape the mats!!) or have maggots LIVING IN THEIR WOOL and FLESH (Fellow breeders have reported this about re-homes) because of all the mats. If you find that you have a regular habit of procrastination and tend to just 'get behind' and overwhelmed by daily life tasks, you should not own an English angora. ​

 

• English angoras are only shown the first year of their life. That first big coat is the only big show coat.  (French Angoras and Jersey Woolies can be shown year after year, whenever they grow in a new coat.) If you show English angoras you pretty much have to also breed English Angoras. This is so you can have a fresh 'crop' of show candidates every year. Many people don't realize this, even after investing in their first rabbit. If you are looking for a show rabbit and want to be able to show the rabbit for several years, English angoras are not a good choice.

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• English angoras are expensive because they take real man-hours to raise and to discourage people from buying them on impulse with out doing their research, not because there is a huge demand. If your goal is to make a little money raising rabbits (and this is possible despite what some people say) Pet breeds like Mini-rex and Holland lops are best. Also Meat rabbits like New Zealands and Californians can be profitable if you have good quality show stock and sell meat pens for the Junior livestock shows. A good New Zealand will produce many more sell-able babies for a fraction the amount of work in a year than an English Angora, even if you charge less per junior, you will make more money.   If you want an inexpensive rabbit, or are trying to make a profit raising rabbits, you should not get an English Angora.

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SO, if you've made it this far you might be wondering why anyone keeps English Angoras. 
Here are the pros:

• Truly they are one of the more strikingly beautiful rabbit breeds. Some breeders raise them out of the pure love of the look. The same could be said of some dog breeds. 
• English angoras tend to have very sweet and fun temperaments. Most of us breeders select for good-natured, calm rabbits that are easy to handle - just to make our lives easier (see all the grooming above). As a result they are delightful animals to have around. (The same can also be said for French angoras)
• The fine, low guard-hair, wool of the English Angora compares favorably to Cashmere. The bold look and 'halo' of French Angora yarn is beautiful and soft too, but if you want extra fine, soft luxury fiber the English Angora wool is hard to beat. Unfortunately it is the reduced quantity of relatively fine guard hairs that makes the wool more likely to mats.
• They are efficient producers of high-quality wool. I find that English angoras are smaller, eat less and grow about as many ounces of wool a year as my French angoras. I've been working on my English line for longer as well, so that may play a role in this observation. 

NOTE: Experienced breeders will not use an animal in a breeding program that shows a tendency towards excessive matting. Proper crimp and guard hair balance is important for a manageable coat. Breeders who primarily sell to the pet market are not as concerned about proper coat structure and texture. 

I had a great time at the Downtown Wichita Falls Farmers Market today helping people learn how to make Kim-chi, Sauerkraut and Pickled Beets!
Here are the 'Recipes'/ basic guidelines we used. 

Basic Sauerkraut:
Wash hands, utensils and jars well in hot soapy water. 
Mix 5 lbs chopped vegetables with 3 TBS salt. So if you only have 1.5 lbs of cabbage about a tablespoon of salt is good. This does not need to be super precise. 

Stir well to distribute the salt and start the process of pulling the water from the vegetables. Many people like to 'massage' the cabbage. 

Stuff cabbage or cabbage mixture in jar and continue to squish it down (kraut pounder helps) until the liquid rises above the vegetables. You can really smash it all down hard. The more squishing the better. 

Weigh vegetables down with pebble so that the the liquid is always covering them. Add Brine if needed (1.5-3 Tablespoons salt per Quart, or ~1 Teaspoon per cup water. )
Let ferment loosely covered by a lid (bubbles are a good!) for 5-10 days pressing down on pebble daily to keep vegetables submerged.

Put in refrigerator when it tastes the way you like it. It will keep 6 months-1 year. refrigerated.
For more details: http://www.thejoykitchen.com/.../brine-fermented-sauerkraut

Simple Kimchi Recipe:
​I haven't tried this one before so I hope it works out! I found the many recipes online to be overwhelming. I like to use pre-made 'chili pastes' to simplify some Asian recipes at home and this recipe uses the same trick.

Mix together in a big bowl:
1 Napa Cabbage, quartered and soaked in brine (1.5TB salt per quart) overnight then chopped. Discard the brine. 
1 peeled Daikon Radish chopped into sticks,
a couple carrots chopped into sticks (optional)
one small hard pear chopped into sticks (optional) 
4-5 green onions chopped,
a couple TB minced Ginger,
a few cloves Garlic minced or pressed.
4 TB fish sauce,
1/2 cup (one jar) of 'Red chili paste' or 'Red curry paste' (Taste of Thai makes some that can be found at regular grocery stores. I like the 'Maesri' Brand sold at Hung Thinh Market on 9th st. For the demo I used 'Panang' Curry paste, mostly because it is milder and I have 'spicy' sensitive kids. If you like it spicier you can also add some Siracha. 

Squish in jar same as sauerkraut. Let Ferment 5-10 days making sure all vegetables stay submerged. 

Fermented Beets:

Slice, chop or grate Beets as desired then fill clean Mason Jar. 
Add any fun seasonings, Herbs or Spices that you enjoy. 
Add a few tablespoons of Whey to introduce extra Lactic acid bacteria.
(This is the watery part of yogurt. Often if you have yogurt in the fridge some water will have accumulated on the surface. You can also make some whey by straining yogurt over cheesecloth or a coffee filter. )

Add brine until beets are submerged.
Top with clean pebble to hold beets down. 
Cover loosely with lid and allow to Ferment 5-10 days. 

Tips:
I do prefer the plastic wide mouth lids over canning lids because they do not corrode. 
You can use a small sandwich ziplock baggie partially full of brine instead of a 'pickling pebble' but I prefer a glass or stone pebble because you can push down on the pebble every day to release the gas and keep everything submerged. Also it is more rustic. 

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